I'm alright (California Fire thread)

[Blue Genie]

As most of you know like Chescat does. Califorina is having a big wind and fire problems as we speak. Yesturday about 3 pm my time my mom had call me and said we had a power go out cause of the wind. We just got our power back about an hour ago. So that is about 24 hours after it when out. There has been smoke coming our way but we are save right now. I just want to let u all know from Cat to JP, Doll and the rest of u that's I am save. Will see most of u this Sat. They say the winds should stop by tues wed at 4 pm the most. But with the fires who knows.

P.s. I just got my new photo today from Disney Photo Pass and here it is.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x167/BlueGenie_2007/Disneyland%20Photos/Big%20Photos/26.jpg

[Chescat]

Genie, I was gonna call you today when I saw the fires by you. Also verified SparkleMeTink is okay as of last night. Just a lot of smoke. And everything is just covered in soot. Main thing is for everybody to stay in doors with your windows closed. I'm hoping RainyDaisy was able to get home today. They had to go through the pass up there. I need to check on them later. :cool:

How are the winds out there? Saw yesterday somewhere near Laguna clocked 108 mph winds. Was about 40mph winds at DLR yesterday when we were trying to walk around.

[JPL]

Glad to hear my West Coast friends are Safe:thumbsup:

Lots of :pixie: :pixie: heading your way for a quick end to the fires.

Hmm maybe I should send :fireman::rain::rain::fireman: instead of :pixie:

[Blue Genie]

Winds right now I think are about 40 to 50mph Some of are naber [ms] trees as one of ours fell over. Not to much damage but still. Are McDonalds,Carl's Jr. liquor and Carrow place lost power to. So they lost alot of busness with in 24 hours. Don't know if there running back up or not. So it's bad here. Oh cat at the time we had no phone really but are cell which wasn't to good.

[Jeremy]

hey genie, glad you are safe.
sure have been thinking of you and the others today.
and i hope you guys will be ok.

[Mr. Tom Morrow]

Glad you're doing ok so far Genie:thumbsup:

I was just reading that at least 300,000 people have been chased away and that the dozen wildfires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres --384 square miles — ablaze.:(

Thats nuts. Hope all you guys are staying safe.

[Blue Genie]

We are Tom but I'm a little worry about my friend he lives in San Deigo and about 500 homes are gong
'

[Chescat]

Yeah I haven't heard about Parrot yet. She's down in San Diego. She was due to be evacuated late last night. She raises parrots, so has to move 1500 parrots. :(

Hockey Fan said she knew somebody that just retired down there and had already lost her home. That's so sad.

I just had to go outside to walk to another building. As far as I am from the fires its awful. My eyes are burning, can't breath from the smoke, and if you stand for a few minutes you got ash all over you. So can't imagine how bad it is for you Genie. One of my boss's house is by the Portola fire and we don't know why he came int work the last few days. We keep telling him to go home. :(

[terri.m]

I'm so glad you are ok genie, i've been worried about you all day.

Cat stay safe too!

[Blue Genie]

My sad thing is with my best friend is I don't have a phone number for him anymore to call and see and I lost his address to so can't write to him ether.

[chrisb26]

Glad your all safe for now when I saw those fires I was a bit worried its terrible how much they are burning. Hopefully it will all stop soon.

Here's some :pixie: and lots of :rain::rain::rain::rain: To stop the fires.

[Patricia]

Glad to hear you well Genie!

Stay safe everyone! Try not to spend too much time outside in the smoke.

Having been through the Kelowna fire storm, I can tell you... if they say evacuate now, get out! Some of us only had ten minute warnings when our forest fire changed direction. Of course, I panicked a week before and had everything out of my house I wanted.. when it was time to evacuate, we only had to get in our car and drive to our rescue station for further direction.

[Chescat]

We heard over the radio a couple hours that the amount of acreage burned in southern california was the size of the city of Chicago. :(

We've been told that evacation time was they are give you 15 mins to clear out when the warning comes. Also for a while we needed to limit any cell phone calls so that emergency personel could get their calls. I don't know if that's still true today.

Genie can you go online and check the white pages and try your friend's name. Might be able to find them that way.

[Patricia]

Cat.. in our case, we were asked to limit our phone use during the entire fire as emergency crews were trying to keep the lines open.

The amount of fire fighters communicating during a fire of that magnitude is amazing.

[Tink's Mom]

Glad you are safe Genie. I am so sorry for everyone that is affected by the fires. I wish you all the best of luck.

[Mr. Tom Morrow]

513,000 people in San Diego County received mandatory evacuation orders and an 12,000 people had been advised to leave their homes.

There are 14 seperate fires from Mexico to north of L.A.. Do they have an idea of what started any of them?

[Chescat]

Not to be spoiling anybody's fun. We just heard they are predicting these fires to be going on for 5-10 more days. So all you guys coming out for the weekend better keep in mind when your doing your planning. The winds will be gone but the smoke will be an issue for lungs and eyes.

The good news is the weather is suppose to drop from 90's down to 70's by Friday.

Malibu was a downed power line. The Orange County one was arson. They set 3 different fires all at an entrance/exit to a community and a fireman training place there. I hope they burn that person/persons alive for doing this. Another one in the indian reservation was a house fire. Rest I haven't heard. Also heard they are evacuating some houses now at Camp Pendleton.

[WED1901]

Glad everyone is safe!! I have been thinking about you guys out there!!

:pixie:

[Chescat]

Here's some important information for people in our area that may need to be evacuated.

The emergency office is using what they call a reverse 911 call. They send the phone call through your phone and tell you, you got 15 mins or so to evacuate. Or whatever important message they need you to know.

An issue that has occured is people that only have cell phones or internet phones and not regular in house phones (AT&T, whatever) are not getting those messages, so the police will come knocking at your door saying leave now. If you don't have an in house line, stay in touch with your neighbors so they can let you know.

Thought and prayers going out to those affected, my list of friends or work people is growing as we speak. So far just on the evacuated list, but not sure if lost list. :(

[wizardmickey]

This is beyond awful peeps! I feel for the whole lot of ya. I'm hoping that this passes quickly & with a minimal amount of additional damage... and yes, selfishly I hope it doesn't affect the plans not only of me & mine but all of the others on their way there soon.

[terri.m]

I"m watching KTLA right now and i just feel sick for everyone. It's tearing me up knowing we are going down there for fun while people are losing everything. :(

[Patricia]

Keep your radios on too!

Most of our local radio stations switched to news only for the days during our fire. They kept us up to the minute on streets being asked to evacuate. If you haven't been evacuated yet and you have a video camera, tape the interior of your house so you can remember what you may need to for insurance purposes later. No video camera, take pictures. Also, pack your families video films and photos in your car trunk if you can. I also took all the original art work off my walls, some of our clothes and I let each kid take a box of personal items. At the last minute I thought to take a small TV with built in video and a Nintendo system for the kids to play.. that was a smart move later when we were stuck in a hotel room together for a week... stressed right out. :eek:

[terri.m]

I remember that fire Patti. I'm glad you made it through w/o losing your house.

[JPL]

I It's tearing me up knowing we are going down there for fun while people are losing everything. :(

I know the feeling I went to WDW right after a major Hurricane a few years ago and listening to some locals talking about the damage to their homes and what they lost while my big worry was the line for SM was too long :blush:

[Krystal_Rose]

So Happy to hear that you all are still ok. I'm glad we have this board to find out about our VMK friends when things like this are happening. Thinking about all of you and hoping these fires can be controlled very soon.

[TinkRocks]

Glad everyone is safe - please keep in touch with us here with updates.

As always - our little VMK Inside Out Community cares for each other, especially during times when we need the support.

Hope the fires situation is dealt with real soon and that a 'normal' situation can be returned to sooner rather than later.

[WDWfanatic742]

Everyone on the west coast, please update us with hopefully good news that this thing will finally die down.

[Chescat]

Wish I could fan, but not yet. More homes in Lake Arrowhead and San Diego are threatened. Interstate 5 alone Camp Pendleton was closed over night because of a fire (connector between LA and San Diego). I heard southbound lanes were opened up (hopefuly for north and south). Up to 1500 homes destroyed with that number probably going up. I just read this:

An unmanned NASA aircraft outfitted with high-tech imaging equipment took off Wednesday from Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday for a 10-hour flight to help firefighters locate hotspots. Pilots at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center were remotely controlling the aircraft, outfitted with a thermal-infrared imaging system capable of seeing through thick smoke.


We've been told stay in doors when possible and people not to exercise. What I'm looking at outside my window right now is an orange sun and what would look like a picture from a dust bowl storm. We can't open our windows or the dust is all over the place. Forget the cars. We are all living on Claritin and nose sprays. The latest satellite picture shows the smoke stream going over us into the pacific. But I'm so glad we aren't in a burn area. :(

We're hoping Varcity can make it over the Grape Vine on friday with no problems.

[Tink's Mom]

Cat, I am so glad you are not in a burn area either. I will keep my fingers crossed for Varcity.

[wizardmickey]

Apparently word of this was on the national news in Scotland this morning (UK time) & I was called asking how bad it was. I told the wife that I was getting regular updates from here (folks actually on the front of it). She said as well some story over there said that LAX was delaying & even cancelling some flights? Anybody know about this?

[Chescat]

Apparently word of this was on the national news in Scotland this morning (UK time) & I was called asking how bad it was. I told the wife that I was getting regular updates from here (folks actually on the front of it). She said as well some story over there said that LAX was delaying & even cancelling some flights? Anybody know about this?
I didn't see any delays. Now its possible instead of coming thru Lake Arrowhead which is that long stretch from east to west. They might go north and take you the route in the way they do from San Francisco. The airports I believe that would have more trouble is Ontario, John Wayne, and Burbank. Since they are closer to those fires.

[Blue Genie]

Other for beening hot over here. We are ok. No Smoke in the air the wind is not blowing. We almost open our front door last night but we figure it was still to warm outside. I haven't hear anything over at Disneyland on what there skys look like or anything. Me and my mom do believe that this sat they may not do any fireworks at DL so don't give up hopes of seening them on sat.

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

Oh my! Sorry I haven't been posting, things are so busy. Glad that everyone's alright, fires can be pretty scary! Be safe everyone, and don't forget that you have a water hose! :D

[Blue Genie]

are u alright Doll from the fires.

[Randypandy]

I hope you all are okay. what you all need is a nice big thunderstorm. Can't imagine what you all are going through. i know we had a big forest fire along time ago and it destroyed alot of stuff. Hope they find the person who started the fire and put that person in jail. are alot of places in lake arrowhead ok? i have a favorite figure skater i watch every year on tv and her family lives in california. i hope her family is ok.

[terri.m]

Apparently word of this was on the national news in Scotland this morning (UK time) & I was called asking how bad it was. I told the wife that I was getting regular updates from here (folks actually on the front of it). She said as well some story over there said that LAX was delaying & even cancelling some flights? Anybody know about this?

Ice I'm at the hotel waiting to fly out in 5 hrs from now. I'll post here when we get to our hotel and let you know if there were any delays.

Have a safe flight!

[WED1901]

Our LA Guy here in the office said his uncle has been on top of he's roof for days now just keeping the roof and house wet as ambers float all around. Luckily he had moved his fire barrier of about an acre away from his house earlier this year. He said that if he or some of his neighbors had left those ambers would have landed on the house and he would of lost it.

Thanks for the updates. This is awful what’s going on out there. Be safe guys!

[Chescat]

are alot of places in lake arrowhead ok? i have a favorite figure skater i watch every year on tv and her family lives in california. i hope her family is ok.
I think I know who you are talking about since I've been to that training center up there. Her family actually has their home here by me since her folks had a business in the area. They probably have a 2nd home up there. That whole area was evacuated on Monday since everybody had to come down the hill. I know Running Springs took a big hit, but not sure about the Arrowbear/Blue Jay area.

The air outside seems to be a little better today. We still can't open our windows with all the dust in the air.

MKWalt give your friend our best.

Two more days Tea. Woot! Woot!

[Patricia]

Planes are still flying into LAX. However, most airlines are waiving fees (in eight airports) to anyone not wishing to travel into the area at this time. There is still a booking time that must be met for any changed flights.

My relatives all seem to either live in safe areas or evacuated to Redondo on Monday. Unlike the chaos during Katrina I have all of them accounted for this time.

[Blue Genie]

For once today send the fires began we got to open all of our doors for about 6 1/2 hours before the it got warm out here. So it looks like everything over here is back but our water right now. I when to change water hold for i could fell the duck's water up and when I did the pipe broke off and I got a fast shower in that. Are next door naber just came over to fix it. I also got to mow the yard today to. So were back.

[JPL]

Glad to things are egtting better for you Genie:thumbsup:

Here's some more :pixie: :pixie: for our West Coast friends

[mickeynuts]

Between what happened with my friend and these awful fires I have learned this week that my problems are very small. My thoughts and prayers are with everybody out there, hoping for a nice big rain storm for you.
Laura

[Patricia]

Cat, I remember looking at our sun through the smoke too. It is the weirdest looking thing.

I hope the smoke doesn't hamper everyones DLR meet too much. :unsure:

[Blue Genie]

I hate to say this but it can rain after all of us have leave DLR meet don't want the rain to hurt are fun then.

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

are u alright Doll from the fires.

Yes ty Genie, luckily I am millions of miles away from the fires. We might be going down south this weekend though; hopefully it will be alright so we don't have to cancel our plans. Mouse's friend went last week and said that it was so smoky down there they left early. My cousin had to move out of college because of the fires. Hopefully it will end soon!

[Krystal_Rose]

I saw on the news last night that they believe four of these fires were now caused by arson. Can you imagine the sick, twisted individual or group of people that would knowingly cause all of this destruction? I pray that they find whoever did this, how terrible. It makes me sick to think that while I am watching the news that whoever is responsible might be watching too and maybe not feeling any remorse. My heart goes out to all of you involved, people losing their homes, and all of the people on the front lines fighting this terrible tragedy. You will all be in my thoughts and prayers for a long time to come.

[WDWfanatic742]

Just on the news today was that there were at least 1,800 homes destroyed. They also said that they have arrested at least two people with possible connections to the fires.

[LittleDragonErin]

Can't believe I haven't noticed this thread until now. I'm alive and my house (as of right now) is still standing. I've actually be away from my home, between being on tour and needing to train. My typical day starts with training 2-3 hours in my backyard at like 5/6 a.m. But of course I can't do that so I moved down to a friend's house, away from the fires, for the time being. Still is a pain but since it's my job, gotta keep training.

On a lighter note, I swear it wasn't me. I love inferno, but I only set myself on fire. :P

[Chescat]

There's a marine layer that came in today so its making things even more packed in, but at least with humidity in the air its making the air more breathable. The bad news is, the winds are suppose to change so all that smoke is going to be coming back this way. :(

But at least we haven't seen anymore new outbreaks. We just want to be able to sweep down our driveways and get all this soot and ash off of everything. And also be able to feel free to open up our windows.

[mickeytinkerbellprincess]

Just came back today. The first couple days down there wasn't too bad, but today I guess the wind changed direction and we got a full gust of smoke. It smelled horrible and there was a layer of smog over the freeway. Watched the news and they said that people actually caused the fire! How despicable of someone to destroy tons of lives.