SoCal Fires - Pray for everyone, please!
 

Polarpi is from Ramona, which is under mandatory evacuation. Please pray for her and all the residents in the area.

October 26 is the 4 year aniversary of the Cedar fire that wiped out tons of home in the same areas. :(

The air is horrible too. I was having difficult breathing today, inside my home, eventhough I'm at least 15 miles away from the fires.

Eek :(

I hope they, and their homes, will all be ok.

My next-door neighbor is a student at Pepperdine and she just posted a bulletin on MySpace letting all know that she's okay, but she, too, is having a hard time breathing. According to Alyssa, all classes are cancelled tomorrow.

I saw the footage on the news and I couldn't believe the scary winds!

Stay safe, SoCal GCers.

My prayers go out to all of you!!!

Stay safe!!

Agreed. I live about 35-40 miles from the nearest fire and the air is terrible.

Praying for all in the affected areas, as well as the firefighters who will undoubtedly have their hands full all week (the weather is not supposed to let up).

ISHT!

They're evacuating the evacuation site! :( This is making me very very nervous.

Wildfire is scary -- as we know well here in Colorado.

Best wishes for the safety of all of the residents and their property.

Malibu is a living, breathing disaster area and everyone who lives there knows it. Why ANYONE would build their home in one of the canyons - especially Malibu or Topanga canyons - is beyond me. Yes, it's beautiful, but everyone there knows that wildfires move through those canyons every 3 years or so. The brush that covers the hillsides has a high oil content that fuels the flames.

When I was a freshman at Pepperdine we had a wildfire (they're almost always in October) that scared the crap out of everyone...that time the fire actually moved ON campus but managed to avoid any buildings besides some horse stables (yes, the horses had already been evacuated - to the baseball stadium). The University always seems to escape harm, and it was apparently built with fire safety in mind, but I wonder how long it will be until the fire can't be stopped at its borders. In '96 it was as if God himself saved the campus, as we found out when we came back and saw that the flames had charred a circle around the University but left the campus green.

Sad to see/hear that the church I attended while at Pepp burned to the ground this time.

ETA: At the entrance to campus...
http://img.viacomlocalnetworks.com/i...e_294133441/xl

I tried to send other photos but all the sites seem to have them locked. But MSNBC has a slideshow with lots of photos the Pepperdine students took from on campus: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21421272/nPage/1

Update: I'm currently at my parents' house. Reverse 911 worked great, I got the call to evacuate about 6:30 am. There was a fire on the ridge that butts up against my complex.

Be safe, SoCalGirl. We too are packed up and ready to go if we need to go!

I watched the glow in the east all night. Oddly the day sky is not nearly as ominous as during the Cedar Fire...it was completely dark during the day. But the wind gusts are incredible....

be careful and be safe!

Most of you wouldn't know this; but, I am a certified Disaster Service Worker for the City and County of San Diego. I volunteer for a program through the City of San Diego and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department called San Diego Community Emergency Response Team. We are regular civilians trained to support professional responders during major disasters with things such as: search & rescue, medical triage, fire suppression (like wastepaper basket fires, not hillsides!), disaster operations, logistics and so on. Some people are on "special teams" such as the support team for Urban Search and Rescue and also Helicopter Operations (as I am).


At appx. 10pm last night, I received word from the CERT Liaison Team that my team was being put on standby for immediate activation. As the Team Leader for central area of San Diego, I spent a few hours calling down my team to solicit volunteers at 12am.


At approximately 2:30am I deployed to a local high school (Mira Mesa, for those familiar) to assist with getting our evacuees into the shelter. Let me tell you, the wind was whipping something fierce through the hours of 3am-4am. I greeted car after car of crying evacuees to get them parked and inside. :( Lots and lots of frail elderly people arrived by cars and buses - I think they evacuated a retirement community.


I've gone off-shift and am now home and attempting to coordinate the members of my team who are available for daytime support.


These fires are horrific and many are being evacuated. At the present time, neither I nor my family are in immediate danger.


Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers along with our professional responder firefighters, sheriff's deputies, CDF, etc.


.....Kelly :)

I was just at Pepperdine & all around Malibu in January. My husband did his MBA there. So sad. He's got lots of friends still in the area who were just here in NYC last weekend for our wedding. :(

I think what you're doing is awesome, and I thank you for it!!!

I don't live near any of the fire sites, but I work in one of the cities that has about 15,000 acres burned the last time we checked online. I am here now. The air is super thick, and I've only been out of the building twice (once when I arrived, and for about 10 seconds to throw out some trash). Each time, it took me about one hour to feel like I could breathe normally again (I'm asthmatic).

Please keep praying for So. Cal.! (And I wish the best of luck to the posters who are preparing to evacuate if necessary.)

Yikes! Stay safe, everyone...