For those who didn't notice, I have returned home to the US from England. I am currently staying with my father at my childhood home in the Clairemont area of San Diego. Yesterday was a doosey as the Cedar Fire started to get worryingly close to us....and we live in the city! Tierrasanta is a few miles due east of my house. At one point, an ember or something had caught a segment of Clairemont on fire in a patch of brush adjacent to my high school.
As others have reported, the place is full of ash and smoke. My swimming pool is full of ashes; my car is covered in ash. Last night I walked out to the corner of the street with some neighbours and we watched the sky glow red and orange with the flames in the distance.
My 86 year old grandfather lives in the northeast corner of Mira Mesa which, yesterday, was dangerously close to the devastating Scripps Ranch part of the Cedar Fire. I wanted to go get him but they closed the freeways and the streets were jammed with traffic. I'm happy to report that he's ok and, though he lived close to the fire, they did not evacuate him and his neighbours.
I have friends who live in El Cajon, one whose house is located in an area that is burning. Another friend lived near to the Mission Gorge flare up.
The difficulty is that the news reporting is not all that great in that, understandably, no one seems to know what's going on where. So, I'm having a hard time figuring out what's happening. I feel just awful for the hundreds of people whose houses have partially or completely burnt down.
That must be heartbreaking for them.
Anyway, the air is a bit clearer today - it's slightly easier to breathe. It sounds like we finally got some reinforcements from Arizona and other locations which is great news.
Thanks everyone for your positive thoughts and prayers.
.....Kelly
