In fact our headquarters just closed...of course I'm working about 20 minutes from the fires and won't get to go home early.

So, I was on a field excursion last weekend out to the Mojave, and got hammered by these winds. Perhaps the more interesting part is that had I not been on that trip, we had another trip planned that we killed at the last minute due to lack of attendance that was going to do some work in the areas around Santa Barbara, Oxnard, and Malibu. Had we had enough people we'd have been right in the area where that Malibu fire broke out.

 

And also interestingly, the governor is sending in 1500 national guardsmen to assist in the areas. He's having to pull men off of the US/Mexico border to find them.

 

I'm upwind of most of them right now but I'm still feeling pretty sh*tty from this air. Think it's time for me to head home.

Holy Crap. The skies around here are kinda smoky in the distant and I'm about 120 miles away.

Ran into some evacuees last night, it took them 8 hours to get here from the SD area.

Winds expected to pick up tonight again.

SD Chargers practicing in Az. because their stadium is a being used as a shelter.

360,000 acres are being affected and that figure will rise.

Edited October 23, 200718 yr by LosMediasBlancas

This is what the sky looks like from my office in Burbank:

 

^^Wow^^

This is scary stuff. It brings up the spector of a reality that the country has been sort of in denial of - the population, particularly in the mountainous west, is moving more and more into areas that by nature do this very thing periodically. What is the solution?

 

i bet it was a firefighter that started it.

As I recall, that huge Show Low fire in Arizona a couple years back was started by a backcountry firefighter who was at the time out of work. That fire burned tens of thousands of acres and killed people.

 

Then there was the one started by a park ranger in Colorado, as she tried to burn a goodbye letter from a man who had left her. That one was huge too.

 

Hope all is well Jason, stay safe man

The Governator says that people are happy because the relief effort is going so well. Happy? I'm not sure that's a good choice of words.

The Governator says that people are happy because the relief effort is going so well. Happy? I'm not sure that's a good choice of words.

 

Always tough to find the right words to describe the things that go well during a tragedy.

I know this is more of a filibuster related thought but do you think FEMA is in a potential catch 22? If they act swiftly and do a great job some people could think that it's because the area affected has a lot of rich white people. That famous Kanye West line comes to mind "George Bush doesn't care about black people". And if they act just as slowly as they did in New Orleans people will say "Look, they are completely incompetent just like last time".

all they can do is their best all the time. the rest is out of their control.

Damn that is scary. Stay safe everybody!

I know this is more of a filibuster related thought but do you think FEMA is in a potential catch 22? If they act swiftly and do a great job some people could think that it's because the area affected has a lot of rich white people. That famous Kanye West line comes to mind "George Bush doesn't care about black people". And if they act just as slowly as they did in New Orleans people will say "Look, they are completely incompetent just like last time".

 

I think the state of California has the 'dealing with humanity' thing in a relatively good situation at the moment. I don't think FEMA will get any credit or blame.

While accurate, this was uncalled for by the Lt Gov of Cali..

This is what the sky looks like from my office in Burbank:

 

The skies are even worse today. It is so hard to breath and I'm inside an office.

lol, this is just too funny:

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/breakingne...ndocumente.html

 

Free health care - check

Free education for our children - check

Free food and water - meh, why not - check

 

They probably thought this was just another handout.

 

 

Why are people evacuating not taking their animals with them? Assholes.

Why are people evacuating not taking their animals with them? Assholes.

 

Fans of Korean Barbecue?

 

 

 

Sorry.

 

 

Kicking my own ass for that comment.

The moon looked red tonight due to to all the smoke in the air. Full and red, kinda cool actually.

Why are people evacuating not taking their animals with them? Assholes.

Where they are going probably won't let them in...

Where they are going probably won't let them in...

 

 

Untrue from every news report I have seen in the past few days. Even Chargers Stadium is allowing pets.

 

I suppose it's easier to leave them behind and let the shelter workers risk their lives to save them. I hope none of them get their pets back and they are adopted out to owners who value their lives more than a book of pictures.

Untrue from every news report I have seen in the past few days. Even Chargers Stadium is allowing pets.

 

I suppose it's easier to leave them behind and let the shelter workers risk their lives to save them. I hope none of them get their pets back and they are adopted out to owners who value their lives more than a book of pictures.

Where they are going probably won't let them in...

 

They had that exact problem during Katrina.

I remember with Katrina some people criticized people for valuing animal lives ahead of humans. The animals took up space in rescue vehicles, the sanitation issues at shelters, rescue workers wind up dealing with the animals during the rescue, etc. I think it depends on where you are evacuating to, each situation is different. Sad when people have to make choices like that. I'd never want to leave a pet behind.

They had that exact problem during Katrina.

 

 

Thankfully California's pet rescues and shelters learned from Louisiana's mistakes. It's just too bad that many pet owners in this situation are irresponsible assholes.