San Diego is on FIRE!

[justatransgirl]

Wow! Many of you may not know it - but right now we have over 300,000 people evacuated in San Diego and hundreds and hundreds of homes burned by wildfires that began last night, 50 miles east in the mountains and may burn all the way to the ocean just north of us before they stop.

They closed Jessica's college at noon due to smoke, and we've stayed inside to avoid the smoke that's everywhere. Her brothers families have both had to leave their homes - we haven't heard from them since mid afternoon, assume they are on the north side of the fire. Hope they have homes to come back to.

Everything between Oceanside and La Jolla is under evacuation. The fire is 18 MILES wide and currently 38 miles long.

South of us there is another large fire burning into the outskirts of Chula Vista a San Diego suburb on the border with Tijuana.

This one will be in the news for awhile...

Sigh,
TS Jamie :-)
PS - We aren't in danger where we live.

[Buddy Wood]

Looks like I got out of there just in time - huh Jamie? Here in Burbank area it's apparently not as bad. But last night I was flying into the Burbank airport and you could see entire mountains below you on fire. And the winds were so strong it created some of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced on a plane. It was like flying into Hell. At one point the plane dropped dramatically and then turned sideways. People were crying and the entire plane broke out into applause when we landed safely. Not fun.

Buddy

[BXCanada]

that pic looks alot like the Okanagan Mountain Park fire that hit where i live in 2003. 30,000 people evacuated wich was the largest evac in BC history and the second largest in Canadian history.

[Hara_Juku Tgirl]

SD is under fire and brimstone! I hope everyone got out safely. ;)

TS Jamie, it looks like you're going to take a much needed long vacation eh? LOL

~Kisses.

HTG

[justatransgirl]

SD is under fire and brimstone! I hope everyone got out safely. ;)

TS Jamie, it looks like you're going to take a mush needed long vacation. LOL

~Kisses.

HTG

giggle... Nah, everything is closed tomorrow - the guys are all off work - I've got three dates lined up for tomorrow and squeezed in one this evening between posts... :-)

Besides sex in war zones and disasters is always the best. But I offered a "fire sale" earlier on another site and got chewed out. Nobody has a sense of humor...

Hey Buddy - gosh that sounds like a fun flight. Glad things are going well up there. It's not too bad at your old house. There's some breeze up there and we're kind of between the main plumes of smoke - but today the valley looked like LA on a really, really bad day. Everyone had their headlights on.

For those with no clue what we are talking about - Buddy used to live up in a hilly area near us.

Anyway everybody in SoCal stay safe, it's not over yet!

Hugs,
TS Jamie :-)

[Hara_Juku Tgirl]

So no "fire rescue relief"? LOL

~Kisses.

HTG

[Realgirls4me]

As a resident of the area, I can say that, yes, it is tragic and I definitely feel for those affected, but this region of this country is, after all, a desert, and dry conditions complimented by Santa Ana winds and unburned fuel are going to lead to these "perfect storm" conditions. Mother Nature wins, as she has for tens of thousands of years. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDiCTN7QMFI




They make no mention of the beauty of decay ...


... No more building up; It is time to dissolve.

[Coroner]

I was watching this in the news and I´m glad you´re doing fine justatransgirl and everyone else who resides in California.

[Night Rider]

Looks like I got out of there just in time - huh Jamie? Here in Burbank area it's apparently not as bad. But last night I was flying into the Burbank airport and you could see entire mountains below you on fire. And the winds were so strong it created some of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced on a plane. It was like flying into Hell. At one point the plane dropped dramatically and then turned sideways. People were crying and the entire plane broke out into applause when we landed safely. Not fun.

Buddy

That sounds like some really scary shit...i hate turbulance :o If that happened to me i'd be praying and repenting with filled boxers lol

[CORVETTEDUDE]

Jamie...glad you guys(gals) are OK. I used to live a couple blocks from Gossmont College when I was stationed at Coronado. Pinnacle Peaks, one of my favorite places to chow down.

I feel bad for the entire Southern California community.

[RawNY]

Well, I am glad to hear that most of our friends are safe but my heart crys for those who have lost everything. I haev seen the news reports showing burned out homes which probably were worth millions the dayt before and one shot of a burned out Mercedes.
Ironically there was a special on one of the cable stations the day or two before the fires started where an expert in forestry was warning that the global warming had dropped the average tem 1-2 degrees and driesd out alot of the vegitation on the ground. It is that vegi. That vegitation which often acts as a barrior to fire, providing moisture and protection to the trees and brush.
Maybe now people will take it more seriously.

[justatransgirl]

San Diego fire update:
I think we've seen the worst of it. By tomorrow I expect people will start being allowed to return home - but probably not substancially until Thur or Fri.

They don't expect full containment of hot spots until after Halloween. So sad.

All hotels are booked. Probably through the weekend, maybe longer. There are now 1/2 million displaced people - most staying with friends. At least 1,250 families as of now are homeless - they will be in hotels for weeks if not months. But this is the slow hotel time so it shouldn't impact things after this weekend.

Qualcom stadium has about 15,000 people - even "Geraldo" was there grandstanding - what an asshole... If the situation wasn't so grim it would look like a giant tailgate party - motor homes, tents, local bands giving free concerts, food - I even heard they had a free massage tent to help people deal with their stress. Jessica and I were talking about getting some of the girls and opening a "hospitality" tent. :-) Sort of the opposite of New Orleans where people died from lack of help.

Then you see people sleeping in their cars, and on cots in the parking lot under the stars and realize it's not a party and the people aren't there by choice. But the whole city is pulling together, again, we do that here.

Nearly everybody from Oceanside to La Jolla is evacuated. For awhile they thought it would reach the ocean. To give you an idea - the 'Witch" fire started in the hills 50 miles from the coast and has slowed about 5-10 miles west of I-5.

The "Harris" fire has had evacuations clear up to I-8 (near where we live) from the Mexican border - 25 miles south.

This may seem like excessive evacs - but think about this. When we went to bed Sunday night the Witch fire was 8,000 acres - when we got up it was 140,000 acres and had burned 20 miles! It's currently 40+ MILES long and 18 MILES wide.

Jessica's school is cancelled through the weekend - so we may bail out of here tomorrow for Mexico for a few days. Since it's about the only direction we can go.

It's the little things that make it surreal. We went to Trader Joes, it was like the place had been looted, most of the quick fix foods were gone. We had dinner down by the bay. I noticed a lot of people had dogs on the patio - and we realised they were all "refugees" who took their pets.

And along the bay there were dozens of expensive motor homes, some towing boats or horse trailers, with expensive cars parked nearby - I guess the rich people in Rancho Santa Fe bailed out in style. Hey it's San Diego we do things different.

Anyway - that's about it. A huge mess, but the city will handle it.

Hugs,
TS Jamie :-)

[Willie Escalade]

As a fellow So Cal I hope all of you are fine down there. I hope the assholes who started these fires are burned at the stake...and I'm being serious. :evil:

[justatransgirl]

Latest update.

Sadly one of the San Diego trans-worlds favorite admirers and a regular at the SRO lost his home the first night of the fires.

Even though over 1,000 people lost homes I never dreamed in a county of nearly 2 million that we would personally know someone, or that it would be one of our own community.

Our hearts go out to him. I'll post anything further. There's been talk of doing a fund raiser to help him out.

Hugs to all,
TS Jamie :-)

[CORVETTEDUDE]

Fire is non-discriminant, Jamie....It doesn't give a shit who you are or who you know. It's like a Marine eatin' chow...anything in the way is goin' down! Just glad the loss of life was minimal, overall.