I am about 10 miles from the westernmost corner of the Witch Creek fire. We were never in any real danger here, although my wife and daughter did spend two nights with a friend just a little closer to the ocean. My wife kind of freaked out because a neighbor said she saw the fire coming up the canyon behind our house. But that was a mistake; the fire was never very close.
You can see a good map of the burn area here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/firemap/ If you see the symbol for I-5, just above where it says "San Diego", that is more or less where I live, underneath that I-5 sign. Not to minimize the damage that has been done, but it could have been a LOT worse. A lot has been made in the national news about the fact that several hundred thousand acres burned. Bad stuff, but mostly that land is barren wilderness in the hills east of the residential areas of the county. The Witch Creek fire unfortunately did burn through several residential areas as it moved west. Ramona, Rancho Bernardo, Poway, and Rancho Santa Fe were hardest hit, as far as I know. Tremendous credit goes to the firefighters and other emergencies services teams (props to Sorge) who prevented significant loss of life and what could have been far greater destruction. Even yesterday the head of the fire dept was saying they expected that the fire could burn all the way to the coast. Had that happened, it could have been $10 billion (or more) in damage instead of $1 billion. The fires are not even contained at this time, but the winds have shifted onshore, temps have cooled, and humidity is up again. In other words, Mother Nature has spared us the worst of her wrath. The fire crews still have a lot of work to do before they can declare victory, but the fires are now moving mostly away from populated areas. On 10/24/07, Dana wrote: > > I think Robert is in the general vicinity. > > On 10/24/07, Erika wrote: > > > > Is there anyone on this list living or working in that area? Looks > > terrible > > on the news. :( > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion is delivering applications solutions at at top companies around the world in government. Find out how and where now http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finder&productID=1522&loc=en_us Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:245123 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
