Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board Every 10 Years Forum How are things in Southern California?

According to news here, there's ash in the sky and it sounds like the end of the world....everyone okay there? I guess if you're evacuated you won't be reading this....

Just an overview, from Downey, smack in the middle of the L.A. metro area:

The fires are either in the forested areas (largely national forests) ringing greater Los Angeles and San Diego, or are affecting largely sparse residential areas. Most of the 900-odd homes destroyed so far are in very thinly populated areas on larger lots, very close to brush and timber, many of them relatively less accessible to firefighting services.

More densely populated cities are not yet affected directly, except for secondary effects: evacuation burdens on local facilities (high-school gyms are frequently used), closed state highways and some freeways, diverted traffic from those closed roads, air-traffic shutdown.

There's no shortage, as yet, of water, chemicals, or personnel to fight the fires -- this last due to units generously arriving from all over California and at least six other states. Many of the canyon fires, though, and the homes they threaten are simply unreachable due to the fast spread of fire and smoke.

All of this is made worse by the hot, bone-dry "Santa Ana" winds, coming east to west from the Death Valley and Arizona deserts and over the San Gabriel Mountains that surround the L.A. basin. These are not the prevailing winds, and they happen when lower air pressure over the Pacific draws them toward the West.

Normally, the Santa Ana winds clear out the eternal (though decreasing) smog trapped in the L.A. inversion bowl, which is a benefit ... but this time, they're bringing fire ash with them. I had to dust off 1/16" of ash from my car last night. Many people are wearing face masks, except when not allowed in some stores, where the videocams can't distinguish potential robbers. Breathing is more difficult in general. Sunsets, by contrast, with all this dust, are vivid and gorgeous, such as the one now outside my windows.

Most expect the major fires to be effectively contained by Wednesday or Thursday, assuming that no further arson occurs -- at least one major fire seems to have been deliberately set, and suspects are being pursued. So far, 15 people have died, which despite its being tragic is actually a relatively low toll, given that nearly 300,000 acres are now burning.

Things are a bit worse down here though.

I live near downtown San Diego and the main "Cedar fire" has gotten as close as 2 or 3 miles away. I have a lot of friends who have evacuated. Most of our freeways were closed on Sunday and many are still closed. All of our schools are closed and many of the businesses have closed.

The skies have been a brownish-orange tint the last two days with a blood-red sun when it peeks through. Outside looks like one giant ashtray. It's hard to breathe and see with all of the smoke. Sunday, it was so bad it looked as if it were snowing.

If my BF was living where he used to live he'd probably be staying with me as his old apartment is in the path of the fires. They've gotten so out of control because most of our firefighters and their equipment were up in LA County fighting those fires. Now that we're getting some of them back, it might still be too late to save a lot of structures and communities because the fire area is so large and unpredictable.

The authorities are hoping to have it under control by next week.

I hope everything goes alright with you guys down there. You'll be in my thoughts until this blows over.

Take care, guys. We're thinking of you.

Well, today seems better around my home at least. The sky is now white. There doesn't seem to be much ash in the air anymore even though it does smell like something's burning. The fire down by the border should be out by the 30th. The rest of the fires will probably still take a week.

Everybody I know is safe. Thanks, guys.

God, Nighty!

You should port yourself over here for a few days of fire-free living! Seriously, it sounds rough. Hang in there.

Good luck guys! I lived through similar circumstances down here in FLorida a few years back so I understand what you all are dealing with. Best wishes & stay safe!

I'm glad to hear everyone's all right!

A while back, an empty building two blocks from my place caught on fire... the entire building was enveloped, and the flames were probably at least 40 feet in height... I could feel the heat from a block away, and ash was raining down everywhere.

It was the most surreal thing -- I'd never seen a fire that large in real life, let alone one that was a stone's throw from where I lived. I kept wondering whether I should start walking briskly in the other direction in case the fire started spreading rapidly. Fortunately, the fire department came in like two minutes and had it under control quickly, but it was pretty frightening until it was obvious they had things under control.

It's times like that -- and like this -- that make you really appreciate just how important fire fighters are, and how much they do for us every day...

Well I hope our friends in Cali are still okay. We haven't heard from Gary since Tuesday and last I 'saw' him he dropped off-line without a word.

So Gary if you are out there and okay, give us a shout. We worry about you big guy!

Well he just PMed me asking for the Wight cover, so

I just heard from him too. Just a little under the weather and all the smoke isn't helping.

Yeah. Sorry.

I and my computer have been sick.

Get well soon, Gary.

is chasing away!

finally had a decent day today. the air was much cleaner, but the weather did a complete 360, it's cooler and damp, with rain in the forcast, so hopefully the fires will be under control soon. the air quality was so bad because of the fires on top of the normally lousy air quality in l.a., that it even affected me, who's a chain smoker. oh yeah, traffic is a joy. my parents live in las vegas, and they told me that the fires made vegas pretty miserable too.
my thoughts are with any legion board member affected by all this.

The thought of a STATE ablaze just freaks me out....

Is there any way to try to prevent this from happening again...?

yeah, we'd have to de-foliate the entire state. i'm a city boy, so i wouldn't mind so much. nature and i do not mix well.

Unfortunately I don't think there is. Draught is pretty much the norm in the West now and the only way to prevent these major fires is by having controlled burns to get rid of the deadwood and dry grass and such. But that doesn't always work as we found out here in Utah a few weeks back. Winds, unpredicted, took a small controlled burn and turned it into a major fire that they just barely succeeded in putting out a few days ago.

Much of our forests and mountains are just major fires waiting to happen. In fact Mother Nature used to take care of it herself before we intervened. One of the fire cheifs mentioned that same thing in California the other day. This was Mother Nature doing her job, we just happened to be in the way.

See the latest issue of Wonder Woman. Talk about topical

It's not so much that we simply "happened to be in the way," it's that many policies and actions over the years have made it easier for humans to be in the way.

If new housing in much of California hadn't been made so difficult to develop, especially nearer the coast, by environmental and other regulations, land in the inland valleys wouldn't have been nearly as much in demand. (Allowing a few thousand more apartment buildings of merely three stories would have solved much of L.A.'s urban sprawl.)

Since most inland land was cheap, and some of it afforded spectacular views, more of it has been used in the last 40 years. If homeowners' insurance was priced to reflect firefighting costs, though, and the risk of brushfires, it would have been nearly impossible to afford to insure those homes. So complaints went to the Legislature, and the sporadic costs were instead put on counties and cities.

The most crucial piece for this disaster came with many "caring" environmental activists, who induced the Legislature to make it illegal for most homeowners to clear brush near their homes, or to buy into developments that did so. They insisted that "habitat" was likely to be threatened. Apparently the only animals whose habitat is beneath consideration, to some of these cretins, are human beings.

Couple all of this with infested and dying trees being left to rot in the huge national forests, instead of having loggers being induced to take them out, along with some of the more sound trees to pay for their trouble and cost. (A bill now in Congress allows this, but in piddling amounts and with far too little flexibility.)

And you have dozens of deaths, many people rebuilding twice in the same place within 20 or 30 years, a $3 billion mess, and higher taxes and insurance rates for everyone. Mother Nature may have made the fires necessary, but the disaster was far from inevitable.