How are our brothers in Cali?

Stolen from FB.

 

Posted this on a SoCal mountain bike forum I'm on:

What a heavy day yesterday. We live off of Mulholland in Calabasas, and up pretty high with a view facing North. We had a good view of the fire from when it started all the way until it jumped the freeway and started spreading into Agoura, Malibu, etc. We were pretty much due South of it, and as it marched South the winds also pushed it West, so diagonally away from us. Thought we'd seen the worst of it in our area, but then around noon it REALLY kicked back up closer to where it started and made an unexpected push towards us. Had the perspective inducing experience of packing up valuables with a fire bearing down on us for the second time in three years. Got to watch some tanker drops out the window. By the time we evacuated it seemed like we were out of any imminent threat due to helpful (for us) winds, and some serious ass-kickery by the fire fighters.

 

I'm up in the High Desert of Socal in the Victor Valley area and the skies are brown from all the smoke in the air from 110 miles away

The Woolsey Canyon fire is now at 70k plus acres or 110sq miles of destruction

This is the Santa Ana's forecast for Sunday thru Tuesday, much stronger winds than predicted

https://m.accuweather.com/en/us/hesperia-ca/92345/weather-warnings/342422#

 

Best wishes to all of you dealing with this fire. So sorry to hear of all the homes and properties lost, just hope everyone can recover quickly.

 

The Woolsey Canyon fire is as bad or worse of the 2003 firestorms in Socal and Ssn Diego

 

These past two years have been rough for wildfires on the west coast. I hope this isn't the new norm. My thoughts are with all of you affected.

 

They say weather is a big cause for this sometimes. But its been more frequent that these fires are started by peoples camp fires or arsonists.

 

One coast burns incessantly, the other coast floods and get washed out to sea.......so bizarre.

 

Smog is pretty bad in SF today, might bust out the mask. Feels like this one is worse than the one last year, that one had really eerie yellow tinted skies made the city feel like the apocalypse was here.

Still, structure damage in the fire zones seems to be a far bigger problem and hope our friends out there are ok.

 

This thread is about how our brothers are doing in the Cali wildfires. Let's stay focused on that guys. In light of that, please take a look at the thread below for our brother who could use some help if we can spare it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fire-assistance.576912/#post-19107902

 

I'm in Monrovia just east of Pasadena, we have tons of smoke in the air all over town from this fire over 40 miles away. Stay safe out there all you guys that are affected by this. Horrible for this to have happened especially just after the shooting in the same area.

 

Thanks for the link, she has one going for the NoCal folks as well. She lost her house last year in a fire. I'm originally from the east and this is the absolute scariest thing I've experienced.

 

Sorry to hear you’re in direct line too.

It’s not so much politics, but greed. This stuff goes on where I am too. They dilly dally around when a fire breaks out, then it grows to uncontrollable size. Then suddenly they need federal disaster status, which translates into federal dollars and tons of supplies. Why do they do this? Because if they don’t spend every dollar in their budget, the next years budget will trim the excess. So, often times the want/need for a bigger budget to get more stuff for next year means blowing through the current budget and needing more. I know this from friends in the fire business, and they told me this is very common. The western states do have a harder time, you have drier, windy climate with much less rainfall, so these fire can get out of control much faster.

I just feel so bad for those of you having to try to pack up and get out before the fires get there. Please stay safe!

 

Just quick update....

Watching my late night news , the Woolsey Canyon fire is now at over 83k acres or 130sq miles burned. Total homes burned 180 , 275k homes threatened and 5% containment

Theres a strong Santa Ana forecasted for early tomorrow morning with 20-40mph sustained and 60-80mph gusts . Should start seeing strong Gusts in the burn area by 0900hrs . Helicopter pilots already noticing a wind shift from onshore to offshore

 

Appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.

Much appreciated from the TW brotherhood!

 

Sorry you lost a property. Glad the tenants got out safe.

 

Sorry to hear about losing your house to this massive fire . Be careful tomorrow as the Santa Ana's are going to be as strong as the other day

 

I would like to offer a former victim's perspective:
I was evacuated for a week for a wildfire and made it thru ok (some neighbors did not) and a few years later i was not so lucky in an earthquake. lost almost everything.

Threads such as this really help and words of encouragement have more meaning than you might realize. its about not being alone.
other help, once the fires die out, is very much appreciated. it can come in many forms...financial, labor, food, WATER, housing, etc.
In the near future, if you are going to take a drive to the affected areas, do so with the intention of jumping out of your truck and pitching in. make sure the timing is right and does not interfere with organized resources like the red cross, etc.

one thing NOT to do is take a drive to the affected areas to see what happened.
the victims will feel incredibly hurt that their loss is the source of curiosity, regardless of how
empathetic the viewers may be. this was one unexpected reaction i had
to people driving by for a look while i was trying to sort out what was left of my life.
it was surprisingly violating to be on display that way.

just some personal experience and tips that might not be obvious to some, well meaning as they may be, if they have not been thru it themselves.

hope this helps.
time will help a lot...you'll get thru it but it will be painful.
hang in there...some times literally.

Edit: and expect some PTSD. dealing with it is a personal choice. seeking help for it can be very useful.