Bob's Corner
From our weekly issue dated October 31, 2007
It was a “vacation” not meant to be. I didn’t even get to unpack. So here goes, trying to make a long story short.
Jan was in Carlsbad in San Diego County with our daughter, Vicki Kaplan, and two grandgirls, while her husband, Matt, was in Eugene for his employer for two weeks. At the start of the second week, Jan had an appointment in Santa Ana in Orange County on Monday, Oct. 22. So the plan was for me to fly to LAX, and she and the girls would pick me up. Then we’d drive to Carlsbad, and I’d get like four days of visiting and taking in some Southland sights and sites before Jan and I had to fly back on Saturday. (The News never stops.)
Didn’t work out that way. When my plane landed at 6 p.m. I phoned Vicki’s cell phone, and brightly asked, “Hey, where are you guys?” Said Vicki, “We’re in Carlsbad; you’ll need to rent a car and come down here.” What had happened is that they left Carlsbad on I-5 for Santa Ana. But after it took them nearly 90 minutes to go 20 miles, they turned back.
Those devastating wildfires in San Diego and Los Angeles area counties had caused super-major traffic flows that were not flowing. So I rented a photographer’s car (a Focus) and headed south. Managed to navigate L.A. without getting lost! Listened to KFI Radio all the way down, and learned quickly that many San Diego County residents were in hot water, so to speak. I smelled smoke most of the way. Wildfires were raging in several locations, blown by Santa Ana winds. Hot weather, dry vegetation, and low humidity were among the major factors. It became exceedingly obvious that San Diego County was amid an unprecedented disaster.
Some 500,000 residents in that county were ordered to evacuate because of the extreme fire hazard. Although figures still are being tallied, it looks as though property damage there will exceed a billion dollars. Some1,600 homes were destroyed in seven California counties, some 80 percent of them in San Diego County, where 320 homes were damaged; 720 outbuildings were damaged and 25 destroyed along with two businesses. I mean, it’s a disaster big time. At one point, there were 10,000 fire refugees at Qualcomm San Diego Stadium.
The half-million figure for evacuees does not include many more, such as our family, who left their homes without being told. Hotel and motels were jammed in the county; some even went farther south for accommodations. And there was our family: Vicki, Jan, Natalie, Ella, cats Charlie and Jellirabbit, and me. We headed out in Vicki’s Escape, appropriately enough. We had slept with smoke in our noses all Monday night; and when we arose Tuesday, the air quality was bad, plus there was a layer of ash all over everything outside.
The decision was made. We had to get our fam out because of the bad air, which gave us all problems. And we had to leave because of the potential for the fire reaching Vicki and Matt’s neighborhood. Oh, about that smoke, I had a sore throat for three days after we left Carlsbad. And Jan had smoke-related problems for several days. Not fun.
We had to bring the cats because, well, we couldn’t leave them there. Charlie, of course, lives in Carlsbad now, and Jellirabbit had flown down with Jan. He’s still so small, and our three other inside cats are so big, that she was afraid to leave him at home in Cave Junction. So at this point, the little guy has flown to San Diego, and been driven back. He’s well-traveled. Charlie has made a one-way and a round-trip by car involving CJ and Carlsbad, traveling some 1,350 miles.
Fortunately, Jan has some herbs that work great to calm the critters. Otherwise we’d have to keep them in their carriers all the time. But with the herbs, they can roam freely, sort of, in the car while we’re traveling. It’s interesting.
Anyway, between Carlsbad and Santa Nella, where we spent Tuesday night the 23rd, we saw untold numbers of emergency vehicles headed toward the fires. At one location we saw a convoy of some 25 CHP units with lights flashing, roaring south for traffic and crowd control, I’m sure. And we saw numerous fire engines, pumpers, bulldozers on flatbed trailers, crew crummies and command units from many agencies -- all headed south. It was awesome (to use an overused word).
There are close to 8,500 firefighters working to contain and control the blazes in San Diego County alone. Ninety-three firefighters had been injured as of Sunday the 28th, and 23 civilians. Plus seven civilians have died because of the fires. Of close to 500,000 acres (remember our 2002 Biscuit Fire) affected, nearly 347,000 are in San Diego County.
I-5 at Camp Pendleton was closed for several hours one day in both directions. We had already passed by, thank goodness. As for my “vacation,” I have no complaints. My heart goes out to all those affected by the fires; many literally lost everything they owned. I’m thankful that Vicki and Matt’s house was spared; in fact, the fires did not come near their neighborhood, although they were in a Possible Evacuation Zone.
Think I’ll go home now and unpack.
