I'm sending good thoughts in the direction of your family, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for their house. Where does your family live, princessnmi?
I can attest that down here in San Diego it is a very surreal place today - the mayor has asked that as many people as possible stay home from work and stay off the roads. There are simply so many people being forced to evacuate that the roads need to be kept clear for them - the fires have reached some very heavily populated areas. There are still plenty of places that will take human and small animal evacuees, but it is getting harder for people to find places to take their horses, cattle, etc. Many goverments offices, courts, etc. are closed today. Many schools are closed, as well, and some of the ones that were open asked parents to come and pick up their children halfway through the day. Not all of these schools are in danger, but the thought is that not only do they want these kids home with their parents, but that some of these schools may be needed as evacuation centers. It is a normal day off for me, but the theatre at which I work is closed today, to comply with the mayor's request, with only a skeleton crew of 3 people working in my department. Most of my staff called in sick anyway, judging by my email... I have been watching the news since about 2:00am last night, with about a 4-hour break to try to sleep. I recently heard that the shelter from which I got Ranger has been forced to evacuate...
The fires are not close to me at this time - they are to the southeast and farther to the north as well, but the thing with this is that you just never know what is going to happen. The winds are so fierce and so fast that the fires can travel extremely quickly, or jump for many miles. It is very difficult at this time to get planes up for any kind of water or chemical dumps, due to the winds. Even in my area, the sky is strangely colored and it is hot and smoky and hard to breathe or keep your eyes open. Everyone's sinuses are going crazy.
The fire department is stretched so thin that there just aren't enough fire fighters to go around. Once a house catches fire, they can't try to put it out, only try to stop it spreading to neighboring houses. I saw fire fighters on the news recently helping a home owner take belongings from his burning house rather than waste their time trying to extinguish it. Also, many people are trying to stay in their houses until the last minute possible, which means that emergency personnel have to do door-to-door evacuations when fire comes to a new neighborhood, rather than attend to the fire. If a new fire were to start in a new area (say, the huge dry vacant field next to where I live) there really wouldn't be much resource to fight it.
So, as I say, it is very surreal here. I am just flipping channels obsessively looking for the latest. Paranoid or not, the dogs have their collars on and I have some items packed and ready to go...
Sending good thoughts to everyone in harm's way.
