Mark’s Soap Box

… and nothing has changed. San Diego Burning [warning: servers in San Diego are slow right now, you may have delays].

– UPDATE CONTINUED HERE [click] –

UPDATE 4 1518 PDT 22 Oct:

• Orange county is having issues also .
• Del Mar Horsepark has room for animals — Polo field is full. Not sure this is a good idea if the fire comes to Solana Beach.

click for larger image

Note the evacuation areas near the 5. Thats Solana Beach, and Del Mar. Very pricey.

UPDATE 3 1437 PDT 22 Oct: Scripps Ranch is being evacuated; Solana Beach (which is on the ocean) residents are being advised to prepare for evacuation. This is going to get ugly.

Parts of Fallbrook are being evacuated - this directly threatens Camp Pendleton (North Area).

Emergency Alert System is now activated.

I-15 is a mess. Going to Temecula is becoming congested. If you are traveling that direction, go to the Pauma Casino, and then go to North to Pechanga.

76 is being closed at the 15

Military offers route through Camp Pendleton
2:53 p.m.

Military personnel will be providing escorts of small groups of vehicles through Camp Pendleton from Ammunition Road in Fallbrook.

All traffic will be diverted to the front gate to access northbound I-5 at Harbor Drive.

No vehicles will be allowed to access southbound I-5 towards San Diego County from the base. Citizens must access the base through the Ammunition Road Gate which is accessible from Mission Road in Fallbrook.

Be careful people

UPDATE 2: LA Times has a story up about the fires.

• Map of fires — mashup of fires on a google-map w/info
• Qualcomm is being used as a shelter.
• Charger practice has been called off, and several of the Charger players have homes in danger.
• The Navy has evacuated several thousand dependants.

UPDATE 1: As of Noon PDT 22 October: Harris fire has ZERO percent containment. Yes ZERO percent of undetermined acres. This after having burned for almost 32 hours. Witch fire has ONE percent containment on 2000 acres; also after about 32 hours.

GOES-11 Satellite image of the California coast. — click for larger map

INFO LINE FOR FIRES: Two One One

More of the Same

Ramona has been evacuated. Fires are now in Rancho Bernardo as well. Rancho Santa Fe — very exclusive area — are now being evacuated.

October 22, 2007 (6:52 AM) — Several new fires have broken out around San Diego County overnight.

Mayor Jerry Sanders reported in a Monday morning press conference that mandatory evacuations are now underway everywhere north of Highway 56, east of Interstate 5, west of Interstate 15 and south of Del Dios Highway.

The San Diego area Emergency Response has been a joke so far. Mayor Sanderson is blathering about how everyone is talking to each other. Well big friggin deal! Clearly they are not discussing anything of importance.

Mayor Sanders stresses that it is very important for all residents to be on alert and be prepared in case of an evacuation. If you feel threatened or see a fire in your area, Mayor Sanders says to evacuate immediately. Do not wait for evacuation orders.

Maybe the Mayor should take his own advice. He clearly was napping, even though everyone knows this is prime fire season due to the Santa Anna winds and the dry conditions this time of year.

Yet, no one thought maybe they should make hwy 63 one way going south out of Ramona. Nice job idiots. Cars sat in traffic for well over 45 minutes while the fire was bearing down on them.

What is the point of evacuating if you have no place to go, or you can’t get there? Not much.

So How Bad Was It?

Glad you ask! I’ll show you.

The air quality is terrible, even here on the coast. I have some shots of sunset that should illustrate this.

Sunset at Oceanside Pier — the bottom of photo is the actual horizon.
everything from the photo bottom to the top of the palms is smoke

This pic was taken about sunset. It’s as close as I could get the actual “look”. The smoke is so heavy that the light is bouncing around like crazy.

While down on the pier I took this photo.

Oceanside Pier Looking West (north side of pier) into sunset

Normally you would see the sun go down. The smoke had obliterated the view. The actual horizon is just on top of the woman’s head.

Some may be wondering why there are surfers out. Well it was getting close to high tide, and the waves were 4 to 6 feet (twice the norm here). On the south side of the pier, it was almost comical to watch the frenzy of wave catching. At times there would be 3, 4 and sometimes 5 riders on a wave. Not all going the same direction.

Oh and the pier was rocking a good 6 to 9 inches side to side — in the middle section — due to waves. FYI: the pier is 1/3 of a mile long and during the winter you can eat at Ruby’s — on the end — and feel like you are in a boat due to the movement.

Other Resources

Perimeter Maps (PDF): the Witch Fire Map, and the Harris Fire Map
SF Chron story: A lot of people will lose their homes today
Michelle Malkin is talking about this - unfortuantely it’s more on the whys and not the what.

Tags: san diego fires, san diego, fires, oceanside, oceanside pier, pier, wildfires, witch fire, harris fire, fallbrook fire, camp pendleton