http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=74cf4b02-c042-413f-aebe-3c925f484710Home »Nation, World »National News
300,000 Flee California Fires
Hundreds of homes destroyed as flmaes spread on fierce winds
By Karl Vick , Sonya Geis , The Washington Post
Published on 10/23/2007
Los Angeles — Massive brush fires spread across Southern California on Monday, destroying homes from north of Los Angeles to south of San Diego, leaping freeways and sending hundreds of thousands of residents scrambling to flee their homes sometimes seconds ahead of advancing flames. Fueled by gale-force desert winds and chaparral turned to tinder by the driest year on record, the conflagrations raged beyond the control of firefighters stretched paper thin rushing across the region from one fast-moving fire to another. Some 300,000 San Diego residents were ordered out of their homes, making it the country's largest evacuation since hurricanes Katrina and Rita smashed into the Gulf Coast two years ago.
snip
Officials identified between seven and 15 fires raging at midafternoon, from blazes that skipped down the canyons of Malibu on
snip
The numbers changed almost hourly as new blazes were called in and smaller fires converged to form larger, more dangerous blazes. By 1:30 p.m. automatic calling machines had dialed 80,000 San Diego residents, urging evacuation in “reverse 911” calls. A hospital, nursing homes and wild-animal zoo were evacuated, as was the San Diego office of the National Weather Service.
snip...
“We really have been experiencing a perfect storm — a perfect firestorm — in the last 24 to 36 hours,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles County supervisor. “A little wind makes a big difference.” The wind was the Santa Ana that routinely sweeps into Southern California from the northeast and funnels through its canyons, gaining speed and heat and dryness as it descends and compresses. “That's the proverbial Santa Ana or what us natives call the 'devil winds,'” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “And so the devil winds are definitely living up to their nickname.” The gales that arrived over the weekend were unusual both in velocity — a gust of 112 mph was recorded on Laguna Peak north of Los Angeles on Friday night — and duration. Santa Anas will normally last a day or so; if the current winds fade as predicted on Wednesday, they will have lasted more than 72 hours.
The other ingredients are the 18 months of drought, which dried out the unusually lush growth that sprouted from an unusually rainy period that preceded it. The mix grew more combustible as the Santa Anas lowered humidity into single digits.
snip
The scene inside the football stadium, where the Chargers play, was not much like the wretched scene in New Orleans after Katrina. Many evacuees arrived in RVs and family cars at the parking lot, which in spots resembled a tailgating party. When local radio put out calls for dog food, sunscreen and sandwich meat (bread was not a problem), residents responded by turning the stadium floor into a smorgasbord. Volunteers laden with grocery bags heaped tables with grilled chicken, chips and dog food poured into paper bags for individual portions. Evacuees gathered in the shaded sections of the lower deck, watching news coverage and munching sandwiches.
There was even a massage station manned by David Thomas, 36, who cancelled his appointments and summoned an acupuncturist for volunteer duty. “We're kind of like the holistic first responders,” Thomas said. It remained, after all, California.
snip...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
