California Fires
Man, this stuff is just scary! Wildfires continue to rage through Los Angeles County today, where hurricane-like winds are spreading the flames very quickly and making them difficult to combat or control. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in the area, and has said that the fires are threatening the L.A. power supply, which may force the city to go to rolling blackouts.
I’ve been looking at pictures of the fires and they look VERY intense, to say the least. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed already, and thousands of people have been forced to flee the area. This is absolutely nuts! I have a couple of friends who live in the area, so I hope they’re ok. I’m going to try to contact them on Facebook later today, though I doubt that they’re just sitting idly by their computers as these fires rage through the area.
Yeah, it’s that time of year in Cali. We’ve been lucky so far this year no repeat really of 2005 or 2007. But if these Santa Ana winds don;t die down, it could be bad. Not that it isn’t bad already.
There’s no way to describe what it’s like living here when there is a fire like that. Soot and ash rain down from miles away. The air is fetid and the sun is blocked from the sky. It makes you sick and no matter how hard you try to seal up your house… that stench comes in. And it’s weeks till the smell is gone longer till the soot and ash dissipate.