San Diego Is Burning by Bill Roberts
It's on the national news so everybody is aware of what we are going through, but I'm sure there are lots of questions out there.
I've provided a link to live coverage from Channel 10 (ABC) which will give you a lot of answers.
So far there is more than 150,000 acres that have burned. The fire started in the East County in a mountainous area. It has spread almost to the ocean over 30 miles away. In the course of the fire more than 1000 homes have been destroyed. Over 250,000 people have been evacuated to special evacuation centers set up at local high schools, the fair grounds (The Del Mar Racetrack Where the Turf Meets the Surf made famous by Bing Crosby), and Qualcomm Stadium (the home of the Chargers). All in all, everything has been very orderly.
When this is all over we will need to ask ourselves "was this necessary?"
People that move here from some place else are often heard to say "we could use the rain." Their attitude might be appropriate where they come from, but not here. Rain does us absolutely no good and it does a lot of harm. When it rains we have over 300 car crashes on the first day. Then all the trash in the storm drains is washed into the bay. The roads dissolve causing more pot holes, as if we didn't have enough already. Then we have mudslides in the areas that burned last time we had a fire.
But the worst effect of rain is all the grasses and chaparral that grow as a result. Then it will dry out and be fuel for the inevitable fires.
Because we are basically at sea level we do not "capture" the rainwater for our water supply. Our water comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Colorado River.
We have a huge man-made "river" called the California Aqueduct which brings our water from northern and central California.
A major problem we have is all the fuel available for wildfires. It is out-of-control. Nobody really deals with it, and to make matters worse we have a system of inter-connected "green spaces" where the brush is left in its natural state. When the fires come, they can travel deep into the city utilizing these green space fuel sources.
Maybe we need to re-think the policy of maintaining green spaces in their "natural" condition.
Now for the real estate "spin" on this disaster: There are more than 1000 families that will need housing immediately. This should have the effect of absorbing a lot of the available inventory. And prices should firm up due to this demand.
San Diego will be fine. We will rebuild. I hope this time though we "solve" the problem of fuelling these fires which are sure to come again.
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