Have you heard? We've started the summer with drought conditions and Northern CA is battling over 1,000 fires right now. Yes, over 1,000! And over 100,000 acres have burned, according to the CAL FIRE home page. Many of these blazes were started by lightning strikes last week. This afternoon I read that Governor Schwartzenegger has called on Californians to avoid using personal fireworks this year. As of this afternoon, he had not yet declared a state of emergency banning the sale of fireworks, but it sounds like it's under consideration. The comments posted on the SacBee website ranged in tone from those who were going to celebrate regardless to those that were worried about their neighbors in case of fire. The SacBee has a great resource for fire information.
The Monterey County Sheriff has asked people to attend organized events and forego their own fireworks this year. Near Big Sur over 19,000 acres has burned.
Even the Western States Endurance Run has been cancelled. Also known as the Western States 100, this race from Squaw Valley to Auburn has been around for 35 years. Air quality personnel from Placer County and the Forest Service called off the event earlier this evening. "The air quality is a thousand percent above what is considered unsafe for outdoor activity," said race director Greg Soderlund. "It's just flat out not safe to put this event on."
I had first-hand experience with the fires over the weekend as I tried to drive to my fiance's home in Napa County. The main road was blocked. The secondary road was blocked. A volunteer told me the back way was blocked, but the person manning that direction took pity on me (now 3 a.m.) and let me through. He said they'd evacuated about 2 miles from my address, so I should stay awake for awhile yet, just in case they evacuated further down the road.... We made our contingency plan for evacuation and had the kids pack a suitcase of what was most important to them and clothing changes for 3 days.... The interesting thing was that close to the fire, which burned 4000+ acres, the smoke was less oppressive than when I drove back to the mountains this afternoon. I think the next blog will be about what to pack in case of fire evacuation. Seems it doesn't hurt to be prepared in Northern California this summer!
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boy, I just count my blessing that our area has no problems with fires, just floods and midwest storms....hang in there....I look forward to blog's finding out how you get your lifes back to normal again...all the best to the folks in Northern CA....
Jack