Anyone in or near Malibu?

[Guest ncm2169]

Christ, I'm watching the evening network news about the fires in Malibu. Fucking scary!! ;(

[Epigonos]

One of the few certainties in Southern California it that if one lives in the very "pricy" foothills those hills are likely to burn up in the fall and be washed out in the winter rains. Yet no sooner are the fires extinguished than the rebuilding begins so the cycle can start all over again. Many years ago I had a geology professor who would rant and rage about people who build homes in flood plains complaining about being flooded out. In many ways the same is true of people who insist on building in the Malibu, Santa Monica, and San Gabriel hills. It is NEVER a questions of if they will have to suffer fires it is merely a question of WHEN. If enough homes are destroyed, and let's hope they aren't, the governor will declare a state disaster area and urge to president to do likewise. If the president make such a declaration those who have their homes destroyed or badly damaged will qualify for low interest federal loans to rebuild in the exact same place. It is crazy.

[+ deej]

Malibu is about 10 miles from me as the crow flies.

 

The sunlight is glowing bright orange through the thick cloud of smoke. We're far enough from the fire to be relatively safe, but we can definitely smell it. This time of year, everyone would normally have all the windows open but the smoke (and particulate) is intolerable.

 

By this time tomorrow, if the winds die down, everything in the neighborhood will have a thick coating of ash. It'll look just like snow. The Santa Ana winds are really driving the fire.

 

I drove home from Phoenix today and it was a damn nightmare. In AZ, I drove through sandstorms. There were dust storms and incredibly high winds/flying debris through Santa Barbara county. Next to one on-ramp, there were two semi-trailers on their sides. They'd been caught by one of the extreme gusts (up to 70mph) and just blown over like toy trucks.

 

I got home to find my neighborhood looking like a battle zone. The tops have been blown off many trees and the streets are filled with debris. A neighbor tells me it was much worse this morning, but they've had crews out feeding the larger chunks into a wood chipper all day.

 

You'll only hear about the Malibu fire because it's the big one, but at last count there are six separate fires that broke out today.

 

Not a great day to be in SoCal. :-(