San Diego Fires

As everyone may--or may not--know, I live in San Diego. So although this isn't genealogy-related, I thought I'd give everyone back East a personal heads up on what's been happening aside from what you've been seeing on the news. My brother in the Palm Springs area has been watching the news and called me Tuesday to see if I wanted him to come get me. From what he'd been hearing, every part of San Diego was on fire. Well, much of it is, mostly the rural areas. At present, my area, which isn't rural, hasn't been affected--in fact, I live about 2 miles north of where so many have been evacauted to Qualcomm Station. But as of early this morning, the smoke that my area (Kearny Mesa) has been able to avoid has now started to penetrate the air, despite my windows being closed. Because I'm near the coast, the winds have been calm, compared to the wild Santa Ana winds that have been active in the east part of the county.

During the day I've been watching the local news and at night (and the times I wake up during the night) on radio. When I woke up around 5 a.m. today, I heard that I-5 was closed up at Camp Pendleton and has been packed with cars trying to evacuate the area, besides truckers who would normally be on the road. I just heard that Amtrak train service north from San Diego has also been suspended because of this area because it goes between I-5 and the coast. The fire has even jumped the train tracks. Another road that goes north, I-15, which is east of I-5, has been reopened, so there is some way of getting north. (I-15 is the route I usually take to visit family in the Palm Springs area.)

Monday I had a job interview which was cancelled due to being in an evacuation area. At that time I-15 was closed in certain parts and access to the location was blocked. Job ads have been slimmer in the past days, too, because many businesses are either in danger or have suspended hiring during this chaos. So, in other ways this fire has been taking a toll. I usually can go through a temp agency to keep me going until I can find a full time job. But now, most of the places I would be "booked" as a temp are in locations that are evacuated. In addition, it's advised for people to stay indoors due to the bad air. (Having mild asthma that flares when things such as smoke is in the air, I've been staying inside, even though I'd wanted to volunteer at the Qualcomm evacuation.) As a result, I haven't been able to work any this week and may not be able to come up with my November rent.

The authorities have said for everyone to stay off cell phones and conserve electricity and water as much as possible. So, as mentioned, I've mostly been listening to the TV and radio. However, yesterday the fire on one of the mountains destroyed the towers of several local TV and radio stations. The San Diego PBS station, which is affiliated with my college San Diego State University, was knocked off the air. Although the TV is only available via Cable TV, which I don't have, I can still get updates via radio. Another San Diego radio station is allowing KPBS to use their tower, as KPBS has more news coverage than they do. To hear the local news, you can also listen online: Listen to KPBS Radio.

Well...back to listening for the latest...