The weather guy here (Fresno) says the Napa area has an 80% chance of rain for Friday. I hope that hold up. Not a big rain maker though and hopefully no lightening.
I know we’ve got a number of LA folks here. Including @tomchick, @ChristienMurawski and @fire. How do you folks stand in the face of the fires threatening LA? Are you prepared to bug out if needed?!
BURN IT ALL
We got evacuated, but we’re not really in any danger. @ChristienMurawski and @fire stayed at a friend’s house, with the dog and various birds and cats and a kid. But I was like one of those old geezers who sits in his house while the hurricane rolls in. Except that it was a wildfire and it didn’t roll in.
What sucks about the wildfire is that a boardgame I’ve been eagerly awaiting was supposed to arrive on Tuesday. It’s in limbo because it’s at the Sylmar UPS hub that’s pretty much on lockdown because of the fires. Thanks, nature.
-Tom
Gah, sorry to hear you got evaced, but I’m glad you and everyone else is okay.
My sister’s family got evacuated today. It was crazy, we were watching tv and saw her house and flames like 50 feet away. A couple hours later we saw an article online with a picture of a firefighter fighting the flames off of her back patio which was REALLY crazy. My brother in law was able to get in in the early evening to pack a few more things for the kids. Said there was a mess of water and ash but looked like no major damage. Will still be a pain in the ass though.
Wow that is nuts! Glad everyone is safe.
Well, until the terminators come.
Gaahhhhhhhhhhh, glad everyone is okay!
Wait, so you’re sitting in your house right now, playing solitaire boardgames??
Is the fire under control? Have the Marines hit the beach in Peleliu?
And Shadowcat has been evacuated, then? And Honey the dog?
PS Which boardgame is on hold?
Everyone’s home and the evacuation in our area has been lifted. The dog evacuated but the cat stayed to keep @tomchick company.
Thanks for the update! I was worried.
What @fire said. But I also have to say that Speedy the snake was evacuated, as well as nine birds and two other cats. It was quite a menagerie. I shared a really good beer with our evac hosts, but I think we’re going to owe them a dinner or a parade as well. They were pretty awesome to us. And we had lots of friends offering us space.
In related news, my insurance company both texted and called today to say that they are monitoring the wildfires and wanted to check to see if we were okay and needed to make any claims.
It was quite a call, actually. When I told the representative that we’d been evacuated she got concerned about where we were able to stay. When I told her a friend put us up, she told me that in the future if we needed a hotel, they’d cover that. Then she went on to ask about food spoilage, assuring me that if there was power loss or anything they would cover that too and I should not hesitate to make a claim, no matter what the size of the matter.
It’s been a stressful couple of days, so this was a nice call.
A couple of pictures that I’ve already posted on FB and on our qt3 Slack channel, but not here…
First thing, my son just got a phone for his birthday. So since it’s been so crazy windy here, he decided to ask Siri about the weather. Siri reported it was, “Smoky.” We were leaving our house at about 6:30am, so we were both all…what? And then we got to the 210 freeway and this:
Driving through this was seriously like driving through a disaster movie. We could barely breathe or see. It was amazing.
I got back home from dropping him off at school a couple hours later to see this from my driveway:
And then about an hour later, this from my roof:
Later, a nice Mr. Police rang our doorbell and told us we had to leave.
This was late last night:
This morning the winds are settled up here, so the skies are weirdly clear. Don’t even smell smoke. Down in the Valley my son’s school has canceled classes for today and tomorrow, because the smoke is still bad down there, and the traffic because the Skirball fire has made navigating the 405 almost impossible for so many people.
-xtien
“If I want to go over there and smack you in the face, well, that’s against the rules. So that’s a plus for you.”
That insurance company call sounds great. Might I ask who your provider is?
Glad everyone is okay!
USAA. They rock.
-xtien
Oh yeah, they’re fantastic I’m told. :)
The newspapers ran a story where it was stated that had power been cut off in various areas around where the northern California fires were they would not have been nearly so bad. So cutting power in fire areas may be a common thing in the future.
So glad that you guys are okay. All of you. I thought that the hurricane here was scary. I’d do just what Tom did though. Not a smart move, but a gut move.
Yikes. Wildfires about a mile from my place.
