<p>As most (all?) of you already know, there are a lot of wildfires burning in both LA and SD counties. 250,000 people have been evacuated in San Diego county alone. Many of us who are not being directly affected may want to help. Here are some suggestions if you want to go through the Red Cross:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you are in SD, go to <a href="http://www.sdarc.org%5B/url%5D">www.sdarc.org</a>. They have a good deal of information for SD county residents who want to volunteer. DO NOT GO DIRECTLY TO A SHELTER. Instead, go to Mt. Alifan St. just south of the corner of Gennesee and Balboa. You must do the crash course before you can help out.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are in LA, go to <a href="http://www.acrossla.org%5B/url%5D">www.acrossla.org</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Do not donate things like clothing directly to the ARC (American Red Cross.) They have no way of properly distributing them. Instead, give either time, money (if possible), or blood. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I cannot stress enough how much help is needed here in SD. This is THE largest evacuation in SD history, so even a little bit of help is greatly appreciated. Stay safe everyone.</p>
<p>Pretty big one this time around. I just want to add, help if you can (blood money food), but the firefighters dont need thousands of people getting in there way.</p>
<p>There are wildfires every year, and yet people never leave the area. That always kind of annoyed me. Like now how Bill Richardson wants to steal Michigan's precious water. I mean, if you don't like it there, move. Not to say I don't sympathize (it would really suck to be right in the path of a blazing wildfire) but people should start connecting the dots and interpreting their pattern.</p>
<p>They should also try clearing out the brush more often. That would solve the problem. All this is due to built up brush and, of course, heat (global warming?).</p>
<p>There are wildfires every year. It's a hazard of living in So. Cal., but every area has it's dangers. I don't think the fires are a reason for moving. You're right that more should be done to try to prevent problems like this, though.</p>
<p>It isn't a matter of excess brush. It's hot and dry every year around now, and huge parts of the state are massive shrublands which don't get much water. Extremely arid conditions.</p>
<p>Wildfires have driven those ecosystems for thousands/millions/whatever you want years.</p>
<p>You try wiping out a fourth of the state. This happens every year.</p>
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Do these kinds of fires significantly affect the air quality in So Cal?
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<p>These kinds of fires? Well, it doesn't happen too often, so it's difficult to judge on some sort of basis. The normal fires don't usually cause that. For example, during the fire season, my town -- which is surrounded by four mountain ranges -- gets shrouded by light smoke (to the point that the mountains are invisible) because of the fires over them, and the smell is somewhat spicy, like incense. The throat starts to get a little sore if you breathe it for too long, but usually it's fine. I surmise the air quality might be affected a bit more when the fires are really major, like now, but probably not enough to affect one's college choices and such.</p>
<p>"There are wildfires every year, and yet people never leave the area."</p>
<p>uh, the wildfires most years burn just a few acres, or at least nothing even near this magnitude. Wildfires like these in SD are rare (in SD) are not an annual thing like hurricanes and/or tornadoes. </p>
<p>"This happens every year."</p>
<p>No, thats why its a big deal.</p>
<p>"All this is due to built up brush and, of course, heat (global warming?)."</p>
<p>The brush and the heat contribute to it, but they are the only (and most important) reasons, the biggest problem is the wind. The wind whips the flames and the embers making it very hard to successfully fight the fire back.</p>
<p>I don't think it usually affects air quality much more than smog and other things. The Santa Ana winds, as someone mentioned earlier, are a huge factor in the wildfires, so wildfires aren't usually a problem year-round either.</p>
<p>Now there are exceptions, such as that time a few years ago when there was ash EVERYWHERE. Sports, etc. were canceled at my high school, though class wasn't. But that only happened once that I can remember, and I lived in So. Cal. for 18 years.</p>
<p>My sister lives in Carlsbad and has severe asthma, and is not going outdoors. We have friends in Rancho Sante Fe that are evacuating right now, many there are elderly, and I'm sure air quality could be a big factor for them. I grew up in Orange County in the 60's, and remember the days of hosing down the roof, and packing the family station wagon with 5 children and just bare needs. Proletariat, are you suggesting nobody should live where they know of nature's doings? Jeez, lets clear out New Orleans, Florida, Alabama and the rest of the southern coastline for hurricanes, outer banks of North Carolina, etc, etc. Jeez, I should have seen our Georgia drought coming. All geographical areas have problems, thats just a part of life!</p>
Everywhere in the U.S. has potential natural disasters and dangers. While a lot of the worst areas are at least locally well known, most people who live there do not consider it worth the money and hassle to move (even if they could). Thanks for trying to explain this to others who just don't think of that.</p>
<p>I've been along two of the worst areas along the coast today, driving south from Disneyland (Anaheim) back home to San Diego this morning. About a dozen miles south of the happiest place on earth, we went through some pretty dark and thick smoke - the sky was approximately the gray of the background of this post box. It cleared up for about 30 miles, until hitting Encinitas. That's where it really got bad - by my memory, around a cross between the left column and the separating row between posts. For those of you who've never seen something like this before, imagine the sky so dark and gray that the sun looks dark red, it looks like 40 minutes after the sun's set, and the air coming in from outside smells like an overfilled ashtray. For reference, that was at 10 this morning.</p>
<p>I did the Red Cross crash course this afternoon - an hour and a half about the ideas of what you'll be doing as a volunteer while representing the Red Cross. Before you can volunteer, you'll need to fill our a basic volunteer form and do a "background check" in person or online, which just asks for your birth date and a form of ID. If you're 15, they said you'll only be able to follow around a parent/guardian; 16-17, you have some other restrictions if you volunteer. And a note about volunteering: try to keep your schedule open or flexible: they would love it if volunteers could work their entire planned 12 hour shifts (yes, at some sites they might got from 1-1 or 6-6).</p>
<p>As for my views about the fires: I'm still catching up to the status and severity, so I don't know yet if this is worse than the Cedar fire in 2003 that destroyed more than 2,000 homes. This one is different, because last night the Santa Ana winds didn't stop like they usually do, and these fires are spread out across San Diego County. Thus far, I believe the evacuations are more preemptive, because out of the people people who died last time, most didn't receive enouh warning (although the fire also caught people unaware during the night). The conditions are very similar as well - a serious of very dry years, and some Santa Anas at very inopportune times. Oh, the air quality is also bad depending on the smoke level. If you can't see any blue sky, it stinks. I don't have asthma, but paper medical masks were sold out by this morning.</p>
<p>The fires are also in a different location than last time, seeing as how (in Point Loma at least) the skies are orange and slowly raining ash in the morning. Then again, that means that they're predicting a fire will reach the ocean. In any case, for those of us getting Fire Days (as opposed to Snow Days), remember that a lot of people, quite possibly including someone who you know or goes to your school, might make up tomorrow and not have a standing place to call home.</p>
<p>If you want to see how bad the smoke is, there are satellite pictures located at various websites. Here's one link that shows how bad the problem was earlier this afternoon. I understand the problem is even worse now:</p>
<p>P.S. One of my own sisters lives near Temecula and has not had to evacuate yet, although the families of 18 of her 30 students (she is a homeschooling teacher/counselor) have needed to evacuate so far.</p>
<p>Also, Pepperdine (in Malibu) was evacuated originally, but it is safe now.</p>
<p>To put the distance in perspective, the northernmost smoke is just off the coast of Monterey/Santa Cruz, which is 370 miles north of San Diego, the smoke out to the west is over 500 miles from San Diego.</p>
<p>Yahoo keeps changing the links on their site to map to the later photos. The picture I'm referring to is currently #26--although it will probably change. </p>
<p>(I'd copy and post it, but that would be a copyright infringement).</p>
<p>I'm going to steal an e-mail one of my classmates sent out and post it here...</p>
<p>
[quote]
IRPS Community:</p>
<p>I need to make a few very important points. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO ANY OF THE EVACUATION SHELTERS TO TRY AND VOLUNTEER! I know everyone wants to do whatever they can to help but the evacuation sites are running fine, if the need arises later they will contact Volunteer San Diego and call for volunteers. </p>
<p>The same goes for Donations: DO NOT TRY TO DROP OFF DONATIONS AT ANY EVACUATION SHELTER! Remember the 10ft high piles of sweaters laying on the beaches after the '04 Tsunami? People tend to just give whatever they can, and though generous, this will often times go to waste. Please check the Volunteer San Diego Website to see what GoodWill (The Official Donation Management Agency for the County in a Disaster) needs and where you can drop off goods.</p>
<p>The Bottom Line:
I know people want to help, but in the first few days in a disaster of this magnitude, people can adversely affect the first responders jobs. Please go through the proper Channels! (Trust Me It will work, we put a lot of thought and effort into formulating these plans last year).</p>
<p>So for all your volunteer donation needs: <a href="http://www.volunteersandiego.org%5B/url%5D">www.volunteersandiego.org</a>
If you would like to make a monetary donation to someone other than VSD go to the RED Cross Website (sdarc.org) or Salvation Army Website (sorry it escapes me at this time) or donate to a local parish/church/synagogue/mosque etc
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<p>UCSD so far looks safe, but many many UCSDers either lost their homes or are currently in shelters. This is pretty bad times down here for us.</p>
<p>I'm waiting for evacuees in Qualcomm stadium to become the new poster children for poor emergency planning. Just like Katrina victims at the Super Dome..."We need help!"</p>
