<p>Air quality for me (about 30 miles from the current spread, the 2003 fires were about 15 miles away) is getting worse - it's starting to look lightly overcast, I'm starting to see bits of ash outside.</p>
<p>Overall, we're currently at over 500,000 people evacuated. That's around 1/6 of San Diego county's overall population :(</p>
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<p>Get ready for the finger pointing.
You'd be surprised. I'm not planning to head down there just to check it out, but all news reports have shown Qualcomm to be running incredibly smoothly, and it even has plenty of room for move evacuees (last I heard, at least). Qualcomm is actually run by the city right now, and they have tons of help pouring in.</p>
<p>Once the finger pointing starts, I'm pretty certain most of it will be aimed at the lack of brush properly cleared away and Global Warming. Seeing how after the "monsoon" 2004-2005 season dropped over 20 inches rain, we've had under 10 inches a year, including barely any this year, I'd say the current drought conditions will bring out the most discussion. It's really hard to blame the current actions taken, seeing as how barely anyone has died (compared to the Cedar Fire) and they've been able to evacuate over half a million people without causing mayhem.</p>
<p>One way you can help out is to give blood.</p>
<p>The Red Cross is claiming the fires have cancelled blood drives, and hospitals are short blood.</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>
<p>Actually Qualcomm stadium has been run incredibly smooth. first class food, entertainment, bands, visits by the governor. articles all over reuters on how it was the polar opposite of new orleans and how it is actually been incredibly nice and how the overall population (both citizens and businesses) have helped out. san diego is wonderful city, i wouldnt have expected anything else.</p>
<p>One thing that would help, is to tell the stupid local news channels to stop showing every fire retardant drop from planes and helicopters...</p>
<p>In the land of car chases, watching water dropping events has become the new car chase...only a lot more boring.</p>
<p>I was evacuated from my home in San Diego late Monday night. We are back now, but it was quite scary for a while. The police did an incredible job getting everyone out though in a quick, and orderly fashion. Its a pretty amazing sight to see just lines of cars coming out of neighborhoods, firetrucks speeding into them, and the police coordinating all of it.</p>
<p>Everything is running incredibly smoothly. There have been very few injuries or deaths, and no mayhem has broken out. Over 500,000 people have been evacuated so far so this is saying a lot.</p>
<p>Air quality is terrible though. Its been snowing ash here for a few days now. Things are looking ok for now, but conditions can change any minute.</p>
<p>Thanks for this post, I really wanted to help out.</p>
<p>Just got back from Qualcomm today - incredibly smooth and well run. If you need anything, you'll more than likely have someone walk by you and ask if you need it. Literally tens of thousands of water bottles, piles of boxes of shampoos, soaps, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes, toothpaste, blankets, food, tents, sleeping bags - they can support many more people than there currently are at the site.</p>
<p>For anyone who wants to help out - watch the news, or look around for updates about new sites or specific requests for certain sites that need help. In a lot of cases (including Qualcomm) even if they say they don't need more help, there's plenty you can do, as long as you don't get in the way. You can play 4-square with little kids, talk with seniors, pass out water to people in motor homes or tents away from the evacuation centers, help organize the flood of donations pouring into most locations, etc.</p>
<p>The fires are starting to have a little bit of containment, but it's getting progressively smokier around the county. Still, without falling into utter chaos, more people have been evacuated over the course of these fires than Hurricane Katrina, which says something about the reverse 911 system and other improvements they've made to tell people when to get out.</p>
<p>I must say I'm pretty concerned because the fires are within 50-80 miles from where i live. It smells extremely bad outside and i can see visible ash in the air. </p>
<p>Anyhow to get back on topic I'm donating things such as clothes, food, etc. I feel pity for the victims.</p>
<p>MstrLinks,</p>
<p>I'll see your 50-80 miles and raise you 10-20 miles. :p</p>
<p>Haha, and I'll raise you UCLAri to 1-2 miles.</p>
<p>lol, well your 1-2 beats my 5</p>
<p>I'm president of my school's Key Club; does anyone have an idea of something we could do to help out?
edit: and preferably not through that red cross website because you need to do a crash course training program...it gets difficult for the club to do that</p>