Far far away from me, thank goodness. Scary fires down south, and a nasty one on Angel Island in SF Bay.

Ellen, Lars, Scott, Finally, Diana....I know there are more out there too. I just saw it on the news a few minutes ago. THis is north of LA so I'm thinking most members should be safe for now. Not sure though. Be safe everyone!!

David

What fires?

We just have haze in my area.

I think it's in the forests near Sylmar, and none of us live near there. Ellen and Diana are closest, so they're feeling the smoke - I can smell it outside my office even now - 40 miles away. If I can see the smoke from my house vantage point I'll post a picture.

The fires are east and west of the 5 and 14 interchange at the north end of the San Fernando Valley. Started above Sylmar and went into canyons north east. The other fire is above the Chatsworth area where the big train wreck was a couple of week ago. They have mandatory evacuations in several canyons going west. They said it may go all the way to the ocean. Two people have been killed. One a homeless man living under the freeway and the other a woman who crashes her car when the whole 118 freeway turned around and went back in the wrong direction.

DD lives in Valencia and called early this morning to tell me to turn on the only LA station I have. My DSI got to his shop in Sylmar and was stuck for awhile because they closed the 210 freeway plus he had to stay and tell his guys that since they had no electricity they could go home. Two of his guys lost their homes early this morning so he got them a hotel and gave them some money.

This is a bad one with the Santa Ana winds blowing. Depending on the wind it could go into Simi Valley and come up over the mountain into Valencia or go into Calabasas and on to Malibu. No matter which way it goes many homes will be lost.

Claudia

No worries for me or Diana, we're far, far away. The smoke is in the air and I'm certain that the ashes are too, they'll be covering everything by morning. It's sad, but predictable. They insist on building homes in natural canyon passes and the fire wants to burn on through too. Unfortunately bad fires are a yearly occurrence.

I'm sorry.....
Floods, fire....winds and tides....we are so helpless.
Stay safe everyone....

WOW! I'd better check with Caltrans since I'm suppose to be driving down to LA tomorrow morning. I didn't realize it had gotten so far west. I may have to take an alternate route to my daughter's home in Woodland Hills.

LindaC: you forgot earthquakes

Hey Westelle you better schedule in a forum meetup one of these days if you are so close to us

I'm far from the fire zone, but I do live in a Tsunami zone because I'm so close to Marina Beach and the adjoining wetland wildlife refuge, which is a tideland about three blocks from my house. I was sent a notice from the city on how to evacuate in case of tidal wave, and I have to go quite a distance to get to high ground from here. There is very minimal fire danger here, however, although yesterday was the first day in a while that there was no dew on my car in the morning, which means it's extremely dry here.

There are fires in San Diego County now also, around Camp Pendleton where David's nephew is. I think that one is easier to contain, however, but I think there is a new one now in San Bernardino County.

I've hiked in Tujunga Canyon, which was very beautiful, but it's quite a large canyon. It had not burned in very many years.

Lars

Yesterday it was raining down ashes... the freeway closures were actually pretty close but the actual fires are 10, 15 miles away. Smoke is in everything, even at my work which is more than 20 miles from my house. They offered to let people go in the early afternoon and shut down the A/C because the smell was so pungent. It took me nearly an hour to get home yesterday after my spinning class, the traffic was so bad. I saw about 50 emergency vehicles, lights flashing, going down the freeway yesterday. It was something to see, it really was. Today it is much better but the winds haven't kicked up yet.

Oh geez, I just checked here after seeing the news, I've been so busy that I feel "out of the loop".

Diana, I hope it doesn't get any closer to you and Vicki, or anyone else and that thsoe interminable winds die down.

Stay safe, everyone.

Annie

Glad to hear that everyone in the LA area are not in immediate danger..
Take care,

Linda

No wildfires yet in this area, although last year, the Harris fire and the Witch Creek fire had us nervous as we were between the two burning areas --we thought the fire would meet in the middle and then burn it's way to the ocean. We were packed and ready to go, just in case.

The current Juliet fire is north of us but not close, at Camp Pendleton

We are so lucky right now. Our prayers go out to others who are in a dangerous area as these fires burn, and to those who've had to evacuate.
Sooz

I hear the winds have calmed down....hope they stay down long enough to make some progress at putting out those fires before they pick up again.
Linda C

Going down to LA wasn't too bad, but the smoke in the Bakersfield area was worse than LA. You could really smell the smoke the whole time I was there. I'm home outside Clovis now, and guess what I woke up smelling this morning.... smoke.... always a scary thing since we live in the Grassy Oak Savanna. Never did find out where the fire was.

Jessy: missed your message until just now. The next time I'll be in the LA area will be Thanksgiving week. But I do go down to LA every couple of months to visit our DD, SIL & GSs. I'd love to meet up with any of you!