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Thread ID: 84021	2007-10-21 17:41:00	News From SoCal	SurferJoe46 (51)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
603908	2007-10-22 01:08:00	Strangely, we seem to have earthquakes right after these Santana Winds when they happen. That’s called earthquake weather.	stu161204 (123)
603909	2007-10-22 01:31:00	Stay safe Joe :) & I Hope the fires stay away from your place, & Do keep us up to date on what’s happing . Could you post some photos from your place? I doubt seriously that any fire could get here . . . but remember last year? We had firebrands actually falling on our roofs and cars . This . . . so far . . . hasn't been too bad as the fires have almost all been over 150 miles away . . but if we get another in the Banning Pass . . things'll get different real fast! It's dark here now . . and since there's no actual flames in view . . the pixs I might make would be kinda dark . We are getting hit with winds over 75MPH/120kmh . . and I figger that I'll lose my rear awning tonight . It's aluminum and is dancing pretty bad in the wind . We are covered in flying dirt and debris from the direct East . . over the San Jacinto mountains . . they have been totally obscured by dirt all day and now we are getting the winds here . I have a film of sand and dirt all over everything in the house tonight and my teeth are gritty from it too . We went outside to check things with a Maglite and saw the damage to a neighbor's house or two . It was really hard to walk in the wind . If I'm still under a roof tomorrow, I'll let you know how the night went . We are now getting lights dimming and blinking . . . thanks to the UPS I'm ok . . but maybe not for long . The phones never seem to fail though . . so maybe DSL will work a while longer . My TV antenna is singing and may also be down by AM . It's just now 18:48 our time (-7GMT) and I have a very windy night ahead of me . . the dog's inside as she cannot understand things she cannot see .	SurferJoe46 (51)
603910	2007-10-22 01:46:00	New fire in Santiago Canyon..Orange County...near Disneyland.... I used to live there and the standard Santana winds would come thru at 60MPH and really drive up the heat...that's because the altitude is pretty close to 500 feet or so and the total heat-rise was accomplished by then. This is so new that we don't have any specs on it yet...but the area is VERY overbuilt (this is a bedroom community for the 90210 and LA too) area that has very expensive semi-mansions and BMW/yuppie/DINK people there. DINK= Dual Income; No Kids. My smoke detectors are going nuts now... We just lost a couple of the LA tv stations..maybe their antennas are burnt down.	SurferJoe46 (51)
603911	2007-10-22 04:43:00	We just lost a couple of the LA tv stations. Oh noes! Mass suicides predicted in California!	Greg (193)
603912	2007-10-22 05:01:00	I've been bounced off line several time so far...and it's not quite 22:30 yet tonight. Electricity is spotty and we have to resort to non-powered telephones all the time. I don't want to fire up the generator yet...if we lose power for longer than 4 hours, then I'll power up. It's dark:30 tonight with the streetlights all off and trees down on power lines and thru buildings. There are over 40 fires burning in SoCal right now...and the biggest and baddest winds are forecast for tomorrow between 07:00 and 24:00, Monday. Gotta go help neighbors with their damage...c u guys later...maybe....	SurferJoe46 (51)
603913	2007-10-22 05:36:00	Gotta go help neighbors with their damage...c u guys later...maybe.... Keep safe Joe :)	stu161204 (123)
603914	2007-10-22 06:27:00	Thnx Stu . . . I intend to . . . gotta take care of the family (wife) and we've already lost most of our roof and the aluminum awning has severe cracks and needed some strengtheners and ties to keep it where it oughtta be . Ya shouldda seen me on a double ladder tying the awning down with ratchet straps and a flashlight (torch) in the other hand . I took some pixs but the camera focuses on the flying dirt and sand, missing the action in the deeper background . . . . and that's weird! But I'll try in the AM for more . Most neighbors have lost their awnings . . some cars are destroyed from trees and roofs that hit them . . so far mine are safe . I put the ignition keys in everything I own in case of emergency evacuation by me or the fire department if they have to move them . My next door neighbor who isn't home, has a long piece of roof sticking through his bedroom wall . . !!surprise!! when he comes home . There are transformers blowing up on the horizon that look like atomic flashes or ten million flashbulbs for those who remember such things . We've lost and regained power about a dozen times so far . . . thanks to the automatic switching equipment for that . The cell phones are sporadic at best . . . not there when you need them and when they do work, so does everything else . . . so they don't appear to be much help in a REAL DISASTER . I have full tanks in everything but my wife's van . . and she let it get a little low much to my chagrin . . . . she will learn to not do that again! The dog won't go outside . . don't blame her . . but she IS a chicken dog! Dirt is everywhere and I am getting hit by neighbor's house parts as they fly thru the night . In the daylight we'll see what hath been wrought . Thanks for the concern . . but we get the big winds tomorrow and then we'll see what we're made of . Gonna sleep in full uniform tonight . . rats . . . and that's not the usual for me . . . hahahah .	SurferJoe46 (51)
603915	2007-10-22 07:48:00	A bad day for the insurance companies eh. But really, I feel for you and everyone else affected by this. Let's hope you get through it without too much more damage.	george12 (7)
603916	2007-10-22 16:05:00	9 O'Clock Monday Morning Report The good news first: Arnie says "I'll be back" <yeah . . when the threat's gone!> California has been declared a Disaster area now . . good for cheap loans to rebuild . 0% containment yet . Wind/earthquake/forest fire damage/losses are not insurable . 40,000+ acres burned all around me . . but no local fires yet . If we get one in the Banning/Beaumont pass, then things will be different indeed! San Diego county=33,000+ acres burned, 11 fires right now, no info on losses or acreage . Multiple deaths, over 100 people missing . Riverside County (where I live)=18,000+ acres burned, 11 fires . . not much info . Los Angeles county=14 fires, 52,000+acres gone, 120 homes, many businesses and commercial buildings . 1 death, 30+ people missing . San Bernardino county= 8 fires, 30,000+ acres . Orange County=8,800 acres/arson fire, no reported deaths, several homes gone + 2 schools . Those acreages are changing as satellite imagery comes in to state officials . The fires are burning in every direction . . . not just in front of the winds . The old El Toro Marine Air station is burning . Orange County Airport (John Wayne) is refusing flights in or out . Big fires in Orange Country were arson . 3 points of origin . . . this fire was really getting big before my TV antenna blew down so I have been listening to the http://kfi640 . com stream for local news . A really BIG new fire in Lake Arrowhead . . near Big Bear . . . not enough news on it yet but we can see the smoke thru the sand and dirt that is flying . Can't smell the smoke yet . . but that isn't too far down the road from me . . . and it is directly in the direction the wind is blowing to us . Power is up now and appears stable for a while . We are in a lull of the wind . . just a slight breeze from the North . . . cool and fresh . 111 mph/180kmh winds in the OC (90210) . . . over 14 fires still uncontrolled . The winds are to return with more gusto than we had last night . . . at about . . . well . . they are overdue right now . Lost a LOT of roof, cracks in my awning and lost the stability joints to the carport awning . I was out on a double ladder in the wind and placing nylon ratchet straps on them to keep things together . Some neighbors lost the fronts of their homes . . . mostly not structural . . but the exposed homes on the end of the park got it the worst . At sunrise, we could see the mountains . . but they are obliterated by flying dirt now and out of view . Winds immediately to the East of me in the mountains are getting up again . . . . . . and I expect them to get here any moment . We expect the winds to pick up at least another 45mph/73kmh over yesterday's velocities of 95mph/153kmh . Can you say: "This ain't Kansas?" Unbelievable . . the winds might hit 130mph/225kmh today! Humidity's at 3% right now . . . my nostrils are glued together . . eyes full of sand as are my ears and I have grit where the sun doesn't shine . I will post some links to the pixs in a following post . . . .	SurferJoe46 (51)
603917	2007-10-22 18:49:00	San Diego County is TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL at 150,000 plus acres burnt by now . There are more houses burning than there are firefighting personnel to go to the homes individually . The water and Borate bombers cannot get into our airport (Hemet/Ryan Airport) for resupplying without turning South and taking another hour to get to us . Visibility in the Banning/Beaumont Pass to Hemet is 0, and that computes the same in metric . . . . . . . . . . all air traffic is canceled and the dirt clouds are over 20,000 feet tall down to ground level . We have blue sky directly overhead . . . but that won't last too long . So far we don't have too much of that flying dirt hitting here yet . The sun is getting dark and I have my swamp cooler running to clean the inside air a little . We actually don't need to have the cooling effect as it is 50ºF/10ºC inside right now . Outside it's about 85ºF/30ºC, and 2% humidity . Wind gusts are sustained at 40-50mph/64-80 . 5kmg Water droppers are ONLY hitting the very worst spots . . as the wind will not allow multiple drops on the same areas . The idea is to not bother with much of the fire fighting right now and just wait another 36 hours for the wind to die and then start to fight it . Expected San Diego county areas lost by then will be over ½ million acres . The same is true in my area (Riverside County) where we have over 100,000 acres gone now . If we get a fire in the pass above us, we will be fire-branded and likely be burned out of our homes . Calls are going out to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Mexico for assistance . Canada has sent a lot of borate bombers for us already . This is NOT GOOD!	SurferJoe46 (51)
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