[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

^Yup! still up watching up-to-date situation reports. Daughter came by to check and remove pictures and an Eyvind Earle print of my wife's particular favor these last 35 years.. We had been to see an exhibition of his work this weekend in SF. I just checked; the firechief's official car is still out front across the street. I assisted a few neighbors who did leave with their pets. Then reassured some very elderly neighbors (90's) and their kids that the chief, who has been on duty since Saturday, was staying which reduced their considerable anxiety. My boat captain is still up, like me, watching TV two doors down and my immediate other stalwart is tuned to his police scanner receiver. The wife has finally 'hit the hay' as I pointed out she'll be worthless without some sleep. Two cars are in the drive outside, loaded with pet food, documents, and clothes in case the power fails again so we don't waste time overriding the electric door. Currently there is little wind and the heavy smoke of two days is dissipating; the moon is clear. Not like this AM when the sun came up blood-red with visibility at 2-3 hundred yards. Fortunately I have an old land-line ATT house phone which works so I can call out. The Verizon cellphone/Wi-Fi situation is very bad otherwise. I'm lucky to still have internet and appreciate the concern.

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

Still in Uber bugout mode with three cars loaded with weird short-notice 'essentials'... Deeds, a sewing machine, wedding photos etc. Daughter had to go take original documents from her small museum as entire town of Calistoga to the north is is evacuated. 5000 people on the road to somewhere! I'm monitoring local channels for any sudden down turn in calm winds or movement of active fires just two miles to the west. This one is as bad as the Cobb Mtn/Middletown disaster of 2015-twenty miles north; Currently: over twenty dead and thousands of homes destroyed. As for the smoke: The worst hour was measured at Napa College on Tuesday at 8 a.m., breaking all records in the area. The air quality index of 486 for small particulate matter is so high it’s off the chart, Worst level =201-300 https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/10/11/bay-area-air-quality-worst-on-record-check-out-your-city/ An official 'spare the air' day is in effect through the weekend...jeeze! no barbequing! Correct 'particulate' breathing masks are in short supply at hardware stores. We do have a 19,000 gallon 747 Global supertanker helping for the firstime- really something impressive; video:

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

10-12-2017, 03:59 AM ?????

you really are staying up all night ... get some sleep man.

Praying that you don't feel the heat ... good grieve hurricanes, fires, Trump, Rocket Man don't we have enough to worry about?

Originally Posted by vienna

Aktungbby is like rust: he never sleeps...






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Originally Posted by Catfish

Hey, he is not that corrosive!

Originally Posted by vienna

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Originally Posted by vienna

Being here in LA, in particular in Hollywood, I thought I'd share what I've observed and heard over the past few days; the winds were fully expected a number of days before the fires, with forecasters showing maps of the expected wind paths and strengths; in the area of Pacific Palisades, gust of up to 100 MPH were forecasted and, indeed, gust of 98 MPH were recorded on the fire day; Pacific Palisades is (or was) a seaside community tucked away in valleys in the coastal mountainside; there is really only one wide road into the enclave and no "backdoor" to use for escape; in addition, developers laid out the housing in a sort of meandering manner resulting in a large number of culs de sac and narrow streets and roads; when the fire in the Palisades started in the brush surrounding, the winds just tore through the flames, spreading them like flamethrowers over the entire area, bathing houses and businesses with sparks, embers and flame; it was really very fast and the residents didn't have much time to prepare for such an onslaught; the streets were clogged with cars and trucks trying to get out to the main road out of the area; first responders were stymied by the clogged roads and, eventually, ordered the drivers and passengers to grab what they could carry and abandon their vehicles; the firefighters had to resort to using bulldozers to shove a path through the vehicles in order to get their vehicles through to fight the fires; the smoke from the Palisades fire was visible from all the way to past Downtown LA, a distance of some 20 miles...

The Palisades fire has leveled the entirety of Pacific Palisades, for all intent and purposes, with precious few structures surviving; the devastation is near total; embers and flames even jumped over the coastal highway and consumed beachside homes and businesses that had been there for decades ...

There have been a few other fires breaking out in the past couple of days in the area; night before last, a fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills in an area known as Runyon Canyon, about a mile and a half from where I live; in ripped through the Canyon and did a lot of damage before the firefighters could get handle on it; it was something to walk out my buildings door and see the sky full of smoke and the red glow just a short distance away...

Another really major fire broke out in an area known as Altadena and has been called the Eaton Fire (fires are generally named after landmarks or major street and roads in the fire area); this fire really exploded in the high winds and is still raging; like Pacific Palisades, the fire has leveled whole sections of residential neighborhoods and, at one point, was threatening critical telecommunications facilities (TV, Radio, cell, etc.) on Mount Wilson, located above the fire area; the Mount Wilson Observatory was also in danger for a long while, but firefighters were able to make a stand and save Mount Wilson; the Eaton fire is particularly bad because Altadena sits in a sort of geographic ,bowl' in the foothills of the mountains; when the wind storms hit, the winds passing through the valleys and passes surrounding Altadena formed a swirling vortex over and around the city, swirling flames and embers in all directions; the situation was exactly what one would describe as an out of control firestorm...

The wind have been settling down in the last 24 hours and there is an awful lot of manpower and equipment on the scenes; fire crews from all over the state, and out of state, are here trying to help the local fire first responders; as is often the case with situations like this, there are those who are stupid or evil enough to just add to the woes of the authorities; a water dropping plane was grounded after some ass decided it was a good idea to enhance his social media by flying a drone into an active fire fighting area and their drone collided with and punched a hole into the plane; the plane had been sent down from Canada to assist in fighting the fires; I hope they catch the ass and throw the book (and bookcases) at him...

Another problem that popped up, particularly in the Eaton fire; looters were spotted and arrested by Sheriffs' Deputies and a request was put out to activate the CA National Guard to provide troops to secure fire areas and interdict any lotters or other criminals; the Guard is now on duty and the local governments have issued curfews for the fire areas from 6PM to 6AM daily to make it more difficult for criminals to roam about and to make it easier for first responders to move from scene to scene as they fight the fires...

I've got to say one thing about the response thus far; I was skeptical of the various local governments (city, county, state, and Federal) and the various Fire and Law Enforcement entities to function smoothly without turf fights or pettiness, but the lot of them have been coordinating with surprising smoothness and efficiency and have been responding quickly to changing conditions; kudos to them all...

Previous wildfires in this area have mainly been in remote rural areas, not rather more urban areas such as the most recent fires; it is really a shock to see neighborhoods similar to those in which one lives being leveled and in such proximity to here...





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/\...so there I was; up two nights in a row 8 years ago, faithfully eyewitness reporting on the frontlines of the Napa inferno in 'bugout cars loaded mode' to ers worldwide in this great thread and Vienna mocking me!!? gets the "outstanding member' nomination for essentially reiterating the L.A. Times news reports! Well...Congrats anyway to fellow septuagenarian Vienna! We could both stand a little rustoleum!