San Diego on Fire....again! :( - DPChallenge Forums

Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical(IF)Macro

10/23/2007 03:53:35 PM · #58

does anyone know what is happening around the ramona (more specifically mount woodson) area?
If you do would love any info, got family there I know evacuated, but wondering if the fire is there?

annig

Canon EOS-7D

10/23/2007 04:31:37 PM · #59

this recent (today 3:59 EST) email from (

twmax)in Ramona

"Well, we are back at our house as of a couple of hours ago. We hunkered down at my mom's house since Sunday...we evacuated as soon as the reverse 911 message came through. No houses in our direct area burned, but there are so many gone around Ramona, and the entire County of San Diego. We didn't have power, so didn't realize that we were supposed to evacuate from there, too. This morning I talked to my neighbor who didn't leave, and he told me that they were able to drive to downtown Ramona, and the roads were open. I tried this morning, and got through. As soon as I got here, I called Barbara, and she and Justin came home, too. It looks like we'll be without water for a day or two, but it's a great relief to be home. You've probably seen much more of the coverage than we have. This has been an incredible, and terrible event."

Hope this helps some!!

~Anni

Message edited by author 2007-10-23 16:32:28.

Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical(IF)Macro

10/23/2007 05:09:18 PM · #60

Originally posted by ellamay:

does anyone know what is happening around the ramona (more specifically mount woodson) area?
If you do would love any info, got family there I know evacuated, but wondering if the fire is there?

I was out on Highland Valley Road since Sunday evening, and had a direct view of Mt. Woodson. I didn't see anything at Mt. Woodson burn, but it looked like some homes near Woodson Elementary School were lost yesterday afternoon. The area directly around Mt. Woodson on the Ramona side looks like it was spared. If I get any more information, I'll post it.

-Tom

annig

Canon EOS-7D

10/23/2007 05:23:26 PM · #61

Hey Tom!!

So glad you made it and all is well!

WHEW!!

~Anni

10/23/2007 05:37:18 PM · #62

Originally posted by annig:

Hey Tom!!

So glad you made it and all is well!

WHEW!!

~Anni

Thanks, Anni. It's hard to explain what a fire is like in Santa Ana winds. First, the humidity stood at 6% on Sunday/Monday, and we were getting wind gusts in the 70-80 mph range, with steady winds ~50+ mph. We have been in a drought situation for a couple of years, and in fact, last year was our second driest year on record. We haven't had a real rain since last April. In those conditions, the fire can spread at a speed almost equal to the wind speed. So, obviously the firefighters will not get in front of a fire like that. All they could really do was to evacuate everyone in the fire's path.

So far, they are reporting that 265,000 people in San Diego County have been evacuated, and they are just starting to let some people back into their houses. There are still active evacuations in process.

I did take a few photos, but forgot to take them in jpg mode. I forgot that the Photojournalism Challenge was under minimal editing rules. I'll post some photos after I get a chance to process them.

-Tom

ellamay

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM II

10/23/2007 05:41:37 PM · #63

thanks for the updates, really appreciate it...
not that i would want you to take any risks by checking this out, but they live right next to the club house at mt. woodson golf course...if you see or hear anything I would certainly be interested.
I am suprised that they let you back home, I am in canada and most of my reports are that they are still evacuating and that the fire is not at all contained. Glad you are home and safe!

Message edited by author 2007-10-23 17:57:19.

Scapeshots

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

10/23/2007 06:16:26 PM · #64

Originally posted by twmax:

Originally posted by annig:
Hey Tom!!

So glad you made it and all is well!

WHEW!!

~Anni

Thanks, Anni. It's hard to explain what a fire is like in Santa Ana winds. First, the humidity stood at 6% on Sunday/Monday, and we were getting wind gusts in the 70-80 mph range, with steady winds ~50+ mph. We have been in a drought situation for a couple of years, and in fact, last year was our second driest year on record. We haven't had a real rain since last April. In those conditions, the fire can spread at a speed almost equal to the wind speed. So, obviously the firefighters will not get in front of a fire like that. All they could really do was to evacuate everyone in the fire's path.

So far, they are reporting that 265,000 people in San Diego County have been evacuated, and they are just starting to let some people back into their houses. There are still active evacuations in process.

I did take a few photos, but forgot to take them in jpg mode. I forgot that the Photojournalism Challenge was under minimal editing rules. I'll post some photos after I get a chance to process them.

-Tom

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

10/23/2007 06:41:41 PM · #65

Originally posted by wizardry:

The number for the evacuations is a lot higher. I've been glued to the news since all this has been happening ane the last report I got was 513,000. Absolutely Nuts! It seems like overall things are getting better but there are still raging infernos in various parts of the county. I'm glad i personally haven't seen flames and I was thinking about going for some photo shots but i think with all the evacuations popping up that i'll stay put!

Originally posted by twmax:

Originally posted by annig:
Hey Tom!!

So glad you made it and all is well!

WHEW!!

~Anni

Thanks, Anni. It's hard to explain what a fire is like in Santa Ana winds. First, the humidity stood at 6% on Sunday/Monday, and we were getting wind gusts in the 70-80 mph range, with steady winds ~50+ mph. We have been in a drought situation for a couple of years, and in fact, last year was our second driest year on record. We haven't had a real rain since last April. In those conditions, the fire can spread at a speed almost equal to the wind speed. So, obviously the firefighters will not get in front of a fire like that. All they could really do was to evacuate everyone in the fire's path.

So far, they are reporting that 265,000 people in San Diego County have been evacuated, and they are just starting to let some people back into their houses. There are still active evacuations in process.

I did take a few photos, but forgot to take them in jpg mode. I forgot that the Photojournalism Challenge was under minimal editing rules. I'll post some photos after I get a chance to process them.

-Tom

@ -> Wizardry, You hear from JopperTom? That last email from him didn't look so good, I think he evac'd. Also, still don't know if work is open tomorrow...

@ -> Tom (twmax) good to hear your safe and sound and your home was waiting there you. That was seriously crazy stuff you all went through up there.

@ -> Anni, we have a couple sites here in sandag for finding info/updates but they are so slow right now tough to bring up the pdf files... I'll see what I can find on Mt Woodson.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

10/23/2007 07:02:14 PM · #66

Originally posted by ellamay:

I'm very familiar with Mt. Woodson Estates, and don't believe they had any losses there yet. The houses I saw burning were probably a mile or two from there.

Officially, we weren't let back into our house. My neighbor, who didn't evacuate, told me via a phone conversation that the roads were open, so I got in my car and drove home. I didn't see any police, or barracades anywhere. In fact, when I came through downtown Ramona, it almost looked like business as usual. The grocery stores, gas stations and many other businesses were open. Probably, most of the police had left for areas with more active fire issues.

We didn't know when we evacuated that all of Ramona was supposed to evacuate. We live in an area of Ramona named San Diego Country Estates, and we were the first to go. We went to my mom's house not far from Mt. Woodson, which was empty because my mom passed away a couple of months ago. There, we were pretty much in the dark (no pun intended), and didn't know until the next day that the entire town was under mandatory evacuation.

Since, we have heard stories that people sat on highway 67 out of Ramona for up to 4 1/2 hours. Since I drive that stretch of road daily to San Diego, I couldn't believe that they would try to put 40,000 people on that road all at the same time. It's a very difficult commute at best with only a fraction of the town's people leaving each morning. The road is a two lane highway which hasn't seen much improvement in the 45 years that I have lived there. The difference is that then, there were 4,000 residents, and now I hear estimates of up to 50,000 residents.

I think the reason that they haven't officially started letting people back into Ramona is because of the traffic it will put on roads still being used for evacuations. I can only imagine what a mess that will be. Also, the water pump station in Poway went down, so Ramona is now without water. They are bringing in emergency generators to get the pumps working again. Most all of our water is pumped through that station, up the hill to Ramona. My guess is that they won't officially re-open Ramona until water service is restored.

They've pretty much kept evacuating people towards the west...the same direction the fire is moving. Many people evacuated have had to move several times, because they've gone to shelters which themselves have had to be evacuated. Right now, I feel much safer being east of the fire...

The good news is that the winds at my house are down to a breeze. The Santa Ana appears to be about over. I think we'll see major progress in containing these fires over the next couple of days.

-Tom

lynnesite

Canon EOS-1D X

10/23/2007 07:25:05 PM · #67

Santa Ana condition is not over yet, at least not here (near Corona, Riv co); we have now 12 evacuated horses here including 3 breeding stallions--9 are from Ramona, 3 from Fallbrook.

We are lucky to have little smoke here and no ash, due to the wind direction (NE) and distance from the fires to the northeast. The Santiago canyon fire is the closest, about 20-25 miles as the crow flies and it looks like it might climb over to this side of the Santa Ana range.

My Poway bro and his family were prepared to evacuate yesterday, friends on the wrong side of Twin Peaks did evacuate with horses and dogs to Santee, but all is well now. So sad, I know fellow riders in every single fire zone, and one lost their barn and outbuildings but all their horses made it out ok. Waiting to hear if anyone needs evacuation help; I have a 4 horse trailer.

ETA: Poway friends report fire burning on Mt Woodson now...

Message edited by author 2007-10-23 20:02:35.

boyd2000

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

10/23/2007 08:54:06 PM · #68

Originally posted by lynnesite:

ETA: Poway friends report fire burning on Mt Woodson now...

I took pictures yesterday and last night from the same spot on the hill West of I-15 in Rancho Bernardo towards the East. The second picture is about a 50% zoom of the first. I was guessing it was Mt Woodson, but it's hard to tell with the smoke, and I think it may be closer to RB. Note the fire glow in the night picture. I hear over 200 homes in RB have burned.

(edit) it was Mount Woodson it appears from a picture yesterday evening.

Message edited by author 2007-10-26 12:28:59.

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical(IF)Macro

10/23/2007 09:23:01 PM · #69

For updates you can look here SD County Emergency

They have a Thomas map that they update every so many hours.

annig

Canon EOS-7D

10/23/2007 09:25:12 PM · #70

Hey Andy! Thanks but it's not me who wants the updates on the Mt. Woodson area, but rather [b] ellamay
@ -> Anni, we have a couple sites here in sandag for finding info/updates but they are so slow right now tough to bring up the pdf files... I'll see what I can find on Mt Woodson. [/quote]

Message edited by author 2007-10-24 08:54:06.

FellSevenLeaves

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

10/23/2007 09:41:34 PM · #71

it doesnt really hit you until when the fire is less than a mile to your house.

BrennanOB

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

10/23/2007 10:17:15 PM · #72

If you are keeping up with this google has a good map that they keep pretty current. I have a couple of cousins that live off the 15, one near the Ted Williams, one in Rancho Bernardo. The Witch creek fire took one's house last night, but the other looks OK. I was down there over the weekend and those were the scariest Santa Annas I have ever seen. A friend who is leading a truck dipatched to the Harris Fire, from Los Gatos, said yesterday that if the winds keep up it could burn to the coast. I guess this is where prayer kicks in.