The Big Picture
God’s eye view of Southern California, courtesy of the European Space Agency. It does not begin to tell the story of the anxiety, confusion, frustration, and loss that more than a half million people evacuees feel tonight.
My Mom evacuated the Witch Canyon fire and my brother evacuated Slide, some 60 miles away. Her house in Ramona is probably OK — his home in Running Springs has quite likely burned. We won’t know for sure until the fire is out and the dust settles. (Update: Fire stayed a quarter mile or so away from Mom but burned brother’s entire neighborhood. Amazingly, his house survived.)
A lot of folks mobilized to fight these fires. It is brutal, exhausting work — unless you have 50 MPH winds, in which case all you do is get the hell out of the way. Times like this my family remembers Steve, my younger brother killed fighting a wildfire in Santa Barbara.
One piece of poetic justice: a significant share of California’s air pollution now comes from China. If the easterlies keep up, we should be returning the favor in a few days. And regardless, the sunsets are likely to be spectacular for awhile.
Best information roundup on the fires is here.
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