Jesusita Fire Update - Thursday May 7

Thanks to our neighbors and friends Craig and Yvonne for letting me squeeze some of their bandwidth.

My Mac had the grey screen of death on Monday night. I have it back now (new hard drive, lost my data), but I can't get on to our wireless network. It won't recognize the password. So, no pictures today but wanted to update about our experiences during the last few days.

Tuesday mid-day I hiked the area in San Roque Canyon, the Stevens Park area. It was hot and I didn't have much energy, so I went home at about 1:00. At around 2:30, Mike came home saying there was a fire in the same area I had hiked. He was due to have a PD meeting about an unrelated matter. He went to the meeting but came right back saying he'd likely have to report at 6pm. No Cinco de Mayo margaritas for us. :(

Tuesday evening they issued a pretty wide evacuation area. Mike was stationed at a blockade to keep people out of the evacuated area. How boring! I was stuck listening to the radio for information. We still have no TV channels, and my computer was in the hospital. Our radio station was fabulous, though, and kept information flowing. Things seemed calm through the night.

Mike got home about 7:45am on Wednesday morning and slept till early afternoon.

The fire was calm all day on Wednesday. There were wisps of smoke going straight up, and things felt optimistic. I went to the post office about 3:30, and it seemed that hell had broken loose. The sky was filled with huge billowing smoke, heading straight to the ocean. Flames were visible low in the foothills. Traffic was horrendous on the surface streets and the freeway. I went home and got Erin and the camera and she was able to snap a few shots from the car. I'll post them as soon as I can access my own network.

I went home and called Mike (by this time at Northrop) and warned him that he better get ready to go back early. Traffic was BAD. There were no new updates on the radio, which was frustrating. It was obvious that conditions had changed greatly as the notorious sundowner winds picked up. Finally, word came out that new evacuations were being ordered. Much of the east side of Santa Barbara, all the way to State Street. A big area! Scary!

We wolfed some leftover chicken tacos and beans, and he headed out again last night. He was on roving patrol through the evacuated area. Police officers from throughout Southern California came out to help man the check points. So many roads were closed!

The best source of information is the website of the local weekly newspaper, The Santa Barbara Independent at http://www.independent.com/news/jesusita-fire/ This stupid browser won't let me embed links. I can't wait to get my computer formatted the way I like it! There are a lot of things to download!

There are hundreds of firefighters from throughout California and as far away as Oregon. I heard 90 strike teams, each with 5 engines. I heard there were 8 helicopters, plus a number of fixed-wing aircraft.

I can't find too many statistics, but read a report of 1300 acres burned. I read a report of five fire fighters being injured. There are no official reports of numbers of homes, but it is in the dozens so far. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets into the hundreds.

Here is a map: Copy and paste, sorry: http://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/ceo/oes/JesusitaFireBasemap11x17_2009_05_07_0800hrs.pdf

Today I had just one meeting, as one patient had been evacuated and was too tired to be seen, and my other meeting was cancelled. So, I am hanging out at home today. I took the dogs out this morning hoping to avoid the heat and wind this afternoon. It was still very hot. It is near 90 degrees right now at noon, and forecast 97 tomorrow. Humidity is a paltry 17% near the fire areas.

I'm not sure what Mike will be doing tonight. It is his usual night to be on duty. I passed him this morning as he was coming home and I was going to my 8:30 meeting, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him before he went to sleep.

Keep your fingers crossed for our city.