For any living in the areas hit by these fires. I hope you are safe. I used to have family in the San Diego area, and remember well the area from visiting them. Watching these news reports is tough, but of course nothing like what those who are there are going through.

I am glad to see that the President has made the federal disaster declaration for some of the area, so that relief may be sped up in reaching those needing help. I think his decision to go there to see firsthand what people are experiencing is not a wise one tho', as it will tie up law enforcement resources that are desperately needed elsewhere. Hopefully someone will persuade him to cancel the visit at this time.

Keep your heads down and know that California is in the thoughts and prayers of many.

One of our members was evacuated with her family, but they returned safely. Nasty situation out there.

What a mess. Its kinda surreal that there's so many different fires going on at once too. Thank god only 1 person was killed, and unlike Katrina it looks like most of those who lost their homes had some sort of insurance to get back on their feet.

I had a sit-down interview with Cheney scheduled for Friday (booked over a month ago with all the background checks and shit they have to do now) and the production company that was gonna do the interview is on fire and most of their employees were evacuated so they had to cancel the shoot. Not to get too Chicken Little, but so many companies are based in LA and San Diego and the outlying areas, this could potentially have a similar economic effect as when New York shut down following September 11th. It just reminds us that in man vs nature we're severely at a disadvantage.

Times like this make me love Wisconsin more and more...besides the once in a great while crazy fricken tornado, we have it pretty easy with our mother nature relationship.

I'll have to say where I've lived (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia) are pretty sweet places to live - generally mild weather, no major natural disasters aside from the freak hurricane or blizzard every 5-6 years ... but I'm less than 10 miles from the White House and if this country is gonna get nuked it'll land just about on top of me. So I guess every place has some sort of bad reason to live there :)

Where I grew up in NJ we were basicaly right on top of what is known as the Ramapo Fault, but I never felt it move.

In Pennsylvania where I live we have had two earthquakes, one was about 1/2 hour before the San Francisco quake back in the '90s and it actually ruptured some water lines nearby, but the SF quake quickly dominated the news and we were left to just local papers. When the quake happened I thought it was a really strong wind that made the house shake and the oud rumbling sound.

The second quake we had here was about a year ago, just some minor shaking and loud rumbling...but other than that most places I've lived have been mother nature friendly.

And, to add to the problems, there are freaks trying to make things even worse. Unconfirmed reports are that the San Bernardino police shot and killed a man they caught setting new fires.

Yeah, pretty bad situation all around.
The sad part about it is this stuff has been going on for centuries out there.
The way the news seems to be covering it, you'd think this was unusual or something to do with climate change.
People who have lived in California for a long time can attest to the annual Santa Anna winds, and the dangers even a small spark can start when it the state starts drying out in the fall.

http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/keeleypbjul2004.html

It looks like humans do have some blame in what's going on, besides the whackos that like to start fires.
Since there are more people moving into areas that used to be wilderness, there is that much more of a potential of an accidential ignition source....