Jumpbass thank you for the updates. Your link isn’t working for me, but I understand that Facebook is having issues.
samclem sorry to hear about your friend’s losses.
Charles Schultz’s house burned down. Some art work lost, but apparently most of it is in the museum in Santa Rosa, which so far is OK.
I’m over on the coast in Monterey area this weekend, and the air quality here doesn’t seem to be any better than back home in the South Bay. What’s different is the number of people here. Normally, this is the beginning of the slow season, but the area is inundated with “refugees” from up north as well as a lot of folks who would normally be visiting Napa. Restaurants and hotels are packed.
There has been talk of the Oakland Raiders moving their home game on Sunday due to the air quality, but it appears to be getting better. The Cal Bears played a home game last night.
The winds shifted in the central Bay Area today, and are coming from the south. The air here is much clearer than it has been since Monday morning.
In other news, the California PUC has ordered PG&E (the northern California power company for you non-locals) to preserve “all evidence with respect to the Northern California wildfires in Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties.” There has been speculation that at least some of the fires were caused by downed power lines (from the high winds Sunday night) and exploding transformers. PG&E filed a statement with the SEC saying that their insurance might not cover the losses if they’re found at fault, and their stock dropped by about 13%. The CPUC also ordered telecommunication companies to preserve evidence, but I don’t know whether their stocks have taken any hit.
I was going to ask if anyone had any idea what was causing these fires, and I see that it could possibly be downed power lines.
This is just awful, on all levels. Seeing the Kmart burned to the ground illustrates just how ferocious these fires are.
That’s the first explanation that made any sense to me. I kept thinking: How did all these fires start at pretty much the same time?
The air of worry has lifted over Sonoma now that the wind gave us a break and bunches of water dropping helicopters have been at work all day. Air got pretty good this afternoon and driving back from Petaluma to the west this afternoon only a few hot spots were smoking on the hills east of town. Couple more days and I’m going to start to relax.
I kind of dread driving around after all this. I know a lot of my favorite roads and areas are going to be decimated and landmarks that were loved by the locals are gone forever. Some of the areas that were burnt I had ridden through on the way home from work on the bike only the week before. It’s sobering as hell to realize that these idyllic scenes of grassy hills and gnarled oaks can turn into hell on earth in just a few minutes.
Things are looking up here in Napa County. The fires are either getting contained or moving out of the area, but Sonoma and Solano counties still have a fight on their hands. The air was much better yesterday and I can feel the stress levels diminishing in myself and others.
We’re still under an advisory evacuation (or is it evacuation advisory?) but we’re unpacking anyway. The fires got through the winds last night without jumping lines, so we figure we’re good. I do have to admit that there is that teeny tiny bit of worry in the back of my mind still. Probably good that it’s there.
They’re going to start letting people back into Calistoga. No homes or businesses were affected up there.
The fire has creeped over the hills to the west of Rutherford and Oakville in the middle of the valley. I have no idea how fast it’s moving, but the prevailing winds are blowing back towards the burned areas.
I had an interesting moment at In N Out yesterday. I ordered a burger and while I was waiting for it, a guy came to the register to order 72 Double Doubles. I got concerned that it would delay my order, (I was late getting out of town for a wedding and was in a hurry) but then he said it was for three o’clock. The relief on the cashiers face was priceless.
I may not check in as frequently now that we seem to be doing so much better here. I’ll let our Sonoma folks take over. Be safe over there, guys.
WOW!! It is hard to conceptualize conflagrations that are so immense in size and heat that the firefighters can’t attack the blazes at all, only evacuate people. I hope that everyone gets out while its still possible and my condolences to those that didn’t or couldn’t. It is can be easy to replace material things but your own uniqueness can’t be substituted.
I saw in a headline this morning that 217,566 acres have burned. That’s equivalent in area to a circle with a radius of about 10.4 miles.
You can visualize this using this web page. First, enter 10.4 as the radius distance and hit enter. Then zoom in on the map and click on a point you’re familiar with. You can then zoom out to see the whole circle.
Just a quick note that the Evacuation advisory has been lifted within the Napa city limits. That’s me! Yay!
Nice to be hearing some good news! Rain is in the forecast later this week, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be much. Still, better than this super-dry weather we’ve been having. We are due for some rain, especially up north. We usually get one fairly decent rain event in Oct.
I had an Aunt and Uncle who lived in Santa Rosa (they died a few years ago) – not sure if any my cousins are in the area.
Horrifying to see al the houses burnt to nothing
Brian
The heroic story of Odin the Dog…
What’s the update? Are the fires coming under control now?
From the news, the big fires are now 40 - 50% contained, and people are being allowed back to their homes in Sonoma County, including Santa Rosa, in a controlled manner, slowly enough to not cause congestion and with IDs being checked. The authorities are talking about a “new normal.” One new fire blew up, but I think it was controllable. Just hoping for the rain Thursday and for the winds to stay down.
According to the Calfire statewide fire summary, the levels of containment are:
[ul]
[li]Tubbs Fire - 70%[/li][li]Pocket Fire - 40%[/li][li]Nuns Fire - 50%[/li][li]Oakmont Fire - 15%[/li][li]Atlas Fire - 68%[/li][li]Redwood Valley Fire - 50%[/li][li]Sulphur Fire - 85%[/li][/ul]
Of these, the Tubbs, Pocket, Nuns, Atlas and Redwood Valley fires are the really big ones. There are some other, smaller fires burning throughout the state.
That one deserved a tissues needed warning. What a good dog!
Glad to hear there’s some good news. Best wishes to those of you near by. Jumpbass, this must be incredibly stressful.