1.3k homes destroyed, 72k in danger, Marines, Guard Deployed

1,300 homes have been destroyed, over 72,000 homes in danger of a wild fire with 0 percent containment. Already thousands have been evacuated, thousands more asked to leave.. Sand Diego shelters are currently packed with refugees.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Raging wildfires have destroyed 1,300 homes across Southern California and, pushed by fierce Santa Ana winds, threaten 72,000 others, California fire officials reported Tuesday.

Fears grew north of Los Angeles that the winds may fan three wildfires into one monster blaze, with too few resources available to fight it.

CNN

The U.S. Navy ordered sailors out of barracks and onto ships to make room for evacuees.

A half-million people may be forced from their homes by the fires, Matt Bettenhausen, director of the California Office of Homeland Security, said

National Guard troops were posted at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's San Diego Chargers, as it became a temporary home to 10,000 fire evacuees.

he U.S. Marines' Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, told only "key and essential personnel" to report to duty Tuesday. The Rice Fire is burning east of the base.

President Bush has also deployed FEMA leaders to assess the area, and to determine what national FEMA assistance can be given. Currently FEMA has no small communities as of yet, but the fire is relatively new.. it is ironic that in this fire already some 10,000 citizens are housed inside a sports arena, in contrast to Katrina.

It is apparent, with Naval, Marine, Guard support, that this is a national emergency, and if it continues to worsen could be on par with some of the worst natural disasters of our country.

Apparently I am not the only one wondering about the stadium and its contrast of New Orleans which was a disgrace..

Unlike the experience after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when evacuees at the NFL arena in New Orleans suffered without food or working toilets, volunteers at Qualcomm were serving breakfast to hungry evacuees lined up across the stadium. The arena boasts 96 restrooms, according to its Web site.

CNN

Where as New Orleans actually had plenty of warning of the impending disaster, no relief was available.. and in San Diego they are serving breakfast....

Granted, the disaster of New Orleans was far more devestating, I think it could at least highlight some lack of planning.

Evacuees spent Monday night sleeping in lines of tents, cots and sleeping bags that dotted the facility. By sunrise Tuesday, hungry evacuees waited to be served breakfast in lines that stretched across the already crowded stadium.

At least 6,500 people had arrived at the stadium by Tuesday morning, according to registration records. The Associated Press reported that the number of evacuees estimated at the arena is around 10,000.

Hundreds of volunteers were working at the stadium to register incoming evacuees and to serve food and beverages to the hungry.

Stadium employees were volunteering to help, and a group of volunteers with the Marine Corps brought a pickup truck full of diapers to distribute to children. Volunteer coordinators are asking for teachers in the area to come to the facility to help with child care.

I'm just glad to see that the thousands forced to flee have somewhere to go.. with another 72,000 homes in the fires path, authorities are expecting possibly tens of thousands of evacuees to hit San Diego within the next few days, especially with more rapid forced evacuations and not allowing forced evacuees to return.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced San Diego County residents are navigating around road closures to find refuge in shelters and hotel rooms a safe distance from the wildfires encroaching on their neighborhoods.

Hotels are in San Diego and the region surounding it are now offering "discount" rates on evacuees, though not for free.

Some hotels are apparently offering up to 75% off.

Many evacuees are staying in area hotels at discounted rates. The Marriott Hotel in downtown San Diego's historic Gaslamp Quarter has offered fire evacuees a rate $129 per night, about 30 percent lower than their regular rates. The hotel is nearly full, a desk agent said. About 20 percent of the guests at Marriott's fully booked marina property are fire evacuees paying more than $100 under the standard $260.

Some 340k homes have been asked to evacuate (or forced to) .. so far an unknown number of people.. but 340k you have to assume its a staggering number.

With the number of homes ordered evacuated, more than 750,000 people could easily have fled since the wildfires began over the weekend in San Diego County. The number of people joining the mandatory exodus is expected to grow throughout the day as more communities are put on standby to leave as several fires burned a path toward the sea -- through populated communities.

Says a spokesman for the county's emergency effort, "It's basically a mass migration here in San Diego County. The numbers we're seeing are staggering."

The county has lost at least 1,000 structures to the fires.

State officials warned that the total estimate of evacuees in the region could rise, because officials were still working to determine how many people had fled. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said that 274,000 homes and at least 300,000 residents were asked to clear out in San Diego county alone.

CNN

[edit on 10/23/2007 by Rockpuck]

Hmm... this sounds like more than just ordinary fires doesnt it? I dont remember this happening before on this scale...

What an immense disaster.

I've seen some say "pray for rain"

Actually if you pray, pray for the winds to stop, that will be the key to stopping these fires.

What a mess. :shk:

I heard before that several of the fires were started by a group of arsonists working in cahoots? Is this true?

I don't understand why we call them "refugees"; they're just people that had their homes burned down. I saw another thread on here that was worried about martial law coming about because of this. I agree, pray for the wind to stop, that will help the most. As for arsonist, don't know about it; even though I could see that happening.

All the help to these people are coming from local businesses and private citizens. New Orleans was completely wiped out. The people who could have helped were victims too (businesses, citizens). In Cali, not everyone is being affected - spots here and there. Which is allowing much help from those not tied to the government. And they are a bit more organized and well thought out proceedures/planning for things such as this.


As far as the military stepping in. Thank God they are. They are needed. There are not enough local police help 1. To prevent criminals from stealing from the fire victims. 2. To help evacuate and just 'help'. It has nothing to do with marital law.

My husband, military, once helped out a flood in a town he was stationed in. They were their to help people - not police them....like some may think

Anyone know if Chule Vista, which is near San Diego, is in danger? I have some family there?

What is interesting to me is that there were also recent catastrophic fires in Greece and Italy that devastated a lot of the country. Having been there at the time and seen the pictures from the SoCal fires I think the two are comparable.

When watching the news reports for the Europe fire I learned that it had apparently been started by a group of arsonists. I think that one was caught but I can't find anything about him now. If these SoCal fires were started by arsonists as well it paints a rather disturbing picture in my mind.

With all the other signs that the end of times is nigh, could there be some organization dedicated to helping it along? Starting country-wide fires which devastate and destroy seems to fit right into the Bible.

Originally posted by ChrisF231
I heard before that several of the fires were started by a group of arsonists working in cahoots? Is this true?

All they know right now is the rough time in which the fires where started..

Apparently all on or around the 20th-21st within a space of a few hours.. all 12 in different locations.

It appears to me to be man made, just the wide scale, 0 percent containment and how many how fast..

But that's my opinion, obviously they are focusing on saving people before blaming people, an investigation will be done in time.

Doesn't this belong in fragile Earth? This is the obvious reality of global warming, w/e the cause IDK.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Apparently I am not the only one wondering about the stadium and its contrast of New Orleans which was a disgrace..

with all respect sir i was an airman who was deployed within 24 hours of hurricane katrina. you might buy into the media when "they" talk about disasters but remember that in the news sex and violence sell best.

we transported 60 thousand citizens and brought in about 40 unit tons of supplies in 48 hours. we worked 15 hour days so that people like you could sit on you little computer seat and judge what was going on. i'd like to know how many 15 hour days you put in during katrina.

also i'd like to know how much time you've spent in california helping out the people who have lost their homes. actions speak louder than words sir and i see very little action from you.

I didn't realize the scope of this thing until I saw this picture today...




Wow



Edit: Doh, that's an old picture sorry.

[edit on 23-10-2007 by twitchy]

reply to post by ChrisF231


Try not to be so ready to cast blame on arson - it's very easy for a fire to start, especially in dry-wooded areas.

A peice of broken glass from a midnight forest-rave catches the sunlight at just the right angle, for example.

I'm not saying no one's to blame, nor am i saying it was an accident.

It could be a perfectly natural freak occurance.

However.

deny ignorance

100mph Santa Anna winds plus electrical lines and poles equals disaster in drought conditions.

Originally posted by twitchy
I didn't realize the scope of this thing until I saw this picture today...




Wow

Edit: Doh, that's an old picture sorry.

[edit on 23-10-2007 by twitchy]

Yes, I saw that picture as well, the winds are really driving this fire.. the fire leaders in this situation have told the public they cannot stop it with the winds, and only if the winds die down or it rains pretty hard, the fire will not stop .. added to this, they have began more evacuations, at last count 530,000 people have been ordered or asked to leave. Half a million people displaced.

A second person has died from the fires that now burn out of control..

In San Diego County, at least 513,000 residents had been ordered to find refuge in shelters, schools and stadiums as fires pushed into new areas Tuesday. Twelve thousand more were advised but not ordered to evacuate.

This I thought interesting, sad but interesting.. Camp Pendleton has been evacuated as the fires approached and seemingly is on course for the camp. So far some 1.5k guard troops have been activated, some pulled away from border patrol to do so .. however if I remember correctly troops on the border are mainly engineers and have no part in actually protecting the border.

"All of the aid that we provide is the result of a request ... from the state," McHale said. "However, we have been very proactive in independently preparing those capabilities for the possibility of such requests, and we have reached out early to state officials.

Schwarzenegger also requested and received from the federal government six "modular airborne fire fighting systems" units -- which are C-130s that drop water and fire suppressant on the blazes.

The Pentagon provided 11 helicopters equipped with water buckets to fight the fires, McHale said. Aerial attacks on the fires, however, have been minimal because of high Santa Ana winds with gusts approaching 70 mph.

Also in regards to the stadium that was talked about earlier, 200 troops have been stationed there and FEMA arrived with supplies, also with the Guard, including beds.

Anticipating more arrivals, the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered 25,000 cots to the city-owned, 40-year-old structure.

With more than 321,000 people forced from their homes by late morning Tuesday, FEMA's precautions appeared timely.

Note though 321,000 is now up to 513,000 people.

So I see what people mean by "martial law" however these people are there to help, in emergency situations we should be thankful we have their organizational abilities and aid to assist.

Stadium Relief

Camp Pendleton Evacuates 3,000 Marines

Fire Update

Edit to add this picture, which could put the fires in better perspective of what exactly is at risk.



[edit on 10/23/2007 by Rockpuck]

Please say a prayer tonight that the winds wind down and there are no more casualties. I dont know if these fires were set on purpose or not, but the conspiracy will come later. Right now please say a prayer that it will all stop.

What a horrible disaster! If its true about all the help and the comfort and the breakfasts and all the help, great i am truly happy.
If its true that Bush & Co. are doing all they can, i am happy with Bush (today).

God bless each and everyone of them.

That's a lot of property that have no homes now, I wonder if the housing industry will stand to make huge profits from this. Or will these fires maybe bring down the housing prices in california?