Email update from yesterday

Ann, Jim, Jamie, Cookie and Candy are safe and back home. We were evacuated from Scripps Ranch yesterday around 3pm due to the Witch Creek fire. We were mostly packed, so Ann, Jamie, Cookie and Candy headed out about 4pm and Jim stuck around the house until about 9. We headed down to stay with Bill, one of Ann’s friends from work. THANKS BILL! We tried to make the adventure “fun” for Jamie – so we ate at Corvette Diner last night and had a slumber party with our sleeping bags on the living room floor at Bill’s. I think Jamie was a bit scared, she wanted to sleep in the middle between us so we opened up the sleeping bags into one huge bed and by the time we were finished, she was laying on top of the pile doing “snow angels.” We got some sleep, unlike the night before where Jim kept waking up to check outside…

San Diego schools are closed for the rest of the week. Jim’s office is closed today, Ann’s office is in an area that’s still evacuated so it’s closed at least through Wednesday. We’ll both work from home as much as possible, we have our computers with us. Air quality continues to be a concern, the ash is a tiny bit like snow at this point and from what we remember from the Cedar fire, it will take weeks to clear up and won’t be totally gone until we get several good rains. So, no outdoor activities and keep the A/C running continuously.

We really feel for the families who have lost their homes in this tragedy. We know of two friends so far who are impacted – Marcyn L (Rodney K's sister) and her family (she grew up in New Orleans with Ann) and Tony Z (who works with Ann). We’ll pass along the word as we hear what assistance they (or others) need…

Also, it’s sooo stressful to be evacuated and be glued to the TV hoping for a bit of news on your particular neighborhood and praying. We kept calling our house to hear our answering machine pick up (a good sign!). At its peak (so far) there were >500K people evacuated in the San Diego area. The fires still rage on, the winds are changing now so they are changing directions and are quite unpredictable. We are not unpacking the boxes with papers, pictures, etc., they’re sitting in our front hallway in case we need to evacuate again.

We hear that the news about the fires is sketchy outside of Southern California. If you’re interested in tracking, at least for now the best web site I’ve found is www.cbs8.com. Regular programming is pre-empted here and it’s 7x24 coverage on TV…

Thanks so much for the emails, calls, etc. and sorry I haven’t answered each one individually. We’ll keep everyone posted if anything changes.