valley of the smokes

[nibot]

Once again, Southern California is on fire.

The view of the Malibu fires from the air was awesome. These are colossal fires!

The pilot warned us before we landed, before we plunged into the opaque orange-brown plume.

"If you smell smoke--it is not from the airplane!"

On CNN just now they said a quarter of a million people have been evacuated. Can that possibly be true?

Comments

[kaolinfire.livejournal.com]

I know some people who were evacuated earlier today and then let back in... but yeah, it's crazy. And I'm very, very thankful (from a purely selfish POV) that the wind was blowing towards the coast instead of away.

[metamouse.livejournal.com]

I think those evacuation numbers are accurate. The pink areas are evacuation areas. There seem to be few places to...
(http://flickr.com/photos/naliniasha/1702017925/)

Here's more info if you want it.
http://cbs8.com/misc/fires_oct_07/maps.html
http://homelessmoon.com/2007fire/SanDiegoFireMap.htm

Also, "military police being called in to patrol evacuated neighborhoods".

[metamouse.livejournal.com]

er, "few places to evacuate to."

[metamouse.livejournal.com]

and of course, this is just San Diego. The LA fires are huge too.