All Hell Breaking Loose, Day 2 (Updated)

This is mainly for the benefit of you who don't live near here. It's pretty obvious to those of us trapped in the fires.

5:30 a.m.: There are now six fires, one of which is threatening the Wild Animal Park near Escondido. No word on what they are doing with the animals. Another fire's jumped the 10 to 12 lanes of the 15 freeway and its burning portions of NE Rancho Bernardo, which is the next suburb up from me. It's also coming into Rancho Santa Fe and expected to burn to the coast since that is a less populated area of multimillion-dollar homes with lots of land around them.

They've opened Qualcomm Stadium for evacuees. Many high schools, including one one exit up from us are also opened for evacuations (and one reason I'm not too-too concerned about us.) Lots of areas losing power, including where I work. Still waiting for word on what's going on there. I can't imagine we have to report, but who knows.

Oh shit. They just announced they are evacuating the neighborhood next to ours (everyone N of the 56 and E of the 5) on the radio. I've got to get Gilbert up and get packing!

8:30 a.m.: So we're packed, gassed up and just trying to figure out where to go. Neighbors down the street have gotten the reverse 911 call telling them to evacuate, but the closest center is now in the path of flames. All of the freeways are gridlocked. My office near the coast offered shelter to employees and their families; however, I don't think we can get there anymore. There's a huge black cloud engulfing the freeways, which also means in addition to the fire coming closer, it's consuming more than grass along the way.

This evacuation is going amazingly well. We learned from the last time four years ago what's really important. For me, it includes four or five running T-shirts, my shoes but not my medals or running bibs (dating back to the 1980s). I can't find them at the moment. Got the girls' yearbooks, scrapbooks and all of our photo albums and pictures. Not taking artwork off the walls except a painting my mom made.

On the strange encounters/only-in-California front: The neighbors cattycorner to us are sweeping ash from their driveway. Yes, everything is ablaze and lives are at stake and they are prettying up the yard!

11 a.m.:The wind's died down where we're at, and there's blue skies to the south of us. We remain fixated on the television and trying to abide by local officials' pleas to stay off the cell phone. Lots of homes going up in smoke, some close but not toooooo close to our place. For the moment, we feel safe.

From what we've heard, firefighters are going to try and cut the fire off at the pass at Black Mountain Road (we live off that road, but they're talking about a couple of miles north of us).

During one live report from Qualcomm Stadium, a reporter referred to some of the busloads as people from "old folks homes" being transported "by roach coaches." I guess the phone lines immediately lit up with angry PC callers because the anchors had to apologize a minute later using "inappropriate language" in the heat of the moment.



11:40 a.m.: Just to give you some context for the scope of today's disaster, which is still very much unfolding and uncontrollable: This morning at 6 a.m., my office just across from the Torrey Pines State Beach told everyone to come with their families if they could, because they were at the coast and in a safe place. Well, they just sent another e-mail saying not to come because they were now under mandatory evacuation. Carlsbad and Leucadia, which are close to the ocean, are the newest additions. At least 250,000 of the 3 million people here have now been evacuated.


1:15 p.m.: Thanks to all of you reaching out through the blog and email and phone calls with offers of places to stay if closeby and words of support if you are far away. Times like these, humanity shows its best side. I still get goosebumps remembering the outpouring from nearby, often struggling communities who gave and gave and gave during the last devastating fires in 2003.

Looks like the evacuation centers are starting to fill to capacity, especially those that accept animals. On the radio, people now are calling in offering to take large animals, like horses, if they live in rural areas with ranchland and housepets if they are closer to downtown. There are more than 10,000 people at Qualcomm now and they just keep streaming in.

2:30 p.m.: They've just ordered mandatory evacuations for the area just south of us,including where I used to live. Joined with the area just north of us, I've got to wonder why the subdivisions in between like ours are still being deemed safe. All of the hotels and motels here are filled with refugees, which I'm taking as a good sign.

The Boy Scouts are preparing to set up 600 tents at Qualcomm -- most likely in the field and parking lot.

The lack of sleep and, truthfully, growing lack of confidence in my husband is really getting on my nerves. Everytime I mention we should be on the move, he counters that I am not interested in seeking safety but instead just looking to be in the center of the drama. Then he feels justified when I, ahem, start screaming and look for something to throw at him. That's not drama, folks. That's determination!

4:45 p.m. Apparently all hotels in San Diego and the county are at capacity now. All the original shelters near here are full too. The shelters are asking for bedding donations because they hadn't anticipated so many people actually staying overnight. I think for the moment we're in a good place, so here's where we'll stay. We've got food, water and shelter, which is more than a lot of people have right now. I've noticed neighbors coming back, in fact. I hope it's not just to pick up something.

My thoughts are with the people who've been displaced and especially those who no longer have a home to return to. The images of torched neighborhoods look so creepily like the ones we fled four years ago. I doubt any of us within flame range will sleep tonight. Again, thanks to everyone for all the well wishes. They are very comforting.

8:30 p.m.: The smoke and ash are back en force, most likely because of firefighters battling blazes just east of us in Poway. Or maybe everything appears more ominous at night. The glow's certainly more prominent.

Earlier we could hear the helicopters carrying water and flame retardant, but I don't think they can fly in this now. News crews are just showing ground support and mostly to keep the fires out of densely populated parts of Ramona and Poway. Another big blaze, the Harris fire closer to the border, is now threatening Chula Vista, which is a pretty big city. So, local stations are oscillating between reporting on those evacuations, the one near us and one north of here in Fallbrook, where the entire city's been told to leave. Those are just the big fires; there are numerous smaller ones that just haven't erupted with the same veracity -- and I hope never do.

There's been some confusion on whether we should evacuate. They are ordering areas of Del Mar out now, and saying the eastern boundary is Black Mountain Road, which extends all the way into Miramar to the south of us. We're also west of Black Mountain, but about 8 miles from Del Mar, so when we started to hear rumbling, my husband ran to the front of the house to check it out. Turns out our neighbors who have come back or never left were all putting out their trash bins for curbside pickup tomorrow, like it was just another Monday night in PQ. Oye.