Gap Fire, July 5
Gap Fire as of July 5, 2008:
This map is interactive; click on points or overlays for more info, click plus and minus to zoom in or out, move around by click-hold-and-drag, etc. For larger map, click here.
By the way, if you read my last blog post, you’ll know that I am happy to report I got a headlamp yesterday! Woohoo! No fuss from Tim this time… in fact, he helped me pick one out. :)
The holiday yesterday didn’t feel like much of a holiday. Our neighbors have a meteorologist friend who also is a key player in tracking weather for fires. The news was that the winds were probably going to be fanning the flames our way, which they had already started to do early Friday morning.
We all figured it was time to start gathering the “important” things… birth certificates, passports, wedding license, Janet Jackson tickets, blah blah blah. Oh yeah, and I refilled all of my meds. Lordy, you don’t want ME not medicated during this time! :p
The air is seemingly better thus far today; the smoke is being blown high above. Still a din in the air, of course, but at least we aren’t enveloped in brown muck for the time being. Of course, sundowner winds in the evening will change that.
For those of you not familiar with the sundowner phenomenon, Wikipedia explains it as:
A Sundowner is an offshore wind which occurs when a region of high pressure is directly north of the Santa Barbara area, the part of the California coast which trends east-west. When the pressure gradient is perpendicular to the axis of the Santa Ynez Mountains, which rise directly behind Santa Barbara, the winds blow with greatest force. These winds often precede Santa Ana events by a day or two, as it is normal for high pressure areas to migrate east, causing the pressure gradients to shift to the northeast.[1]
Above is a Google map from The Santa Barbara Independent which I modded to depict our casa. (Home is represented by the blue marker at the bottom right. The shaded area shows very roughly the location and perimeter of the fire zone. Map updated Saturday morning at 10:55am.)
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Gap Fire
Robin Williams - Elmer Fudd Sings Bruce Springsteen
Since hearing Robin Williams singing Fire in the voice of Elmer Fudd many, many years ago, I can NEVER hear, say, or think the word fire without hearing it as fiii-wuh.
Surreal. A couple of days ago, they created a mandatory evacuation zone north (mountain side) of Cathedral Oaks and Fairview, extending toward Glen Annie (for those of you familiar with the area).
The power went out over most of town last night. It came back up earlier downtown, but was off at our place for about 4 hours. Thankfully, Sofie went to sleep before we couldn’t see anything. Tim and I went into the middle of the street at the end of our driveway, and you could totally see the flames straight ahead in the hills. Scary.
I went back inside, trying to play Sudoku while holding the puzzle book in one hand and a flashlight with the other. (Reminder to me: look for my cute purple Mag Light when I get home.) It made me wish I HAD bought those miner-like headband light thingies years ago, as I wanted. I’ve repeatedly told Tim over the years we needed ‘em; he disagreed. There have been times we’d be at some particular store, I’d see them, and pick them up with intention of buying them. “We don’t need those,” he’d say.
Not that I do everything he says. Hardly. And not that I don’t buy things because he tells me not to. HAAHAAHAARDLY. But I do know I have a penchant for buying useless crap. Perhaps these fell into that category? Apparently, they did not and do not. Hmph. See? Totally could have used one last night.
Ooooh…This one’s currently on sale at REI.
Other fun included text messaging with Patmo. She said her dogs were confused as to why she was lying on the floor in the dark. I guess, now that I think about it, I’m confused, too, Patmo. :/ I assured her that if I had to evacuate, I would be sure to grab our Janet Jackson tickets as I grabbed my, Tim’s, and Sofie’s birth certificates and other important papers.
When Tim went to bed around 10:30, I decided to drive and get a closer look. It was surreal, as there were no lights anywhere. The Vons on Turnpike was the only store I found to be open. I stopped to get a 9V battery for my radio, but they were wiped out. (Weird needing to depend on a radio!) Interestingly, they also declared they were NOT selling any frozen food.
Anyway, I then drove up to the point where the barricades were at the corner of Cathedral Oaks and Fairview. There were about a couple dozen other people there, too. And the cops, natch, directing traffic.
I’m glad I went. I got a better perspective of the fire, namely, that it wasn’t directly heading toward OUR home at the time, as it appeared from our driveway. It was, however, right above that corner upon which I was standing. BTW, Sofie’s daycare is 2 blocks south of the mandatory evacuation area.
Also at that time, they were saying that the direction of the fire was heading south (bad) and west, toward Glen Annie (Canyon). Whew, for now. We’re east.
It was an orderly situation at the barricade site. Everyone left the site around the same time, about 20 minutes after I got there. A couple minutes prior to my leaving, I heard:
* Faceless voice shout out to the Officer Directing Traffic, “Yeah, they’re sending a black and white.”
* Cute young blonde to her boyfriend, “Ooooh! I’m learning so much! “Black and White!”"
Officer Directing Traffic came out of the street and started walking our direction. I asked if there was any further word on containment, to which he responded in his best manly bad-ass voice while positioning his thumbs in his belt loops, “Nope. They haven’t told us anything.” He proceeded to walk just behind me, turned on his flashlight, and muttered something like, “Hmm… let’s see what’s up here.” He illuminated the No Parking sign with his flashlight. “Yep, that’s what I thought.”
He continued walking up the sidewalk, flashed his light into the parked cars, “Nope, no one in there. Or this one either. Not this one. Hmmm… None of these cars.”
I guess everyone grew tired at the exact same time, because we all left right then and there.
This morning, I heard on the radio that it was 5% contained, and that it appeared to not have started naturally; speculation continues.
Where I go for information:
* EdHat
* SB Independent
* InciWeb site
* County of Santa Barbara
p.s.: Sending love and positive thoughts out into the universe for everyone, especially Dan and The Cabin.
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