google map of fires

I left home this morning for my regular Monday morning commute to San Diego not sure what I would find. I knew that I-8 was closed to high profile vehicles and they weren’t joking. At Ocotillo the freeway was closed and we had to take the off-ramp - trucks were made to park nearby (I estimated 40-50 already parked), cars were allowed to re-enter the freeway. Just in case someone didn’t want to obey, a snow plough had been parked across both lanes of the freeway.

The winds were fierce going over the Tecate divide and all the way into Alpine. There were numerous roadsigns that had been blown over, including many emergency roadside assistance phones. I had to dodge several large tumbleweeds crossing the freeway and there were times when the dirt and sand blowing in the wind had me worried for my paintwork.

To the south I could see a lot of smoke from the Harris Fire, coming down the hill into the greater San Diego area I could see a dark haze from the smoke and ash falling from the Witch Fire to the north. I got to work to find the car park empty, a note on the door said that the office was closed today so I came back to the apartment and watched the events unfold.

A crazy amount of people have been evacuated from all points north, south and east of San Diego. The strong Santa Ana winds aren’t expected to die down until Wednesday, the CDF planes can’t fly to super-douse the fire, and I can’t even begin to imagine how bad it will get before it gets any better. Looking at the fires it isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine them combining at some point, I don’t think there are many more scary things out there.

Coming home from work I passed a high school which is acting as a shelter. Lots of people sat by their cars, trying to keep their pets and children occupied no doubt worried about their homes. Pretty crappy stuff.