Firestorm 2007 - Evacuation

Ugh - we've had a rough / stressful couple of days, along with everyone else in San Diego county. Once again, the October Santa Ana winds (notice Easterly winds from "90 degrees" direction) combined with dry conditions to create the perfect storm of fire throughout the county.

This time, we were almost affected, having been served a voluntary evacuation order here in Carlsbad. There is tons of info about it, but here and here are a couple maps that show what we were up against.

The reason I'm blogging this here, is because of the kids' reaction to it all. It was sad to see them worry about the evacuation. Jamie and I were busy packing up the essentials, and it was obvious to them something was going on. We had them pack each of their suitcases, explaining that they should take whatever they can think of that is important to them.

So here then is an inventory of their suitcases:

• Bennett - Piggy bank, Buzz Lightyear bank, and ALL of his "tags" (pajamas with tags that he likes to rub on his face). That's it - it's all that's important - money and tags.
• Avery - Books, various "Webkins" stuffed animals, some swim meet ribbons, money bank, soccer team picture, soccer trophies.
  
• Connor - Books, Webkins, baseball "game balls" (autographed), swim meet ribbons, money bank, pokemon cards, soccer trophies.
  

Luckily, it all turned out ok - evac for Carlsbad was lifted this evening. Others in the county were not so lucky. Something like 300,000 people evacuated (so far) in SD county, over 1,000 homes destroyed.