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Firestorms
Nov. 15th, 2008 01:12 pmThe stuff of nightmares, but I am fairly insulated from the sweep of the firestorms through Los Angeles County. Nobody is one hundred percent safe living inside the tinderbox Southern California is this time of year (and especially this year), but it would have to be quite extreme for us to get wiped out here in suburbia near LAX. Not impossible. If the winds were right a common house fire could turn into a major conflagration, but we aren't currently experiencing the same winds as the outlying areas. None, in fact, at the moment. But it is hot. SoCal weather has been so schizo lately. Earlier in the week I was wearing fall clothes and getting out my winter blankets. Now the temps are in the 90s.
I actually spent some time at the mobile home park that was wiped out in Sylmar, at the home of a friend's mom. This was many years ago and I've lost touch so I don't know if she was still there. She would be in her 70's or 80's now. I can only hope her home wasn't destroyed, but it was definitely surreal seeing the news reports, and even if the person I knew wasn't still there, many of the people who did live in that park were retired, older people who've just lost everything. I can't help wondering how much FEMA will help them. They didn't own the land their homes sat upon and I can just see some vulture developer sweeping down on the owners and buying up the land. Prime real estate, you know. Mobile homes parks have some protection here, but if everything's destroyed, I wonder if they have any.
Breathing's been okay so far, but we hear fire engines all the time as they call in the resources from all over the city to throw them onto the fire lines. There's a threat of rolling brownouts, too, because one of the main power corridors is along the 5 and 405 freeways which are in the heart of the Sylmar fire. We're generally semi-protected here in Westchester because we're on the same power grid as the airport. They try to keep that up and running no matter what, but you never know. So if you don't hear from me, that's probably why. If this is still ongoing on Monday, it could definitely affect work.
Regardless, we're still conserving energy so as not to drain the power grid unnecessarily.
I actually spent some time at the mobile home park that was wiped out in Sylmar, at the home of a friend's mom. This was many years ago and I've lost touch so I don't know if she was still there. She would be in her 70's or 80's now. I can only hope her home wasn't destroyed, but it was definitely surreal seeing the news reports, and even if the person I knew wasn't still there, many of the people who did live in that park were retired, older people who've just lost everything. I can't help wondering how much FEMA will help them. They didn't own the land their homes sat upon and I can just see some vulture developer sweeping down on the owners and buying up the land. Prime real estate, you know. Mobile homes parks have some protection here, but if everything's destroyed, I wonder if they have any.
Breathing's been okay so far, but we hear fire engines all the time as they call in the resources from all over the city to throw them onto the fire lines. There's a threat of rolling brownouts, too, because one of the main power corridors is along the 5 and 405 freeways which are in the heart of the Sylmar fire. We're generally semi-protected here in Westchester because we're on the same power grid as the airport. They try to keep that up and running no matter what, but you never know. So if you don't hear from me, that's probably why. If this is still ongoing on Monday, it could definitely affect work.
Regardless, we're still conserving energy so as not to drain the power grid unnecessarily.