Sooo....No love for LA today?

[Landon Caeli]

Even though I'm not presently in LA, since I have a 310 number I receive the emergency notifications.
This was issued at 8:25 last night:View attachment 215626


@GoldenBoy89 @keith99 @Landon Caeli (I think you still in LA?) @essentialsaltes
did any of you receive it? Have your areas been impacted by the fires?

I recently swapped my 310 number out for a 714 one, so I didn't see that, but I can see the smoke from the Thomas fire. My wife texted me this yesterday though...

 

[wing2000]

Thanks. You recalled correctly.

As mentioned in the post I just wrote above, I'm up at school, but my mom, stepdad, and brother live in LA where a mandatory evacuation was issued before dawn yesterday morning due to the Skirball fire.
They went to sleep with concerns not for themselves but for the tens of thousands who live out in the Valley where there had already been catastrophic devastation due to the raging wildfires. The smoke had been very brutal on Tuesday, with ashes raining down and coating everything, like a grim transposal of the vision the jacaranda trees create in the spring when the purple petals are everywhere. Our neighbor had to be rushed to the emergency room due to the smoke exacerbating her COPD to the extent she couldn't breathe. But they didn't think our house was in an area that would be directly endangered. My dog sensed that something was amiss in the middle of the night and started barking, and my parents decided to go ahead and get dressed and ready. The notification that a mandatory evacuation was being issued came out before dawn. It could have been a chaotic and frightening ordeal but there was calm efficiency from the emergency crews who shepherded everyone to safely.

They are close to the Getty, which has this incredibly awesome system that is able protect all the art. The 405 was closed for part of the day! It looked like scenes from a movie about the aftermaths of an apocalypse.

My family now in Malibu, where hopefully they'll be safe, but it feels like no place really is in LA right now.
In 2007 neighbors in Malibu had gone to sleep feeling reasonably at peace, only to be awakened and ordered to evacuate because the fires were encroaching at lightening speed. A family friend had been a minister at Malibu Pres, and in what he'd thought was an abundance of caution had gone there in the middle of the night to pack up computers and irreplaceable valuables. He'd texted coworkers to ask for help, and so they all trotted out and sort of mocked themselves as being "Nervous Nellies" since at that time there was no known risk of the fires coming their way. Then the winds shifted. It was coming right towards them. Thankfully, by that point, they were almost finishing loading up their cars. The firefighters didn't have enough manpower to combat it all, so they had to make a call about either saving the church, which had no one there but the employees who were already set to leave, or the residential areas filled with houses that had sleeping people inside. So of course, they did what was right and they let the church burn. The community pulled together then to help one another. The daycare of a nearby synagogue took in all the children from Malibu Pres; other churches lent their sanctuaries and fellowship halls; there were widely attended fundraisers. I think it will pull together again now, but it's sort of overwhelming with the fires continuing to rage. I was supposed to be flying back to LA tonight to sing at a concert this weekend, but it's been canceled. My brother's school, as well as many within the LAUSD, is closed for the rest of the week (no complaints from him about that, though), and my mom will be working from home.

I hope the fires and the choking smoke do not make their way to you, or to the others from LA here.

Prayers for you and your family. Thank you for sharing the acts of human kindness in the midst of a tragedy.

 

[essentialsaltes]

All safe here, thanks. Can certainly see plumes of smoke.

My spouse got the phone emergency message, but I didn't.

A coworker came down the 405 past the fire yesterday morning, and I can't imagine how crazy that must have been.

A lot of friends have been dealing with school closures and road closures, etc., but nothing directly threatening them.

The winds are high, but (from my perspective) they carry everything out to the ocean.

It's hard for some people to grasp how big 'Los Angeles' is.

Roughly speaking, I'm perched on top of the L in Los, and downtown is a bit above the s in Los.

Ventura, where the worst fires are, is in a neighboring county, though it's certainly part of the Greater Los Angeles area.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

All safe here, thanks. Can certainly see plumes of smoke.

My spouse got the phone emergency message, but I didn't.

A coworker came down the 405 past the fire yesterday morning, and I can't imagine how crazy that must have been.

A lot of friends have been dealing with school closures and road closures, etc., but nothing directly threatening them.

The winds are high, but (from my perspective) they carry everything out to the ocean.

It's hard for some people to grasp how big 'Los Angeles' is.

Roughly speaking, I'm perched on top of the L in Los, and downtown is a bit above the s in Los.

Ventura, where the worst fires are, is in a neighboring county, though it's certainly part of the Greater Los Angeles area.

I was born in Ventura and grew up there and Santa Barbara. The Painted Cave fire started right after I left for Navy Boot Camp in Illinois and getting news was next to impossible.

 

[essentialsaltes]

There's a Google Maps overlay with California Fires.

And there is also the ever-reliable iscaliforniaonfire

 

[brinny]

I have never seen such an outpouring of Christian love and compassion until today.

Have you visited the Prayer Forum and support and encouragement forums?

I didn't know anything about what is going on in California. The OP was not clear to me. Sorry if i've missed something.

Nevertheless, there IS a prayer thread for California. I can post a link if you like.

i will go there now to pray for California.

 

[Almost there]

My daughter and her husband just left Studio City and moved to the Phoenix area. I have no relatives there any more, nor do I have any love for that city. However, I don't wish that on anyone. I am a bit torn because I see it, at least in a kind of weird "justice" way as a Sodom and Gomorrah thing, except there ARE a lot of good people in that area. It's just the stronger "evil doers" that get all the press.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Have you visited the Prayer Forum and support and encouragement forums?

I didn't know anything about what is going on in California. The OP was not clear to me. Sorry if i've missed something.

Nevertheless, there IS a prayer thread for California. I can post a link if you like.

i will go there now to pray for California.

I used to post prayer requests there when I was an Ambassador but it has become a Christian’s only area in the last two years.

 

[brinny]

I used to post prayer requests there when I was an Ambassador but it has become a Christian’s only area in the last two years.

Then you are aware of the prayers and support there already. Also, there's nothing preventing you from reading there.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Then you are aware of the prayers and support there already. Also, there's nothing preventing you from reading there.

Of course, I was just commenting that “you chose to live there” and “you made your bed, now sleep in it” didn’t sound like too much like Christian Compassion. Perhaps there are other internet sites that have some, I will look.

 

[brinny]

Of course, I was just commenting that “you chose to live there” and “you made your bed, now sleep in it” didn’t sound like too much like Christian Compassion. Perhaps there are other internet sites that have some, I will look.

I found some footage on Youtube.

The OP was confusing to me. Perhaps there should have been a request for prayer and why.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

I lived in a place FAR from an epicentre and only experienced a couple of small earthquakes. That was not for me.....at aaaallll


I'll choose to live where the air hurts my face for a few weeks a year!
;-)

I was a toddler the last time we had a major earthquake here so I barely remember it but the small ones we get every once in a while never really bothered me. They certainly are startling and it's not something people can just get used to and anytime an earthquake starts there's always a chance that it'll keep going and get stronger or that a small one can then trigger a much larger aftershock but, I don't really worry about it. There's plenty of other things that can get ya between the earthquakes and wildfires.

Really, I'd say the fires are a much bigger threat to life and property than an earthquake.

 

[keith99]

I was a toddler the last time we had a major earthquake here so I barely remember it but the small ones we get every once in a while never really bothered me. They certainly are startling and it's not something people can just get used to and anytime an earthquake starts there's always a chance that it'll keep going and get stronger or that a small one can then trigger a much larger aftershock but, I don't really worry about it. There's plenty of other things that can get ya between the earthquakes and wildfires.

Really, I'd say the fires are a much bigger threat to life and property than an earthquake.

Heck the fire were the biggest threat in the worst Earthquake in California if we make the measure loss of life. The San Francisco Quake was so devastating because both water and gas lines broke and fires spread.

Still California is hardly a dangerous place as far as nature goes. I remember both the Sylmar and Northridge quakes. My most vivid memory of the Sylmar Quake is the comments made by the cleaning lady who worked for us one day every 2 weeks. There was a pastor who post quake was leading his flock to somewhere safe, only somewhere safe was right in the middle of tornado ally. That is where she had grown up and her comments about searching for arms and legs (in a tone implying that they were hoping but not expecting them to still be attached) made it quite clear which place she considered the more dangerous.

 

[keith99]

Even though I'm not presently in LA, since I have a 310 number I receive the emergency notifications.
This was issued at 8:25 last night:View attachment 215626


@GoldenBoy89 @keith99 @Landon Caeli (I think you still in LA?) @essentialsaltes
did any of you receive it? Have your areas been impacted by the fires?

818 area code for me and I'd not be surprised if I'm towards the East end of the area the next 3 numbers cover. I'm about 8 miles West and 4 North of the Skirball fire. No notifications and I just went outside and no sign of any fires. Actually that is indicative of the thing that makes these fires dangerous, the high winds. The smoke is scattered quickly. On a calm day there would be a chance to see the smoke from a fire covering just a couple of acres up there from my house.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

Heck the fire were the biggest threat in the worst Earthquake in California if we make the measure loss of life. The San Francisco Quake was so devastating because both water and gas lines broke and fires spread.

Still California is hardly a dangerous place as far as nature goes. I remember both the Sylmar and Northridge quakes. My most vivid memory of the Sylmar Quake is the comments made by the cleaning lady who worked for us one day every 2 weeks. There was a pastor who post quake was leading his flock to somewhere safe, only somewhere safe was right in the middle of tornado ally. That is where she had grown up and her comments about searching for arms and legs (in a tone implying that they were hoping but not expecting them to still be attached) made it quite clear which place she considered the more dangerous.

I agree. I'll take the occasional earthquakes waking me up in the middle of the night over having to watch out for flying debris in a hurricane or tornado.

 

[keith99]

I agree. I'll take the occasional earthquakes waking me up in the middle of the night over having to watch out for flying debris in a hurricane or tornado.

Not to mention the biggest quake in the lower 48 since the white man has been here was not in California or even close. It was the last time the New Madrid fault system broke loose. Next time it goes may well be just as big and the local building codes will still not be up to what California has had for decades.

 

[rambot]

My daughter and her husband just left Studio City and moved to the Phoenix area. I have no relatives there any more, nor do I have any love for that city. However, I don't wish that on anyone. I am a bit torn because I see it, at least in a kind of weird "justice" way as a Sodom and Gomorrah thing, except there ARE a lot of good people in that area. It's just the stronger "evil doers" that get all the press.

MAn...seriously guy.
So when the next Tornado rips through the Bible belt in, oh, I don't know, a couple of months, do people get to say how disappointed God must be in the people who live there?
These natural events happen all over the world.

In the town north of me there was a big and terrifying fire (Fort McMurray Alberta). It is THE big oil producing town in Canada. There are PLENTY of people who disagree with what that town stands for. But it was only a small, very TINY portion of those people who had the audacious rudeness to suggest there was "justice" that "climate change caused this fire and they should smarten up". It's just a jerk move to have shaudenfreude when people are escaping terror. Did you laugh at all the sinners running out of the 9/11 towers? I'm sure you didn't.

 

[Hank77]

I recently swapped my 310 number out for a 714 one, so I didn't see that, but I can see the smoke from the Thomas fire. My wife texted me this yesterday though...
View attachment 215635

This morning we talked to our friends who live on the outskirts of LA. Two days ago they were told they should evacuate. They live in a gated community where all the owners got together and decided to stay. They all soaked their homes and trees with water and still have their sprinklers running on their yards. When the fire came through on the hill behind them it missed them and any sparks on the wind landed on wet materials.
He said that he used to look out his upstairs east windows at a grassy hills and trees, now everything is just charred black.

 

[keith99]

This morning we talked to our friends who live on the outskirts of LA. Two days ago they were told they should evacuate. They live in a gated community where all the owners got together and decided to stay. They all soaked their homes and trees with water and still have their sprinklers running on their yards. When the fire came through on the hill behind them it missed them and any sparks on the wind landed on wet materials.
He said that he used to look out his upstairs east windows at a grassy hills and trees, now everything is just charred black.

Great running the water and dropping the pressure even after the fire has past. Such good people.

 

[Landon Caeli]

This morning we talked to our friends who live on the outskirts of LA. Two days ago they were told they should evacuate. They live in a gated community where all the owners got together and decided to stay. They all soaked their homes and trees with water and still have their sprinklers running on their yards. When the fire came through on the hill behind them it missed them and any sparks on the wind landed on wet materials.
He said that he used to look out his upstairs east windows at a grassy hills and trees, now everything is just charred black.

Risky, but very impressive!