Hellfire in Southern California--need your prayers again (Rea: homes, place to live)

[bentaxlecrew]

Sorry jammer I missunderstood. I must have had too much smoke in my eyes! I am soo glad she is ok and with family!
Prayers are working people, only a side fire in Arrowhead that may be unpredictable.. They dont seem to worried about it. THe other fires are not out yet but they have them under control and expect full containment soon. Thank you all so so much for your thoughts and prayers.
Jd keep us posted on your family. Ill keep them in my prayers also! Lets pray they have a home to go home to. Lots of hugs to my Mo family!!

[Northwoods Voyager]

Have been to the area a few times, before the Cedar fire and afterwards. My youngest son and his family lived there during the fires and sent us pictures of the red sky at night time. Also the debris, soot, and such an their vehicles and on just about everything. He told us how hard it was to breathe when coming and going to work, etc. Even after the fires, as we drove through the area on our way to Julian, you could still smell the smoke.

We still have family members in Rancho Santa Fe that have not answered our calls. Hopefully they are OK at this time. My husband and I can only pray for everyone involved, citizens, firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, Red Cross workers, all volunteers, and everyone else. To all of you still in the path or being affected in any way, Bless you and please take care of yourselves. Good luck and God Bless.

[kareybear]

Sheesh you all brought back some memories here about the Fires in Cali...... Every year..... It is a big disaster and very sad time of year.... Do you think all these years the could do something about it some how? there are all these smart people out in the world that could try to prevent some of this stuff happening. Well I am very Sorry for you all in Cali...That is one thing I am glad to get away from.

[ShadowCaver]

Actually kbear [and I promise I will not go too far off editorilizing again... ], but wildfires are a natural endeavor, its actually good/positive for the land, the trees, the environment - when nature is allowed to run her course, in her own cycles. With the houses/developments/etc. in these places, of course humans desire to stomp out every fire - that does a few negatives though: one is that it creates a tinderbox of underbrush that when a fire does happen, it will be much more worser and bigger. Another is that many of the more native trees in those areas actually depend on fire (a) to remove/kill competing plants, and (b) to help themselves hatch more seeds. If allowed to work, ma nature is a beautiful [yet complicated ] lady - humans need to learn not to fight her, but to understand and work with her. I'll stop there...

[Mistymtsnowgirl]

I am here in Ca, wishing I was at our home there. The firestorm here is horrible. I am evacuated from my home in the mountains. Fire still raging there. This is the second time in 4 years I have had to leave my home. It's an awful experience. Thanks for all the prayers for our state and the people and our friends who have lost everything. My home on the mountain at this moment is okay. Well the area is so far. Waiting and worried.

[mrsgenealogy]

Once you've been through the experience of having been evacuated for a fire, it stays with you. I learned a lot from that experience and wish I could say I've done all I should do to prepare for every conceivable future emergency but I still have a ways to go.

I lived in Crestline when southern CA was on fire back in October and November of 2003. I happened to be off the mountain at a women's retreat in the Palm Springs area when the fire broke out. There were about 50 women in my group and we were not able to go back home and many struggled to get in touch with their children and loved ones to help them know what to do or take, much less be able to comfort and calm them or even protect them. It was a very difficult and emotional time for us all, along with the hundreds of thousands also impacted by the various fires.

We were evacuated for 11 days and there was no power on the mountain for even longer than that. All refrigerated foods were lost and even some refrigerators were thrown out once families were able to return to their homes. People who were down the mountain at work couldn't get home to their children or pets. Some of those pets died, either from lack of food and water or in one case I knew of, a woman's birds died because in those 11 days or so while her family was gone, the weather went from very hot to very cold and she thought the birds must not have been able to handle the cold.

The good news is that the cold, wet weather is what helped the firefighters get a handle on what was called The Old Fire. As I recall, that cold weather was not in the forecast and I always believed it was the result of prayer. This time, I believe that prayer has resulted in the winds dying down, among other things.

You've done a good thing in starting this thread, NBEric!



It may seem strange to some, but to many of us, prayer is such an important part of our days and the source of strength, not to mention comfort and peace for those doing the praying and those they are praying for! I'm glad I found this thread. It is a comfort to know that so many here are united in prayer. Hopefully, my comments will give some of you who haven't had to endure such a difficult experience, a little more idea of things you can be praying for. For the record, I just want to say that I know that all prayers count and even if we don't know exactly how to pray or what details to pray about, God hears them all! Now, that is some encouraging news!

I'm happy to join with you all in prayer!

MrsG

[northbayeric]

Thank you so much, everyone! I have some friends who until recently lived in the city of Downey, located about 15 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. They moved up to the fast-growing town of Elk Grove, just south of Sacramento, so thankfully for them they have been spared from all the fires and smoke-filled air down there.

When I initially learned about the outbreak of fires, it did seem that the property damage would surpass Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Thank the Good Lord that the Santa Ana winds have evanesced and the firefighters are making some real progress in getting the fires extinguished. To those of you who have family members in the affected areas of southern CA, and to you, Mistymtsnowgirl, you are sure in my prayers and thoughts. I can remember a number of years ago when I could see wildfires on the hills near Highway 101 between Santa Rosa and Healdsburg after dark with a pair of binoculars. Certainly nothing on the scale of what we're enduring now down south, but up here the grass on the hills gets as dry and brown as you can imagine each summer, and stays that way usually through October and into early November.

Shadowcaver is right about the beneficial effects of fires--but when they burn in moderation. When there are controlled burns, no one is adversely affected. It's when dead brush is allowed to accumulate to the point that these gigantic fires with flames leaping up well over 100 feet in height that there's too much of a good thing, I would argue--and people's lives are threatened. Some of this dead growth on the ground needs to be periodically thinned out a bit as an essential component of sound forest management, to reach a happy medium between no fires at all and those that get completely out of control.

This has been a NorthBayEric editorial. Now back to our original programming....

[northbayeric]

Very special thanks to mrsgenealogy for your very moving post. It's during these kinds of tragedies and natural disasters that people move together to depend on each other, and God's light can shine through us more brightly. He answers all our prayers--maybe not always in the way we want, but in ways that we can look back later in time and thank Him for steering us toward an even better path.

This could be a good time to perhaps pay secondary attention to the relentless negative and sensationalistic coverage of the southern California fires by the media, and focus more on neighbor helping neighbor as best as we can. Donating to the Red Cross is but one way we can help the fire victims. And we all need to keep our heads, trust that God is always loving and merciful especially in times like these, and not succumb to cynicism and despair. Our tomorrows will be better!

[bentaxlecrew]

Blue skies today! Whew my daughter was actaully starting to get sick from the bad air! Its all good now. Not 100% but way better.I hope you were able to contact your family N.V.
My family and I tried to head out to the Mojave for what we thought my be fresher air. No dice. It was worse! To top it off my husband blew up the motor in his Quad. So needles to say we came right back home . AT least we can all take a deep breath now!Thanks for all your prayers. And your words of wisdom Shadow

[mrsgenealogy]

Originally Posted by northbayeric

Very special thanks to mrsgenealogy for your very moving post. It's during these kinds of tragedies and natural disasters that people move together to depend on each other, and God's light can shine through us more brightly. He answers all our prayers--maybe not always in the way we want, but in ways that we can look back later in time and thank Him for steering us toward an even better path.

This could be a good time to perhaps pay secondary attention to the relentless negative and sensationalistic coverage of the southern California fires by the media, and focus more on neighbor helping neighbor as best as we can. Donating to the Red Cross is but one way we can help the fire victims. And we all need to keep our heads, trust that God is always loving and merciful especially in times like these, and not succumb to cynicism and despair. Our tomorrows will be better!

Well said, Eric! It was amazing to see how people pulled together during and after the 2003 fires! I'm sure there are thousands of stories that people could tell of heroism and kindness over the last week or so in southern California, too! Hopefully, the media will take the time, now to focus on some of these stories.

I'm glad you mentioned The Red Cross because they have also come under some of that negative media sensationalism in recent years. I was discussing it with someone the other day, saying that I was concerned that the actions of a few and the unfair treatment of the media have together dealt a strong blow to The Red Cross in the last few years. The main problem with this, besides the fact that many people seem to have "thrown out the baby with the bathwater", is that there isn't another group that is able or prepared to take their place in providing emergency shelter and coordinate meeting other needs in the same way that The Red Cross does. But if we don't help them financially, they won't have the resources to do that WHEN crises strike.

I discovered this past week that they actually have a 4 star rating in a 1 - 4 star system according to a website that rates charities called Charity Navigator. Here's a link to that page: Charity Navigator Rating - American Red Cross If someone wants to be sure that their money will be well spent in helping to meet people's needs, this site may help them find those answers.

On another note, I'm so glad to know that all of you out in CA are okay! We haven't heard from mistymtnsnowgirl in awhile so I hope she is okay, too.