California Burning

I have a fb friend who lives nearby to there and the videos she's sharing on fb are heartrending...

I don't know of anyone who has heard from Russ, but he is likely pretty busy right now.

It sounds horrific, with such a traffic jam in the evacuation that people abandoned their cars and fled on foot. One family of five stayed in their car and did not make it. I am afraid there may be more like that.

We lived in nearby Chico for 20 years and my 92 year old mother in law is still there. The city is inundated with smoke. Paradise is devastated. It is a blue collar retirement community with many, many very elderly folks living in mobile homes, small old houses and apartments. There are many with limited drivers licenses, good for only certain days of the month to do their chores. Trying to picture all the ones I knew trying to evacuate is a terrible vision. Let’s hope the 5 confirmed fatalities is it, but I fear it will be much worse. Only good news is that Feather River Hospital, the only hospital in Paradise was not destroyed as previously reported on social media. But, sadly, Paradise elementary school where my daughter taught several years ago, is gone.

My son-in-law has family in Paradise. They work at the hospital and school. The hospital and school are gone. Their homes are gone. But they are safe. That's the most important thing. Many evacuated to Chico. The fire has now reached there.

There are also two large fires in Southern California. My dad's 82 year old cousin lives in Westlake Village, located in Los Angeles County near the Ventura County line. She was evacuated at 2:00 a.m. today. No one knows if her home is still there.

California has had more than our fair share of large fires this year. I'm hoping we get some rain soon.

Unfortunately the news in Paradise and surrounding areas is very bad - 80-90% of homes and structures appear to be destroyed. Firefighters from all over the west coast, including my town, have been deployed to help. This article shows photos of the destruction. So sad and scary. My thoughts are with Russ and all the Californians affected.

Russ is OK.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/note-from-russ-on-paradise-and-the-camp-fire

Nigel,
Thank you for posting the reference to his post!!

We're in the southern part of Sacramento County and don't have flames or destruction here. But, we have LOTS of smoke. So much, that local school districts are cancelling classes and many are wearing masks. We've just gone out for necessary trips (work and grocery) and skipped everything else. It's pretty bad.

I agree with Julie. The air is unhealthy and many schools have closed. I am only going outside when absolutely necessary. There is (finally) rain in the forecast next week. If it actually occurs it could help with the fire and the air quality.

My sister and brother-in-law lived in Paradise and lost their house and everything in it. Barely able to get out with just their animals. Took 9 hrs to drive 15 mi to Chico. Old, low-income, retired folks are only one part of the population. Many financially well off with nice homes and large properties as well.
Paradise is in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, a forest environment.

The smoke in San Francisco and the SF Bay Area has been extremely thick for 8 days now, with many people wearing masks. The air current’s path has been Paradise south over Sacramento area, south over SF Bay area and out to the ocean.

Paradise is gone and it will take many, many years to rebuild. 63 confirmed dead, appx 300 people still missing.

The takeaway is to make sure you have very good homeowners insurance, or renters ins, from a very reputable insurance co. It will save you a lot of grief if you ever need it, for any situation. My family learned this lesson when my other sister lost her house in the Oakland fire in 1991.

As was the case with the hurricane destruction in the Panama City area, I just checked the websites of three very prominent national news organizations and this story is nowhere to be found on their front pages. However, MSN does have an interesting article about why many people didn't get alerts.

I am in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, CA), we must be 150 miles away from Paradise as the crow flies (200 miles driving distance) and the air quality is worse than I have ever seen in over five decades living in the Bay Area. Even S.F. this past weekend was very bad. It's miserable but of course nothing like the tragic the loss of life and property that the area of the fire is suffering. We're having multiple of what used to be 100-year fires every year, it seems. Looking at Google street view for Paradise it looked like a beautiful town built right into a forest.

The property damage in Paradise is terrible. The catastrophic loss of life-unbearable. And it will probably only get worse. Now the humanitarian crisis is upon us. Thousands of people evacuated to Chico. All the centers are full. They have inadequate toilet facilities and are cramped. At least two of them now have a Norovirus outbreak. Many are camped at the WalMart parking lot and, once again, few toilets, no other facilities. Where is FEMA??? Where is the Red Cross??? This is a catastrophic situation and my many contacts in Chico tell me the relief efforts are fund raising, food and clothing collections, that sort of thing. That simply will not do! These people need a massive response before infectious disease, looting, desperation take over.

I’ve watched a lot of TV coverage and the Red Cross is there in Chico doing what they do to help.

They, and other charities, have asked people to stop donating used stuff that they have no use for and no place to store, but to donate money or gift cards instead.

I’ve also seen a posting on FB re: FEMA in Chico, how to contact them and how to request aid.

hey mrs. jo
thanks for everyone's concern. it is a sad situation in paradise and other small towns near there. the news everyday of the devastation and death is horrible, thousands of people with no where to go, setting up tents or travel trailers in walmart parking lot in chico is beyond. besides that it's like a warehouse full of clothes, diapers, toys, furniture, etc. some items not worthy or outdated food, so your junk is not always someone's treasure. it's like a dumping ground. with no restroom and toilet facilities. now i hear there is a norovirus there. caring people helping scared, lost and found animals, donating anything animal associated supplies and placing them where there is room, asking for rooms, hotels, houses, land to set up housing issues. heard nothing available for hundreds of miles to lay their weary minds and heads. price gouging and a hotline to track those "people"
i live in the bay area, east bay. the smoke here is sooooooo bad. the quality of air here are closing businesses, schools down.
had this happen last year with sonoma and napa wine country so california has had a bad year. with cost of living sky high, not much inventory, traffic everywhere residents are not happy.
i'm staying inside unless absolute necessity to go out.
heard there is an organization driving up this weekend with with washers and dryers to help, some food trucks and organizations to help feed them.
thanks again
aloha
PS read a nurse and her husband saw an elderly widow with no where to go and in a daze, took him in to help and now their dog keeps him company on the recliner, perfect buddies. that was a tear jerker. another lady in wheelchair wheeling down the road gets picked up by fire truck to get her outta there, another 92 year old woman throwing out her cardboard recycles and the garbage man carries her to his truck with her dog and rescues her. it's time to go. so many heroic stories

I’ve also seen a posting on FB re: FEMA in Chico, how to contact them and how to request aid.

I suppose they deserve some time. But, those who can’t get into a shelter are in the WalMart lot. FEMA set up an intake center 6 miles away in a church. How do they get there? And, they gave a toll free number for people to register. Most of these people don’t have phones. We have many friends in Chico after having lived there for twenty years. They tell us the disaster response when it comes to providing temporary housing has been sorely lacking so far. We shall see.

I’ve lived in Chico too. My sister in Paradise just lost her house. I know there’s a lot lacking in help. In every disaster there’s justifiable criticism of FEMA.

I think it’s a combination of Paradise / Chico / Oroville / Butte County infrastructure having no plan for a disaster of this magnitude, FEMA slowness (which they’re famous for) and falling short, shortage of housing for 27,000+ people, and many people who lost their homes having no plan and no resources in the event of an emergency.

There’s a lot of good going on there too.
Lots of people stepping up to help in any way they can.

No rain in the near term forecast. Saturday's forecast for Chico:

Saturday: Widespread haze. Areas of smoke. Sunny, with a high near
64. West southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the morning.

There IS rain in the forecast starting next week. When we haven’t had any measurable rain for >250 days a 40-50% chance of rain seems like a big deal in California.

https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2018/11/15/4407/disaster-recovery-center-open-chico

Disaster Recovery Center to Open in Chico

Release date: November 15, 2018 Release Number: DR-4407-CA NR 001

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), jointly
operated by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
(Cal OES) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will
open in Chico on Friday, November 16.

The DRC offers information concerning resources available to
homeowners, renters and business owners who sustained damage as a
result of the ongoing Camp Fire wildfire.

Great- a DRC. Complete your paperwork, go back to your tent, wait. FEMA needs to bring in the mobile homes. There are thousands of desperate people who need immediate housing, basically sanitation, health care, food.

There is something very wrong in CA with planning, zoning, and building codes. This is not the first time some fire disaster has occurred, taking hundreds of buildings. I believe the first one occurred about 10 years ago, when a complete suburb of LA burned out. It's a combination of Santa Ana wind conditions, building into the natural areas, not allowing fires to clear underbrush, and building codes.

I am unaware of such fires in Europe, although perhaps they occur. I think that there is a key difference - in Europe, most roofs are clay tile, and a lot of houses are stucco. Neither of these are flammable.

We need to rethink building materials in CA.

"I am unaware of such fires in Europe, although perhaps they occur."

Certainly they occur, for example - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-40318588/dozens-killed-in-huge-portugal-forest-fire

And this year the Mati fire killed scores and (less fatal, thankfully), there have been moor fires in England and forest fires in Andalucia and others.

Building codes are pretty strict in California, but were not always so. Old towns like Paradise, built on ridges and canyons piecemeal since after the gold rush, are very vulnerable to fire. We have not been serious rain for six months and that is fairly typical. Lot’s of fuel once a fire gets started. Modern houses have a better chance, but even then the underlying framing is wood. Caught in an intense fire storm that stucco exterior will not save the house. And, Google fires in Portugal and see what they endured a few years ago.

Actually these kinds of 'wild fires' are quite common in southern Europe these days. My home county of Spain, as well as others like Portugal and Greece are all plagued by wildfires every year.

During October of 2017 a huge wildfire ripped through Northern Portugal and Northwestern Spain in which at least 49 individuals lost their lives. Back in 2007 there were huge wildfires in the Peloponnese where at least 84 people perished. In 2012 and 2015 there were large wildfires in Catalonia, where I am from. Now that I live in southern California I see this is a global problem not a local one.

Every year we see wildfires increase in intensity and frequency in the United States and Europe too. I think that it is more climate change we should be worrying about than building regulations.

Susan made a good point about people "having no plan and no resources in case of emergency."
This is a good time to make sure your family has phone numbers for out-of-area contacts. (I was in a San Francisco highrise for the Pretty Big One [Loma Prieta earthquake], my husband was at a conference in Texas, and we both called our contact in Minneapolis since phone lines into the SF area were jammed.)