The house still stands adn Zeus is safe as of 2200 last night!!!
We were evacuated Monday afternoon. We had about 3 hours to get out and we were on standby anyway. Currently, the fire is 3 miles north of the house. The forest service is attempting to construct a fire line to the north of us with the help of bulldozers from an Army Combat Engineer Battalion. A dozer line is also being constructed to the west of us. So it is pretty much of a 2 front battle. The fire advance has not been as great as predicted because: 1) a successful backfire burn, 2) .45" of rain, 3) cooler temps (in the 60-70s during the day), and higher humidity (not the 4% humidity of the last few days). This fire is still not controlled by any means at this point. It really doesn't matter which way the winds blows, someone is going to get hammered. This fire needs to get controlled before the next wind blast arrives. Houses were lost as late as last night, so there are folks that are really hurting right now. There is also a large fire near South Park that will be sucking resources from this fire.
Rersources are getting really extended. Campus police from the local community college were manning roadblocks!! The good news is that there have been no deaths and few injuries to police/firefighters and civilians. These firefighters/police are just incredable. They are working 18+ hours/day for 14 straight days in very hazardous environments to save/protect houses for people that they don't even know. Of course, there will always be the few loudmouths that don't even recognize that effort.
Sorry to make a charity pitch in this forum, but according to the list at the Red Cross shelter, police and firefighters are running short of flashlights and long distance calling cards, if anyone would care to help out. Just contact your local Red Cross chapter for details.
Having just been through the standby evacuation drill, I thought that I
might pass on some lessons learned.
- Pack tax return files.
- Pack all financial files (including all insurance policies)
- Take still/videos of the whole house (inside and outside). Shoot
inside cupboards.
- Pack house plans
- Create/update household inventories. Include date purchased, item
description, purchase price.
- Check out your insurance limits. Consider insurance changes early.
The insurance companies slap a moratorium on this sort of thing early.
Let your insurance company know what is happening now. Don't start
racking up what you consider insurance expenses until you check with
your company. Different companies start the reimbursement clock at
different times. Find out from you policies the insurance limits,
deductibles, and any exclusions. That will help drive what to evacuate.
- Make those serious choices now about what is important. It will
surprise what what choices that you make. Don't dwell on the decisions.
Make the choice and move on. If you are considering getting a self
storage unit, get it early. They go fast.
- Move above items to a safe off site location
- Clear a defensible space around the house. That beautiful tree that
you adore will be a matchstick shortly anyway.
- Gather your phone lists and email addresses in 1 spot. Put these in
the car that you are going to take and leave them there.
- Gather all of your keys and put them in the car and leave them there.
Try to have multple keys for vehicles.
- Have a backpack with clothes, money, long distance calling cards,
credit cards, and bathroom articles. Carry this backpack with
EVERYWHERE. You never know when you might be separated. Put this in the
car and keep it there.
- Put your name, address, and contact information on your front door,
so that firefighters know who to contact to let you know your house is
OK.
- Remove gas, propane, paint, flammables from your house and put them
outside in clear view. This is to protect the firefighters from
explosions.
- Start reducing your freezer load now. Power will likely be shut off
(again to protect the firefighters). This means that your phone machine
will not work, so don't expect to check on your house by calling you
answering machine.
- In my case, the phone still worked with the power shut off.
- Move furniture away from the walls to the center of the room.
- Unplug everything.
- Put wet towels around sliding glass doors.
- Pack a cooler for food/ice. Have utensiles, salt, pepper, plates,
bowls, etc.
- Make arrangements for alternate pet care early. Get heart worm shots
for the pets if needed. Your pets will be very stressed because they can
smell the smoke. It really helps if the pets can be with you rather than
in some strange cage with strange dogs.
- Emergency shelters have phones, water, food, rest rooms and manned by
VOLUNTEERS 24/7. There are infrared pictures of the fire as well as
forest service maps depicting the fire fronts. There are TVs, games for
the kids, cots, EMTs at the shelter. There are also 30 minute long
distance calling cards provided. Everything at the shelter is free.
Remember this the next time an opportunity to contribute comes along. They
are also the origin of many false rumors. Take what you hear there with
a grain of salt unless it is from an official source. There are many
offers of help at the emergency shelters. The shelters are where the
daily briefings by the forest service occur. These guys have been very
upfront with the information.
- You must realize that this situation is very fluid. What might be
true at 1 moment may no longer be valid. If the firefighter's time is
spent providing information, then they aren't fighting the fire. Which
would you rather that they do??
- You must be patient and maintain the standby evacuation posture. I
was in that mode for a week before being evacuated. The tendency was to
relax the vigil and get sloppy with the organization.
- Communication with the outside world will be very difficult. Have a
prearranged single contact that can forward information to others. Email
access is spotty. There was no internet access at the emergency
shelters.
- Boredom followed by short periods of extreme activity is the norm
after you have been evacuated. Hurry up and wait is often heard.
Patience and flexibility are the words of the day.
Hope this helps.
