FIRE DRILL - LIFE IN SO CALI ABRUPTLY CHANGES FOR MOST

October 24, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

FIRE STORMS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUT MUCH ON HOLD

Temecula, CA - For most of the people who read my column, much of what is happening as the wildfires continue to burn here with many out of control, is covered on TV and shows people’s homes smoldering. That’s an unfortunate given. What is not being covered is how many other things are being affected. With the freeways shutdown, the whole flow of southern California has changed. Shipments out of anywhere south of T-town by Fed-Ex is not happening. UPS is
still making pickups and deliveries at least to and from Oceanside. No one is commuting to San Diego so all the businesses that see morning commuters have seemed like a ghost town, with many not experiencing any customers until 11AM or later. Traffic patterns around town reflect a time when only fifty thousand lived in this valley. Shows like the VALLEY IDOL (see preceding article) have been cancelled for the week because the promotion company putting it on is based out of southern San Diego. Grand parents, cousins and aunts are all staying with relatives here as upwards of 900,000 people have been ‘displaced’ by the amount of individual wildfires that are burning. In fact, whole towns have been evacuated. The fallout from the returning people and what they have to return to will be felt for years to come. Old people and children are being warned to be concerned about the health problems associated with all the smoke and ash floating in the air. Commerce and military operations from Camp Pendleton to San Diego are in limbo. Travel out from there either by plane or rail is sketchy and even small jets flying into (local) French Valley airport are landing with their lights on as a large cloud of dense smoke looms over the southern half of this valley. People have a sort of ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ attitude as the fires are still burning mostly out of control. The swiftness of this major catastrophy has numbed folks as they see that despite what man can do to himself and others, Mother Nature is much more devastating and relentless, caring neither for status, gender, religion, or memories. Today, many people are finding their life plans unalterably changed, something that wasn’t even dreamt of happening a week ago. Now, a good cry and perhaps another week will unfold before new plans can even be considered. Truly Eden is burning.

Posted in Commentary, News | Print | No Comments »