I'm alive, and safe. So is the Chrysler. We had a fire, the Almeda Fire, rip through the southern end of the valley and charge north. Two towns, Talent and Phoenix, were nearly erased from the map. Yeah, the same Talent where Microtrain's resides. They came through unscathed, but some employees have lost everything. The fire came within 5 miles from my work, pushed along with 40mph winds. A local TV station has a camera on top of the retirement home structure which is higher than any other point in the valley, and after dark when the camera was pointed toward Phoenix and Talent, it looked like Dresden, Germany in 1944 after an Allied bombing raid. The pyres in the distances were the 800-1000 homes and apartments, or numerous businesses burning to the ground. At one point listening to the scanner, a task force leader proclaimed "we're writing off San George and Glenwood Mobile Estates, we'll make our stand at South Stage Rd." The fire didn't get past South Stage, and San George still stands. Another fire popped up on the north end of Medford, this one nearly getting into the RR park, they were calling for immediate evacuations, I thought the park and clubhouse would be lost, but Medford Fire beat it back. This was all Tuesday and Tuesday night. Yesterday afternoon, another fire right near where the north Medford fire was took off and began charging toward Central Point. Hotels, a Pilot Truck Stop and Costco all were immediately evacuated as it took off. As it parallelled the freeway, it was closed as DC-10 retardant bombers made drops across the freeway to impede the fire. Once again, the fire department won, with no structures lost and stopped it just as it was entering the property at a Holiday Inn Express. One of my coworkers lost everything, another thought he had but found his trailer still standing, kinda warped and melted but the contents inside intact, even having his fridge still working with cold beer and frozen steaks. Another coworkers house somehow survived, but his fathers house, and his brothers house a block over are gone. We already had a very tight housing situation here, this just made it leagues worse than it was. Today, we're choking on smoke and ash from the fires that burn in the mountains around us, with more evacuations in place as the towns of O' Brien, Cave Junction, and Shady Cove are in imminent peril. We all hope the forecast for rain next week comes true. I leave you a link to a helicopter flight to video the damage.
How many more Californian's need to be displaced by fire before people wake up and realize that California is NOT the place to be?
And people living in Louisiana, gulf areas of Texas, Alabama, Carolina's that are in the areas of hurricanes, all the time. NOT the places to be, in my eyes either. And how about, say Oklahoma, in the tornado belt, when a twister levels a town, down to rubble. NOT the place to be either. So then, tell me, and other's, where's the place to be? EVERYWHERE has got some disaster(s) to continually put up with.
Agreed that Mother Nature's in charge, you can't control the weather, but you can control the environment from lightning fires caused by M.N. by maintaining the forest's, which CA. refuses to do! Plus the state's already way overcrowded to begin with which is also part of the problem!
So then Stubbs, where do you live? Conveniently not listed in your location for what ever your reason. So, if California has lots of population, just where is one going to go to decrease the population in this state? North Dakota, Wyoming, Rhode Island, some state in the USA that doesn't have much of a population. Not realistic, now is it. Not realistic either on blaming all of California's problems on the state. The federal government, also has so many F'ed up rules, laws, regulations, keeping from doing burns in forests to cut down on vegetation. Man has also F'ed up the Everglades, where that other poster lives, for decades, so each area of the country has their own unique problems.
Then your very familiar with the arm pit of that state, Waterbury, Connecticut. I left that dump, in 1973, and joined up with the Air Force. Wanted to get as far away from that city, as i could, and after duty assignments in Texas, Germany, California, i just stayed here upon discharge. California, is the place to be, as the Beverly Hillbillies, song says. Growing up, Surf movies, dune buggies, Beach Boys music, sure had an influence, growing up in CT.
I can remember the controversy about using the super tanker 7?7 whatever to fight fires and why they wouldn't allow them way back when. Something about when they dumped the load that it would collapse the roof if not the whole house, then the low flight hazardous condition of maybe crashing the plane. Now they want a fleet of 3 thousand? oh baby how the times have change! .
my name for norwich. like you my dream is to get the f*** out. for me Vermont is the place to be. not quite as boring. hurricane Irene...
carrman glad you are ok so far. my brother lives in grants pass and works out of medford. he is worried big time as he should be and i worry for him too. he is keeping me posted daily. and yes there are some fucking assholes on this site that dont give a shit about anyone but themselves . stay safe regards Paul
Well, ya dont dump it all at once...;-) The 747 is a good tanker, but not as useful in these canyons and such where we normally get our fires. We had DC-10's, a 737, some Bae jets and a DC7 bombing the Almeda fire, dropping on neighborhoods to keep them from burning.
As much as I have grown to hate New Jersey, we seem to skirt many a disaster. Apparently, there was even a 3.3 mag earthquake on Tuesday or Wednesday and nobody noticed. Thoughts and prayers to you all in the fire belt which seems to get worse every year. Not much any politicians can do against Mother Nature, money burns just as easily as trees.
Sitting here in Michigan wondering when the family in California is moving back. I have a brother that moved out there when he retired to live near all his kids and grand kids. They are all in the Bay Area and Seattle. What a ****fest these areas have turned into. “Red sky at night, Sailer’s Delight” now means pack up and hightail it! Michigan winters don’t seem so bad anymore.
