Let's spare a thought for the thousands in California who have lost homes, had to evacuate

[malaise]

and are scared and traumatized by these terrifying fires.
I cannot imagine being in that situation.

[kelliekat44]

1. I luv you Malaise. Nice post. Have family there. Thanks. nt

[malaise]

2. Love you back - I have a niece in SF

but she's fine

[pinboy3niner]

3. Media reporting 9,000 more homes are threatened

The death of the 72-year-old woman with MS who was unable to evacuate her home was especially tragic.

[malaise]

4. Yes the sick and elderly are more vulnerable

that must have been terrifying.

Let's hope the rain comes down overnight and tomorrow and spares those homes.
This is a major disaster but all we're seeing is Trump.

[randys1]

5. This is an economically depressed area in the first place. These fucking

fires aint helping.

Good on you to think of these people at this time.

[malaise]

10. There are scumbags looting

some of these homes - how can you prey on these people??

[randys1]

11. No justification for that. HOwever, I tend not to judge people who are so

bad off that they would loot.

[Tree-Hugger]

6. .

[handmade34]

7. ….

I drove through those earlier fires a few weeks ago… tragic

[City Lights]

8. .

[historylovr]

9. ...

[840high]

12. ....

[sarge43]

13. ...

[draa]

14. They are in my thoughts.

[Phlem]

15. .

[jeff47]

16. If you'd like to get an idea of what they're going through

Here's some folks fleeing one of the fires in their car.

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/driving-through-a-fire-looks-like-going-through-hell-1730668149

[malaise]

17. Unbelievable indeed

but they did the right thing

[passiveporcupine]

18. I"m really hoping El Nino restores some water to the state and helps with this drought

If this drought continues in northern Cali, and Oregon and other states, without relief, we are all in big trouble. So far Oregon has not been as bad as I expected. Washington was bad and now Cali is seriously bad.

Does anyone have a count on how many homes lost?

That youtube video linked to by Jeff47 is really frightening. I live in a place where I migiht have to do that kind of a drive to get out if there is a fire north of me. I'm on a dead end narrow road with forest on both sides of the road.

What surprised me about that drive is that no falling buring trees ended up in the road to block them.

[malaise]

26. Stay safe

and yes they were lucky

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. To the victims of the fires in the western U.S...

[Mnemosyne]

20. ...

[Texasgal]

21. Absolutely!

This is indeed terrifying!

[jwirr]

22. .....

[secondvariety]

23. Those poor people.

[valerief]

24. At least the wealthy have green lawns. That's most important.

[malaise]

25. Most important is the non-stop coverage of Trump

[valerief]

30. Oh, what was I thinking! But of course.

He's on Rachel right now. I'm too far from the remote to shut it off. Hehehe.

[passiveporcupine]

29. We were asked to reduce our water usage by 25% and not water lawns

I did, for the most part, but I did have to water two times this summer, because if I didn't I was surrounded by a tinder box and it just was not a safe situation to be in. My grass died and the weeds took over, but I did have a little green showing (dandies) and kept it grazed (with goats). Did not have to mow because with the intense heat we had an no watering, there was no grass growing.

When the rains came a few weeks ago, everything started greening up again. My goats are happy now and cleaning out the weeds for me. They are mowing the grass too, but they prefer weeds.

What bothered me is that most of us followed the rules, but there were three families on our road that never stopped watering and one of them had a huge yard (about half an acre) in an open spot where a forest fire was not a threat. It's like some people think rules just don't apply to them.

[valerief]

32. I'm on the east coast, so I'm not in your position, but I'm very sympathetic.

It must be scary.

I think all the neighbors should get together and let their dogs crap on the offenders' lawns. What the hell.

[malaise]

34. LOL

That would be perfect

[SoapBox]

27. My thoughts for fellow Californians.

[babylonsister]

28. Thanks for this, malaise.

And the flooding in Utah. So many victims.

[malaise]

31. That was some weird freak flooding in Utah

Those poor women and children

[mcar]

33. K&R

Terrible situation.

[mountain grammy]

35. Be safe out there. You're in my thoughts, California..

we've been so lucky in Colorado. Some of the wettest years I've seen in my 30+ years here.

[greatlaurel]

36. Thank you for posting this. That has to be truly horrible to go through.

A house fire is terrible to recover from and there are thousands of people left homeless. It is just awful and the news media practically ignores it.

Good luck to all those people to get back on their feet quickly. What good is government if we cannot help people in need?

[classof56]

37. I've been sending good thoughts their way since last week.

Have a friend I finally got ahold of this p.m., learned he had to evacuate but so far, his house has been spared.

Heartbreaks enough to go around. Thanks for this post!

[lonestarnot]

38. Just fucking terrible.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. .

[tandot]

40. My in-laws and many friends lost their homes

My in-laws are living with us right now ... I just don't know how much more I can take ... I just lost my mom ... This fire is beyond horrific ... destruction all the way

[Jane Austin]

41. I heard today

that an old friend lost his home. They got out with two carloads of their things but lost everything else.

Stay safe, Californians.

[flamingdem]

42. I'm just catching up with this news

since my TV is on the blink. In Socal I haven't heard much mention of it yet.

[Stardust]

43. ...

[countryjake]

44. Kick and Recommend!