I drove down to San Diego County on Sunday night to be with my family, which had to evacuate our house due to the fire. They live in the northeastern area of the city of Poway, and around 11:30 p.m. they were notified of the "voluntary evacuation."
I grew up about a two miles from Poway High School and to hear that my family was going to be evacuated was devastating. Because I travel between Poway and CSULB quite often, I have many personal items in my room in that house. I wanted to get down to my house and try to pack up all my important items, such as pictures and scrapbooks, as well as help my family pack the important things that they wanted to take with them.
Our family also has three dogs and a cat, so I wanted to help organize the chaos. Luckily we have four drivers in my family, so we could take our four cars and pack them with our animals and items. My mother didn't want to wait until the "mandatory evacuation" (which was notified for our area at approximately 3 a.m.). Before I drove to Huntington Beach to meet my family in Poway, I stopped to fill my car with gas. Even though the fires weren't threatening that area of Orange County, people were frantically filling their cars with gas. I noticed many personal items in the trunks of the cars. This was at approximately 10 p.m. I had to drive with both hands sturdily on the wheel of my car because the winds were so strong that they were rocking it from side to side on the 5 Freeway south. I arrived to my house at 11:30 p.m. to notice that the wind and smoke were much stronger then what it was in Los Angeles and Orange County. Trees had fallen on my house and it was almost impossible to breathe normally. By 11:45 p.m. we were out of my house and on our way to Sun City (which is between Riverside and Temecula, near Lake Elsinore) to stay at my grandma's house, whose area wasn't being threatened by any fire. I planned on driving back up to CSULB on Monday, but all the freeways were and still are blocked, and it just wasn't worth it to leave my family and try to drive through what could be threatening freeways. My teachers were more than understanding about my situation and said they had received e-mails from other students who were stuck in cities and couldn't make it to class. As of right now, I am currently stuck in Sun City. We are keeping our eye on the news hoping that the Fallbrook fire (which is 20 minutes away) doesn't come close to where my family is staying. Many roads are shut down and the winds are moving so fast that they are moving fires along very quickly. In Ramona, outside in eastern San Diego County, a couple of hours ago the fire was moving 300 yards/minute. The status of my city is not in good condition. Two-thirds of Poway has evacuated. Poway has approximately 60 to 70 destroyed homes, and they are still roaring. The area that is threatened is south of Poway Lake and east of Espola Road, which means the fire is heading straight to my house. My brother's best friend, who hadn't evacuated yet, lives a quarter of a mile away from us and said there were roaring flames 100 feet from his house. Because we are in Sun City (aka the middle of no where) we only receive Los Angeles TV channels, which have touched minimally on the fires in San Diego. Thank god for KUSI because they seem to be one of the only San Diego news channels that we have found that are streaming live video on a website. This, and receiving text-messages from our friends, are the only way we have been able to stay updated. Poway had a large amount of area that was destroyed in the 2003 Cedar Fire, and it is unbelievable and so devastating that this city is hit so hard again. The Poway Fire Department has said that the area that is threatened now is "fresh" because it wasn't burnt from the 2003 fire, so it is ready and willing to catch fire. From what I have heard on KUSI, the Poway firefighters are going to take a three-hour break to sleep because they are beyond fatigued from battling the flames all day. They have also said that this fire just can't be controlled right now. Many of my friends' houses have been destroyed, along with the houses of my brothers and sisters' friends. Most people who I know have checked into hotels or have driven to family members' homes who live far away from the fires.
The problem is is that new fires keep sparking up all over the place, so it is hard to find a place where you think you are safe. It seems as if every five minutes a new city or area is being told to evacuate. The nights have been long, and I just hope that this is all going to end soon. I am praying for all of the families whose homes are threatened and have been destroyed by this fire. I am praying that the fire can be controlled soon and that the damage is close to done.
Lauren Darmody is a junior journalism major and the calendar editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
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