Article

2007-10-22 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

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Posted by Fred 2007-10-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 Dozens of celebrities' homes endangered. They'd better get these fires under control soon or 100% of the nations news staffs will be there covering them, and we won't have access to what else is going on in the world.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-10-22 07:24|| 2007-10-22 07:24|| Front Page Top

#2 "Dozens of celebrities' homes endangered. They'd better get these fires under control soon or 100% of the nations news staffs will be there covering them, and we won't have access to what else is going on in the world."

Snark o' the day - and possibly of the week!

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-10-22 07:44|| www.celiahayes.com]">[www.celiahayes.com] 2007-10-22 07:44|| Front Page Top

#3 well....staying home today in case I need to evacuate the pet and valuables....it's bad news here in San Diego - 8 fires, I-15 is closed at Rancho Bernardo and most E-W highways have closures. Waiting to see what the Santa Ana winds do after sunrise..."luckily", most of the brush fuel on the hills near my abode burned in the Cedar Fire - had to evacuate then

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 07:55|| 2007-10-22 07:55|| Front Page Top

#4 we had 3" total of rain last year (Al didn't visit - no Gore Effect) and the humidity's dropped to 10% with 90+ degree heat and high winds (gusts to 50-60 mph)...Santa Ana's suck, big time

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 08:07|| 2007-10-22 08:07|| Front Page Top

#5 Best wishes and good luck, Frank and Left Coast 'Burgers.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2007-10-22 11:16|| 2007-10-22 11:16|| Front Page Top

#6 Would it help to bring Al in (on a private jet, of course) for a 'Live on the Scene' broadcast?

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-10-22 12:31|| 2007-10-22 12:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Camped in the desert this weekend. It was so dry we could just about feel the water being sucked out of our bodies almost as soon as we'd drink it. I didn't even sweat much. It was more like it was just evaporating right out of me. Drove home Sunday morning through Julian, Santa Ysabel and Ramona which is now under a mandatory evacuation order. The wind was hot, dry and violent blowing out of the ENE which is opposite of our usual onshore flow from the ocean. We could feel the gusts rocking the car. I didn't dare even think the word fire. I think it was about 2:30 p.m. when the first fire started in Santa Ysabel. All those places in the back country are dry as a bone. They are all like tinder just waiting for any kind of a spark. No way would I own a home out there.

Yes, we do this every year. You'd think we'd learn but we don't. Then the people get all upset with their insurance companies when they have trouble with their claims and renewing their policies.

I live at the beach so my only concern is all the smoke in the air. We have an air quality problem. But guys were out surfing this morning. The surf is up and I saw one guy catching a great wave. I predict he'll have trouble breathing for the rest of the day though because the smoke constricts the bronchial tubes. I can make that prediction because I've done it before myself.

Yes, Frank G, Santa Anas suck. Even if they don't start a fire the static electricity makes me uneasy, every time I touch anything metal I get zapped, and the air is do dry that my skin itches. It takes a special kind of idiot to live in California.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-10-22 12:36|| 2007-10-22 12:36|| Front Page Top

#8 And in other, dated but more positive cemetary news:

Dr Salaam Ismaels return to Fallujah, Iraq

Dr Salaam Ismael

Dr Salaam Ismael wrote the exclusive report in Socialist Worker earlier this year that revealed shocking evidence of what happened in Fallujah when US forces stormed the city last November.

Since then Dr Salaam has been travelling around the Middle East exposing the brutal realities of the US occupation. He returned to Fallujah last month.

On the borders of Fallujah I found 5,000 people who were living on water drawn directly from the river.

Dr Shamael Ishawi is from the health clinic in this area. He told me that the unclean river water is leading to the spread of typhoid.

Inside the city the hospital which I had spent some time in earlier this year is in ruins. Refugees have returned to the city, but they are living in appalling conditions.

There is no evidence whatsoever of the reconstruction effort that the Iraqi government and the US claim is underway.

Residents have to pass through five checkpoints to get into the city. The Iraqi troops on the checkpoints humiliate the people, calling them sons of bitches, sons of dogs. They and their cars are searched. There can be no question of foreign fighters operating inside Fallujah.

But still you can hear occasional gunfire. There are acts of resistance by ordinary residents who remain deeply opposed to the occupation.

Its not surprising when you consider that the water in the city itself is not clean. A doctor told me there was severe dysentery because there was no clean water.

I have a list from doctors in the city saying what they need. They have no anaesthetics or antibiotics. It is hell.

We went to the cemetery and there was a freshly dug trench. I asked one of my friends why it was there. He said it was because they expected another assault on the city and we have to be ready to bury bodies.

Its also clear that the US army and their Iraqi puppets are repeating the kind of assault they launched on Fallujah on other cities.

I was part of a team trying to bring medical aid to people in western Iraq. We tried to get to a place called Ramana on the border of the city of al?Qaim on 6 June.

But the Americans blockaded the road and refused to let people enter. When we told them we were doctors, they still refusedand they took the tapes from the cameras we were using to film.

So we decided at least to stay in the clinic near Ramana. We stayed to help the clinic. We saw the families leaving the city as refugees. We saw about 300 families leaving to try and find a place to stay. They ended up having to stay in the desert.

By coincidence I saw one of my friends who had been working in the hospital. He went out through the desert to try and get some help for the clinic. We had a chat with him.

What he described was like what happened in Fallujah it was a disaster. People were being prevented from going into the hospital.

All the time the US and Iraqi forces were sending troops into the hospital, saying they were looking for insurgents. Anyone who was young and had been shot was taken directly from inside the hospital.

After that they started bombing by aircraft all the houses on the border of al-Qaim.

They continued to prevent anyone going inside the city to help injured people. Because of that there were many people left trapped under collapsed buildings mainly women and children. I have just received a phone call saying there are still bodies trapped under the rubble.

After that we entered Ramana and saw a grave of 13 members of one family who had been killed in one air attack. They were all in one grave. On the sign next to it it said the youngest of them was two years old.

They are attacking and seizing any young person. The west of Iraq is in medical and humanitarian crisis. I am passing on the desperate appeal from doctors in the area for immediate medical assistance.

The following should be read alongside this article:
» Voices from the Iraqi wilderness

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6923

Posted by Besoeker 2007-10-22 12:40|| 2007-10-22 12:40|| Front Page Top

#9 Minder... please delete the above, wrong article.

Posted by Besoeker 2007-10-22 12:42|| 2007-10-22 12:42|| Front Page Top

#10 Overheard on the Limbaugh program (from a caller): "Having the Sierra Club manage your forest is like having Michael Jackson babysit your kids."

Posted by eLarson 2007-10-22 13:21|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2007-10-22 13:21|| Front Page Top

#11 LOL, eLarson! That comment (and Glenmore's snark in #1) are "right on the money!"

Meanwhile, here in North GA (Metro Atlanta), we've been told we're now down to only 80 days of lake storage for drinking water. Two years ago, it was nuttin' but gloom and doom after Katrina/Rita/Wilma. What I'd give for a good tropical storm rain now!

Posted by BA 2007-10-22 14:38|| 2007-10-22 14:38|| Front Page Top

#12 Interesting satellite shot showing the smoke from the fires going well out to sea.

Posted by Gabby Cussworth 2007-10-22 15:04|| 2007-10-22 15:04|| Front Page Top

#13 over 250,000 evacuated so far. If the wind doesn't stop, it'll burn right to the ocean, just like the Cedar fire almost did

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 15:54|| 2007-10-22 15:54|| Front Page Top

#14 Where do 250K ~~refugees~~ evacuees *go* in SoCal?

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2007-10-22 16:29|| 2007-10-22 16:29|| Front Page Top

#15 my Mom's? People are just helping people - sometimes even Californians measure up to the task. Craigslist has a section of people who are offering their yards for displaced pets and hotels are loosening no-pets rules and offering discounts for evacuees. Qualcomm stadium is opened up. Parkway Plaza Mall in El Cajon has opened their parking lot for cattle, horses, etc. - the Lakeside Rodeo grounds up the road from me are full.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 16:45|| 2007-10-22 16:45|| Front Page Top

#16 : my Mom's?

Yep. FTW. Set 48,000 extra plates (paper okay)

That's how.

Posted by Thomas Woof 2007-10-22 16:51|| 2007-10-22 16:51|| Front Page Top

#17 Santana High School down the street is nearly full of evacuees, several others are full. My sister's neighborhood in Scripps Ranch just had a mandatory evacuation. She and her family and dog are at my Mom's in Chula Vista. I don't think I'll have to evacuate this time unless there's a wind shift

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 16:52|| 2007-10-22 16:52|| Front Page Top

#18 Yikes. I could end up with inlaws at my house.

Posted by treo 2007-10-22 16:55|| 2007-10-22 16:55|| Front Page Top

#19 Good Luck Frank..

lived with Santa Anas down South back when.. Used to go in to LA from Twenty Nine Palms... They SUCK!

We have offshore winds up here today.. it is beautiful tho..

Posted by Red Dawg">Red Dawg 2007-10-22 17:23|| 2007-10-22 17:23|| Front Page Top

#20 It's burning well to the south of my parents in Valley Center above the Guijito. I just spoke to my mother; The area has been told to evacuate, and all the residents of the Skyline mobile-home development have been evacuated - lots of frail elderly there - but the deputies are not insisting on it with Mom and Dad and their close neighbors. It's clear as a bell at my parents' house. They can clearly see all the smoke is well to the south. Mom and Dad have the car and the pickup all packed, though. They lost their house in the Cedar/Valley Center fire in 2003, and just finished the last of the rebuilding this last year!

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-10-22 17:49|| www.celiahayes.com]">[www.celiahayes.com] 2007-10-22 17:49|| Front Page Top

#21 unless if the wind changes direction overnight looks like we're making it through OK here, and my sister's house is still standing
*crosses fingers*

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-10-22 21:42|| 2007-10-22 21:42|| Front Page Top

#22 I hope you're safe, Frank. As someone who owns thousands of books and numerous guitars, fire is one of my greatest fears. Currently, I'm blessed with a nextdoor moron in my duplex who has set off her smoke alarm more times than all the other residents in the last two decades combined. I'm sure she thinks it is a kitchen timer or something.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-10-22 22:02|| 2007-10-22 22:02|| Front Page Top

#23 I heard they were using Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Are the Bolts in town this week?

Posted by eLarson 2007-10-22 22:45|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2007-10-22 22:45|| Front Page Top

#24 Tomlinson and other Chargers have evacuated their homes, Rancho Santa Fe and Delmar etc areas. Glad I sold my house in Vista 5 years ago, mud season and fire seasons then the traffic was the last straw after 18 years...daughter is a County Sheriff Deputy, lives 5 miles south of Rancho Bernardo.
This is by far worse than the 2003 fire.

Posted by Phinater Thraviger 2007-10-22 23:23|| 2007-10-22 23:23|| Front Page Top

23:53 Verlaine
23:53 JosephMendiola
23:51 Verlaine
23:51 JosephMendiola
23:49 JosephMendiola
23:35 treo
23:32 Zhang Fei
23:32 Verlaine
23:24 Verlaine
23:23 Phinater Thraviger
23:20 Throger Thains8048
22:48 eLarson
22:45 eLarson
22:32 Glenmore
22:31 Barbara Skolaut
22:22 Glenmore
22:19 Glenmore
22:16 Barbara Skolaut
22:13 CrazyFool
22:02 Zenster
21:57 twobyfour
21:42 Frank G
21:41 Zenster
21:33 lotp