Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Stay safe - I hope your sister is ok!!!

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Just saw this pic from NASA. It' unbelieveable.

Please be safe!!!!!!

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Thinking about you...please be safe and breathe.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Holy crap Phyl!!!

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

I hope your safe, as is your sister and mother

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Continuing to think about you, your family and your safety

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

You and your family are in my prayers. I hope you are all ok.
We are here for you! Hang in there sweetie.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Message edited 11/13/2011 1:48:10 PM.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Oh Phyl...God Bless you all. get to your mom. be safe be careful. I hope you hear from her soon!

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

I'm finally at my moms house. No sister

They had her neighborhood on the news and it looks scary

The reporter lost her signal and the tv froze!

The fire is still just over the hill from my Moms. Please pray these winds stop


Thank you all so much. I am so grateful to have friends like you all

I have never seen so many people with worried looks on their faces as I did when I went to get gas

Fire fighters just rushed up the hill by my moms house

Message edited 10/22/2007 8:48:19 PM.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Posted by Phyl

I'm finally at my moms house. No sister

They had her neighborhood on the news and it looks scary

The reporter lost her signal and the tv froze!

The fire is still just over the hill from my Moms. Please pray these winds stop


Thank you all so much. I am so grateful to have friends like you all

I have never seen so many people with worried looks on their faces as I did when I went to get gas

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

I'm glad you & your mom are safe.

that your sister is on her way.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Posted by nrthshgrl

I'm glad you & your mom are safe.

that your sister is on her way.

Message edited 10/22/2007 8:50:40 PM.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

I'm so glad you're at your mom's, now I'm praying that your sister will be there soon!

Message edited 10/22/2007 9:03:48 PM.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Oh Phyl I am glad you and your Mom are safe now and I'm sure you'll see your sister soon.. but how scary for you all

Hang in there, and keep us posted on how you are all doing when you can

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Posted by Phyl

Posted by nrthshgrl

I'm glad you & your mom are safe.

that your sister is on her way.

There might be a chance that she can't leave her neighborhood as they have closed down a major street in her area.

It's going to be another long night .

I pray for all my So Cal residents

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

I'm going to sit with Mom and watch the news. I also am keeping an eye out to see the wareabouts of the fire over the hill.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Posted by Ophelia

Posted by Phyl

Posted by nrthshgrl

I'm glad you & your mom are safe.

that your sister is on her way.

There might be a chance that she can't leave her neighborhood as they have closed down a major street in her area.

It's going to be another long night .

I pray for all my So Cal residents

Phyl, please let me/us know if there is anything at all we can do!!!!

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Latest update from the Orange County Fire Authority: 15,000 acres are charred by the Santiago Canyon Fire, which is 30 percent contained. The fire is burning in a southeasterly direction. Evacuations are still voluntary and a shelter has been established at El Toro High School. So far, 2,000 structures are threatened but none have been destroyed.
- 5:31 p.m.

The fire is bumping up against backyards in Portola Hills, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Two crews performed a fire shelter deployment, but it was precautionary and they are fine. Four firefighters have minor eye injuries. All crews are accounted for. -5:26 p.m.

More than 6,000 Southern California Edison customers still without power as of 4 p.m. Monday, according to Edison spokesman Peter Conroy. Wind-related outages reported in Santa Ana, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Placentia, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and Orange. Edison and contract crews are expected to be working through the night to get power restored to customers, with priority repairs going to customers who have been without power the longest. - 5:20 p.m. >> Read more on our updated fire story

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Fueled by gale-force Santa Ana winds and tinder-dry brush, the Santiago Fire roared across containment lines this afternoon, eating up 15,000 acres and surging toward homes in eastern Orange County.

Residents of Lake Forest and in Modjeska Canyon ran from their homes as the fire swept toward them and near a neighborhood of newer homes in Foothill Ranch. At least one firefighter was injured in Santiago Canyon and others suffered for a lack of engine and air support.

Those not directly affected by the fire still felt the chaos it created. Schools closed, freeways clogged, John Wayne Airport lost power and skies darkened with a dusty haze.

The fire, which authorities said was intentionally set in three places near Irvine Lake late Sunday, appeared ready to force firefighters to spend a second night on the lines. Officials watching the fierce blaze and weather forecasts that called for more of the dry hot winds refused to say how long it might take to douse the flames.

Despite that, Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather, said the homes at risk were built to resist fire.

“I'm confident these houses are going to be saved,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Fire Authority was trying to call back three engines it had dispatched early Sunday to another fire in Malibu. Orange County's fire, one a dozen across Southern California, has stretched resources so thin that a dozen OCFA fire stations can no longer respond to calls; all of their equipment and people are on the Santiago Fire lines.

Firefighters were gathering at Saddleback Church for a fight to save homes in the Portola and Foothill Ranch communities. Residents of those communities were being ordered to evacuate.

Strike teams were posted along Santiago Canyon Road as firefighters patrolled nearby homes and doused them with fire-retardant foam. At one point, flames were snapping as much as 20 feet above the western edge of the highway.

“We just gotta get ready,” firefighter Paul Carlton said, “because the fire's headed this way.”

Elsewhere, three fire engines and their crews were taking up positions in a neighborhood alongside Whiting Ranch as flames blew toward them. They said they were preparing to stay there and protect the homes. Deer and other wildlife ran down hiking trails from the nearby Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park.

The fire was sparked in three separate places near Santiago Canyon Road, east of Lake Irvine, shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday. Fire officials released few details, but said the locations of the three ignition points pointed to arson.

They asked that anyone with information call a tip line at 800-540-8282.

The fire exploded in size overnight and at midday today, at one point flashing through three miles of brush in 30 minutes. Firefighters working through the night were initially able to block the flames from moving into residential areas.

“It was a long, long night,” said firefighter Mitchell Kahn, who had been on the lines for more than 12 hours straight, with only a half-hour break this morning. “It's just all hard work, to dig out the fire and wet it down.”

Fire crews spent the early-morning hours cutting a protective line between the fire and homes in the Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills neighborhoods. Crews also had been staging in the Foothill Ranch area since this morning, in case hellish Santa Ana winds sent the fire that way.

The wildfire jumped fire lines at Portola Parkway in the early afternoon and burned to within several feet of homes, before firefighters armed with hose lines and hand shovels managed to knock it back. But fire officials said the magnitude of the fire, and the limited resources they could marshal to fight it, made it hard to keep it contained.

“Southern California does not have enough resources to battle all these fires simultaneously,” Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said as he watched dark smoke billow above a ridge line. “To me, that's unconscionable. At a minimum, we should be getting additional helicopters, and we're not even seeing that.”

Roads were closed throughout the area, including sections of the 241, 261 and 133 toll roads. People can call 714-628-7085 for updated information about road closures.

Facing smoky, dusty skies, school officials canceled outdoor practices Monday afternoon and said they may consider more closures on Tuesday. Those schools that had cancelled all outdoor activities included: Anaheim Union, Capistrano Unified, Irvine Unified, Irvine Valley, Newport Mesa Unified, Orange Unified, Placentia-Yorba Linda, Saddleback Valley Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Tustin Unified and UC Irvine.

John Wayne Airport lost power for 20 minutes mid-afternoon, confusing travelers, delaying two flights and cancelling another. Employees and sheriff's deputies didn't know what to do, said Shelly Roberts, who was catching a flight to Las Vegas.

“Sheriffs are just walking around aimlessly,” she said.

The James A. Musick jail evacuated its inmates to jails in Orange and Santa Ana. Guards were wearing face masks as thick smoke filled the air.

The National Weather Service was predicting another day of “damaging” Santa Ana winds, with gusts up to 85 mph in some places. It also warned of single-digit humidity and temperatures in the 90s along the coast.

“We're in the first inning,” Prather said. “It's going to be a couple of days.”

Concerned residents and sightseers paused this morning along Santiago Canyon Road to watch smoke pour from the fire behind a nearby ridge. A steady procession of horse trailers sped down the road, as owners chose to evacuate their animals as a precaution.

“I've lived here a long time with fires,” said Sandi Dunn, who has lived in Williams Canyon long enough to flee fires twice before. “It's always scary.”

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Continued for all residents and please, please, please... by some miracle, RAIN!!!!


Phyl.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Phyl I've been checking your updates all day! Please let us know when you hear from your sister!!!!!! Can we all kick her butt with you?

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Im glad you and your mom are safe. I your sister joins you both very soon.

I'm getting nervous for my uncle.

Re: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE P9

Still no sister. Here is a pic from her neighborhood..........

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