Brian Ratliff

I haven't heard anything from HH for a while. Are you all doing okay with those fires going on?

zeytoun

Me and my family are fine, thanks for asking Brian.

noisebeam

Or genec

Al

genec

HH should be OK... He lives very near a beach area that remained safe the whole time.

I am in a more central area of town, 4 miles further to the east from the ocean; still well outside the fire zone. My office however was in an evac zone, and was shut down for two days. Local schools are shut down.

I managed to get the wife to go on an easy bike ride with me (joked that it takes a "disaster" to get her on a bike anymore... ). We rode down around the beach area for a couple hours... got us away from the constant news feed and out into some cleaner air. There was a slight breeze from the west (the ocean) which took the edge off of the heavy ash laden air that is everywhere right now. The ash is so heavy that it covers everything with a light coat in a short period of time and just cycling back toward the fire direction our eyes would sting with ash. It is NOT a good idea to go out and do a heavy fast ride at this time.

Here is an interactive google map with pretty comprehensive details.

The winds have shifted from the Santanna conditions to the usual on shore flow... however the winds are now a bit flaky and fire crews have to exercise caution as the wind can shift and push fire back onto the firefighters.

Yesterday the addition of firefighting aircraft made a huge difference... some 50 helicopters and over 20 fixed wing aircraft where allowed to get into the air and these aircraft were able to tackle the fire right at the frontlines.

Roads have been closed in various places... The only main road out of the area that has not been closed is hiway 8, which goes east out of the area.

Some 500,000+ people have been evacuated, some 1200+ homes have been destroyed.

The fires have moved out of the heavily populated areas, and are moving north and especially east and continue to be quite actively fought. Estimates now are that the fires may be fully contained by November 5th.

Speedo

Holy crap! I didn't fully appreciate how big these are.

Speedo

genec

Keep in mind it is a dynamic situation too... an area that was just fine 12 hours ago may be under evacuation now.

The aircrews are doing a great job, as well as the shared resources from other areas...

But certainly the fires are ongoing...

Brian Ratliff

I'm glad to hear that you are okay, Gene and zeytoun!

Helmet Head

We're fine, but thanks for asking. I do have a non-fire-related family health issue that has consumed my time, that's why I haven't posted (or even lurked until just now for a couple of minutes) since last Thursday.

The air is horrible. No good for walking to the car, much less riding a bike.

EDIT: 10/25/2007. I forgot that I did take a quick glance at BF some time on Saturday, probably after getting home from the hospital and updating family and friends on my mom's status. If I read anything, it wasn't much.

Brian Ratliff

Good to hear it, HH.

genec

Just got your email on the SDCBC meeting HH. Not one peep regarding the earlier stuff. Yeah, you have been quiet.

The air down around OB was pretty good Sunday... just enough on shore breeze to kick back at the smoke.

Take care.

Blue Order

Man, I thought something had happened in South Dakota.

Other than the local teens tipping Mr. Johnson's cow over for the umpteenth time.

derath

Wow. Nice one Pete. I have never noticed last activity in a persons profile, but then again I don't go diggin that deep into other people's happenings on the internet.

You really will go to any length to catch HH in something?

What class...

-D

derath

Wow, name calling, nice touch.

Yes, I am sure you checked out of your deep concern for Helmet Heads' well being. Did you actually go searching for his user somewhere else?

I wonder how many people read his reply on this thread and actually thought to check if he ACTUALLY hadn't been online since last thursday...

Plenty observant. Just not there. Now I do see if it when I check my own profile. But for all the others I have just tried that space is blank. Bug on my part? Want a Screenshot?

Nope, not really. Same old Pete.

-D

zeytoun

hehe, now he wants to know how to do it too...

derath

I see from your excellent example. But as I haven't ever seen that (see below) I don't know how "recent activity works" hence I wouldn't have known if it only showed the one last activity or a list. Get it?

But the question still remains, and the main point, why even bother pointing that out? HH says he hasn't been on since last thursday. You saw that he browsed a post on saturday :GASP: So what?

Maybe he thought he had a few minutes to browse BF.net, hit a post and got called away. Maybe someone else was on his computer. Maybe he just forgot he had a couple minutes on saturday to lurk. We all forget sometimes. Heck I forgot monday was trash day because sunday night my wife was at the emergency room with my 4 year old daughter.

Who cares? Oh yea, obviously you do, enough to point it out. Like I said, classy.

Nope

Bekologist

Glad to hear all the San Diegan A&S regulars are okay.

However, thinking about San Diego, I was intrigued by Genec's description of HH's locale; I seem to recall HH always talks up the 'canyons' he has to ride making daily transportational bicycling, running errands like grocery shopping, etc. difficult because of all the 'elevation' climbing he'd have to do to get home after shopping or work. Can't see that being so, what with living very near a 'beach area' .....what a tool.

Again, glad to hear all the San Diegan A&S regulars are okay. hope the fires get quenched soon.

njm

Wow. Only in A&S does a thread about people facing a natural disaster descend to an argument, complete with sentence-by-sentence quotations and refutations. Excellent work. Wasn't Pete F just trying to be nice with his original post?

Anyways, best of luck and stay safe to those in metro San Diego -- I have to say that it's hard for those far away from the area to comprehend the geographical and human scale of the fires and their impact on residents.

derath

I guess also only in A&S calling someone out as a liar is "being nice" I think Bek above was just "being nice" as well. But it is pretty excpected from those two, who seem to have a goal in life of discrediting HH in every thread, regardless of the topic.


+100000

genec

You are very wrong with regard to the landscape of San Diego... (which oddly enough is what I have said before... that this is a somewhat unique area)

Here is a pic near the "beach area" just to the north of where HH lives... this is about 6 miles north (if I understand where he lives) and the beach area south is quite similar. At the center of the pic is a very expensive home on high cliffs overlooking the beach below. Notice the hang gliders... they launch from the high cliffs and use the updrafts from the beach below.



The terrain here is quite varied and often hilly.

There are some flat beach areas well to the south in Pacific Beach and in Coronado, but La Jolla and the surrounding area are dominated by the Rose canyon fault which has thrust the earth up in several areas forming for instance Mt Soledad which rises up in the middle of La Jolla.

The pic below looks from Mt Soledad down on to Pacific Beach and Mission Beach to the south.



No HH's ride is anything but flat. Neither is any ride I take... unless I head down to the PB or MB areas... which are beach bike cruiser areas.

Even south towards downtown... that area too is hilly and full of canyons, canyons that are either to be crossed or that a road runs through.

BTW those hills and varied terrain generally add charm to the area, but in the case of the current fire situation, the same canyons hold vegetation and are difficult for fire fighters to work in. The canyons act as fingers into the city and that is how the fires are able to encroach deep into the city.

Bekologist

in all honesty, gene, aside from the erosional beach cliffs, when looking into the distance, that looks pretty flat overall with little gross elevation difference.

genec

Part of what you are seeing is called "foreshortening" brought on by the use of a long lens.

What you really cannot see are the canyons that thrust that through the cliffs. So while you may see a 200 foot cliff, there are canyons that cut through that area, so you end up, as a cyclist riding down one side of the canyon and then up the other side.

Try a google earth image... follow Torrey Pines Road.

Now as much as I am telling you the area is hilly, there are certainly lots of pockets of flat ground around. For instance I live on top of a mesa... it essentially extends about 3 miles east and west, but to the north and south it is only about 2 miles wide... going anywhere else in the city means I leave the top of this mesa, through the canyon arterial roads that are the only routes (vice a grid system). In fact, my backyard slopes down steeply into a canyon and gives me a nice view.

Where I used to live in the city, in North Park... a very odd area of mesas with lots of finger canyons that shape the roads and accesses in the area.

Where HH lives is along the northern part of Pacific Beach... it is generally a flat area right along the beach, but to the north and east, there is quite a bit of climbing to get out of the area. HH works just on the other side of Soledad mountain from where he lives... so he has to go up and around the mountain.

I used to work just on the north side of Mount Helix, down in a valley called El Cajon, whereas I lived to the south in an area known as Lemon Grove. I had to cross around and to the other side of Helix to go to work.

In any particular area there is probably a 3-4 mile square flat area that became a population center, but that area is either on a mesa or down in a canyon/valley, or along the beach. There is no way to go from one area of the city to another without climbing or rolling down steep roads. Makes for a lot of sprint type hill climbing and lots of gear changes... unless you stay within your flat area.

I can use a single speed heavy beach cruiser if I never leave my mesa... otherwise, lots of gears are needed, which my other bikes have.

Now where I live (in Clairemont mesa) is two canyons away from where I work, which is to the north near Sorrento valley.

Nah, the area is anything but flat... but there are flat areas around, you just have to climb to get to them.

genec

Hey Bek, your area is also quite hilly... rolling hills if I remember right. And the Pacific Northwest has earthquake activity too... Certainly you have hills and mountains. I just don't recall canyons like we have here. Mostly rolling hills and of course the waterfront which leads to odd street configurations.

Of course all of this is in contrast to say the flat areas of Houston or Fort Worth (where I grew up), or perhaps Iowa or Ohio.

Helmet Head

I just added this note to my earlier post:

genec

BTW here is an enhanced pic from NASA showing the fire situation in So Cal.

noisebeam

I've also been observing it on OSEI as the OSEI image of the day:
https://www.osei.noaa.gov/iod.html

Yesterday there was an animated gif which is in the archives along with regular still images:
https://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Current/

Like this one from 10/22:
https://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Curr...rnia296_MO.jpg

Al