Wow, that’s quite a story. I’m glad to hear that a connection like that was made. I’ve forwarded the email to my mother. FYI, she’s been regularly posting relief updates (for victims and volunteers alike) at her website.

Thanks for your comment.

I work with a lady at UCSD medical center whose home was burned down named Bernadette. She’s Chaldean. Anyway, I asked her how she’s doing today and she said she has a sweet mormon lady to take care of her. She says that she gets anything Bernadette needs such as pots and pans etc. and that she is a saint and an angel and she had no end of praise for this woman. As you can perhaps guess, this woman is your mother. Connor, you should be proud of your heritage. Please thank your mother for me for helping this lady that I love and work with for over 4 years now. God bless you and your family.

Our Stake is requested to send volunteers to help clean up this week in Poway/Rancho Bernardo. Apparently 18 member households in the Poway Stake had their homes destroyed by the fire. And no, the Stake President’s home is still intact (in spite of some rumors going around). Many from our stake have signed up to help. This is not going to be a one weekend service project. President Heap (who spoke at our Stake Priesthood meeting tonight) of the San Diego North Stake was very animated about the destruction he had witnessed in Poway recently and told very moving stories about the 600 yellow t-shirted LDS volunteers helping out yesterday in Poway.

President Heap noted how great it is to see the San Diego community coming together under these tragic circumstances.

Going back to the contrast though… Most of these people have lost a lot (the ones who were burned out of home) but most of us have merely experience an annoyance in having to keep the kids home from school for a week etc. Those who were burned out will struggle with insurance companies trying to do the cheapskate thing with them, but this is no comparison to what the Iraqis are going thru. There is a good woman in Iraq who has been blogging since the start of the war and now has been forced at last to flee to Syria. Recently she wrote of how it finally hit her that she is a refugee. Please see her writing here:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#3939951753835220137#3939951753835220137

Last night I was mobilizing the kids to get some donations to Qualcomm Stadium, and checked the fireblog to find out that to the great credit of the people of San Diego, the stadium had closed down donations for the day as they had too much already! I’m not sure how many evacuees are at Qualcomm. I’ve heard of 100,000 people being there. It is great to see this town rally to help the dispossessed in this situation. I’ve heard there are bands at the stadium and a very good atmosphere of brotherly love and service. In this instance, I’m proud to be a member of this community.

Jay

The stats at the top refer to the Cedar fire which was exactly four years ago.

Jay

I was not confused about the cost of the fire. Simple logic would tell me that it was about the cost of fighting the fire, not the estimated damage, which will definitely be in the billions.

Jay

Sorry for the confusion – that was the cost of fighting the fire, not the cost of damage incurred. I’ve updated the post to reflect that.

Stay safe, Curtis.

Estimated Cost: More than $31 million dollars

It would also be accurate to say it was more than one dollar, but I suspect the damage was a bit more than 31 million. That would cover about 50 average cost homes in San Diego these days.

I just found out that my kids will be out of school for the rest of the week. 4 kids at home will be my wife’s biggest trial so far. Our ward is organizing donations to send to Qualcomm Stadium.

We have word that President Bush will be touring here on Thursday the 25th. Though we are a red city in a blue state, there were quite a few negative comments regarding his visit on the San Diego Union Tribune Newspaper website.

Amazing how people can find the time to bicker under the circumstances. Air quality is bad here. We are going outside with masks and rags on our faces, only if absolutely necessary.

I’ve heard that the evacuee numbers now total over 500,000 people. Wow.

How on earth could so many fires start at one time?

a number of factors, cigarettes being one of them.

Thanks for the update, man. Kathe and Dennis (my Aunt and Uncle, for those who don’t know my family) have been at my parents’ house all day. Apparently they didn’t have much time to grab things, so all they were able to get was a few pictures and a laptop.

Let that be a lesson to us all. Make a list of things to take in case of evacuation, prioritized by importance, and at the first sign of trouble, no matter the chances of being able to stay, go pack your car!

Yeah, my parents are fine. In fact, our ward’s boundaries are pretty much the only part of Poway that has yet to be evacuated. Crazy. I hope your parents’ house makes it out okay.

Jacob Davies started this Facebook group to keep tabs on everything.. they recently posted this update:

Homes of Friends Destroyed in the Poway Area:
Brunson (Green Valley Estates), Mangum (Old Coach), Lockyear, DeGuzman (RB)

Homes the Fire Passed By:
Sabin (fire burned all around it), Hawkes, Meacham, Hamilton, Huish (Brunson’s across the street burned)

Yikes. Hope this ends quickly…