The Santa Ana winds that howl through Southern CA each fall never fail to make me nervous and for good reason. You know by the sound and type of wind that there is a fire somewhere in So Cal -- not there may be one, there IS one. I woke up last Monday morning to that exact wind, turned on the news, and what do you know...
It did not start out as anything of concern to us until later that afternoon when the Sesnon fire kicked up in Porter Ranch. First they closed the 118 freeway and it took me 2 hours to get home from work because everyone and their mom was on the 101. Shortly after I finally arrived, the city of Calabasas' emergency alert system called to notify us that if and when the fire reached Bell Canyon (approx 15 miles NE of us) there would be mandatory evacuations north of the 101 freeway. That meant me. Not cool. Allen was in Nashville all week for a conference and I was home alone. The panic of what to take and how soon should I pack and where should I go was too much to handle alone. So I made my sister spend the night at my house for reinforcements. There were times later that evening when we were just sitting on the couch watching TV and would get this intense waft of smoke smell inside the house. It didn't linger, thank goodness, that could have been awful to clean out. I woke up several times during the night and flipped on the TV in my bedroom to a Calabasas city channel that offered updates every couple hours regarding evacuation possibility. Praise God that the fire did not move our direction nor were we called to evacuate. However, I do recongize that there were several others who were not so lucky.
While there is much about October I love -- the beginning of Fall, what I consider to be the official "start" of the holiday season, leaves changing, etc -- if you live in So Cal, there is also much to dread!
It did not start out as anything of concern to us until later that afternoon when the Sesnon fire kicked up in Porter Ranch. First they closed the 118 freeway and it took me 2 hours to get home from work because everyone and their mom was on the 101. Shortly after I finally arrived, the city of Calabasas' emergency alert system called to notify us that if and when the fire reached Bell Canyon (approx 15 miles NE of us) there would be mandatory evacuations north of the 101 freeway. That meant me. Not cool. Allen was in Nashville all week for a conference and I was home alone. The panic of what to take and how soon should I pack and where should I go was too much to handle alone. So I made my sister spend the night at my house for reinforcements. There were times later that evening when we were just sitting on the couch watching TV and would get this intense waft of smoke smell inside the house. It didn't linger, thank goodness, that could have been awful to clean out. I woke up several times during the night and flipped on the TV in my bedroom to a Calabasas city channel that offered updates every couple hours regarding evacuation possibility. Praise God that the fire did not move our direction nor were we called to evacuate. However, I do recongize that there were several others who were not so lucky.
While there is much about October I love -- the beginning of Fall, what I consider to be the official "start" of the holiday season, leaves changing, etc -- if you live in So Cal, there is also much to dread!
5 comments:
are those pictures from THIS year?
I hope that when you returned home from Texas that all was well!! I'm glad God kept you safe, I sure was praying alot!!
Glad you are safe! We'll pray that you stay that way!
yes, the pics are from this year. can you believe it is that intense EVERY year?
Why don't you move back to Tenn. We don't have wildfires like that here. Hint hint. =-)
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