The fire

TLeaves is posting on one of these threads - can't remember which now! I heard a psychologist saying on TV that we lose 3-4 grade levels of intelligence with this kind of stress. I believe it!

Yes, I'm a waving fool, too. Even offered ice and water - whatever they needed - to the Nat'l Guard on our street. "Thank you, ma'am, but we're on supplies." Oh, they were such cute BOYS!

I think that's sweet! Just don't be speeding by as you wave...LOL

How many grades of intelligence are we allowed, Kathleen? I must have been stressed at birth! LOL

My fire-boys 3 doors down are back from fighting fires in Malibu - nice to see them when I walk for coffee in the mornings.

DH and I went to breakfast in Fallbrook this morning - little cafe on Main Street. While we were there, a caravan of ladder trucks went by - at least six - each one from a different city in So. CA. Very cool to see, but I hope they get to go home soon.

It is great that they all go to help out wherever they are needed but it did feel a bit weird to walk by the 3 bay firehouse and see it empty!

On Wednesday I had one of my Woody Allen style moments of unreasonable paranoia. I woke up to no water and at first I thought OOPS Forgot to pay the bill so I called in a payment and when the guy helping me said it wasn't due yet, I asked him why I didn't have any water....apparently a water main had broken 2 blocks over. My bill was paid and I just had to wait for the city to fix the main- simple enough, right? But then I sit down at my desk and realize NO WATER NO FIREMEN! Suddenly I felt so DRY! LOL

I got over it, needless to say. I don't mean to dismiss anyone's stories here with my silly one. It just hit me like a ton of bricks how vulnerable you all must have felt.

Mmmm...yes, I think my brain would have done a similar thing.

For anyone interested, here is a database of structures burned in SD http://www.signonsandiego.com/firemap/search.html

We're already a few points down and dropping every day. We have to laugh at ourselves. We went up to Idyllwild last weekend and had lunch at a place we like there. They were pretty busy so it took a little while for our order to get to us and when the waitress set it in front of the DH....he said, "What is this? I didn't order this.....this isn't beef." After I could stop laughing I told him it didn't look like beef because he'd ordered turkey. This whole week with bouncing from here to there and so much going on I had this horrendous fear that I would misplace my wallet or lock my keys in the car. Just so removed from the usual daily routine. Every couple of seconds I'd look to make sure I had my wallet and keys.

I just caught up from days ago as I was superstitious about gypsy having her answering machine pick up, and I thought that I shouldn't jinx that good sign by readingthe posts until today. Whoopee! Glad you are HOME! I am not normally superstitious.

I love the idea about having a your closets arranged by importance. I have an entry closet that I think I will dedicate the mostly unused space except for junk to that very purpose. Great idea.

We lost 2 floors of the contents of our house due to water damage a couple of years ago. If I had stored the family photos and papers in that closet that would have helped immensely and been emotionally great. My best advice about emergency management for you home is to take photographs regularly of everything in your home as your insurance company will screw you royally without proof of the contents and value of what you own. I mean everything. Open up the draws in your desk, kitchen, dressers as well as closets and cupboards aside from taking pictures of all the art, furniture, rugs, fixtures and all your books (make the size of the photos so you can read the spine for title and author and if you have valuable ones take a separate photo of the title page with edition date) and take pictures of your trees and shrubs and garden plantings. If you loose just the contents of one drawer in your kitchen, you will be shocked at the value of all those knifes, gadgets etc. Just add up what it would cost to replace the linens on all the beds in your house or the contents of a desk ( staplers, paper, envelopes, rubber bands, pens, tape, calculators, computer, printer, desk lamp and goodness knows what else, but it adds up quickly. For example my insurance company wanted to give me as little as they could unless I could prove that my books were worth more than the dollar or two that they offer. I lost 700 books. I was a book dealer for 30 years and had some valuable and precious to me books. Because it was water, we were able to reconstruct from the soggy mess the information to prove that my collection was worth a min 24,000.00 . I spent two weeks tracking the current value of each title on ADDALLBOOKS to submit that part of the claim. It took a lawyer and 2 years to prove most of our claim for the reconstruction of our home. They still managed on not paying the whole amount due us, but we got twice what they wanted to pay. Beware and wise and use that digital camera and make copies and store out of your house. Don't accept the first offer they give you if you know it is way low. We had a car drive through our living room in our Vt 1790 farm house last winter. The estimate we got for 17000.00 was fair, their first estimate was 7000.00 which was a joke. There was a 4 foot whole into the room and furniture destroyed. They have finally paid most of it so far. But are bulking at paying to repair a painting that was damaged when it was thrown across the room and the painting of the whole room when only 2 walls were damaged. How do you paint half a room and half a ceiling and have it match? Too annoying. My vent at insurance companies is almost over.

If you can't get a loan to cover your expenses while they hold out on paying you it will be difficult to get what you are truly owed. They count on you giving up and accepting a fraction of what you have lost. If I had the guts and money, I wouldn't give them a dime and invest the money to cover myself if needed. But I am a wimp and spend too much on plants to invest in anything. Glad you and the other CA DGers are home and safe and that 4paws didn't have to drive down and rescue you. Patti

This message was edited Oct 29, 2007 6:23 PM

bbrookrd...
When I 1st read your post I thought it said, ' I have an EMPTY closet...'. I thought to myself, who in the world has an empty closet? lol Then, I reread it. ENTRY closet. LOL
Now that makes sense. : )
~Lucy

The masks are 3M part # 07193 and 07192 for the medium and large size. I know that automotive parts stores either carry them or can get them. Don't know about places like Lowes or Home Depot. We get them from the local NAPA store.

Leave them sealed in the plastic bags until needed. Then you will break the seal and attach the little filters to the mask, which are sealed in their own little bag inside the bigger one.

These are quite effective on things as bad as paint vapors, so smoke and ash should be filtered out too. They would help in the case of a chemical spill also.


edited because i got dyslexic on numbers and got some reversed.

This message was edited Oct 28, 2007 10:49 AM

Just wanted to thank everyone for helping me when I couldn't find my Uncle. He went home yesterday and is well-his house is a bit of a mess from soot and ash-but he is fine. Thanks so much again!
Robbi

So glad to hear that, Robbi!

So glad to hear your uncle is okay, distantkin, and the good news from everyone else who is safe. Thank God!

Brenda

Gyps, I can hardly take my eyes from the lack of wind, the smoke is all over here for the last three days and MY eyes are so burny. I don't know how you can handle it. A couple of years ago I worked in Northridge when chatsworth was on fire and my lungs got burnt.

I know that is true about the insurance co. We had a lot of flood damage 2 years ago and they tried to tell us from a phone call why my house was probably tilting and it was not from the being submerged in caleche soil for 3 months or more, sight unseen. I said well lucky for you, I took lots of pictures when my house was flooded, from all angles.

They accepted the claim but said it was cheaper than my deductable to repair. Yeah right. If they would have done it right, but what ever. I told them I'd remember what kind of company they were at renewal time.

Ah, Dawn, therein lies the kicker. I've heard of people being unable to renew after a claim, too, or being denied by other companies because they had a previous claim. Had a friend that happened to because they made a claim on a burglary! Insurance is for catastrophes only, that's for sure. Every time I hear someone say, "oh, just claim it on hour home insurance" I cringe. :-(

Our premium went up 60% last year. I had the State Insurance Commission investigate. Turned out the company had quoted our premium wrong in the first place, even though they had my statement of all the details of our property. They admitted it was their mistake. They sent a letter clarifying this, and said they wouldn't charge us for the under-estimated premium of the prior year! Wasn't that big of them? Sheesh!

I had trouble getting insurance on my old house because the previous owners had some plumbing problem and had made a $3000 insurance claim to repair the water damage from that. Not even a flood or something that was likely to recur or even a lot of money, but still none of the major insurance companies would give me a policy. So now I would never, ever consider making a claim on my insurance unless there was an incredible amount of damage. After it had been a certain number of years since that water damage I was finally able to get a "real" company to give me insurance. And both you and the house can get "blacklisted" by the insurance companies--when they're deciding whether or not to give you insurance or not, they look at your history of whether you've ever made any claims in a certain number of years, and then they look at the house too whether previous owners within that certain number of years made any claims. I think it's the water damage claims that really hurt you, but it wouldn't surprise me if they shy away from people/homes with other sorts of claims too.

Looks like insurance companies are just in the business to get and stay rich, huh? Diry rotten scoundrels! Patti, how awful about your books--I'm a bibliophile on a much smaller scale, but that would break my heart. I sure am glad to hear that Uncle is safely at home now, Robbi--what a relief for you and your family. And I'm so happy for you, Sherry, and hope you hear from your friends soon.

I'm incredibly surprised that we still have insurance...about 12 years ago the DH was hit on his motorcycle and we sued our insurance company rather that taking what they would have offered...BTW, $25,000 med coverage is WAY too little, get as much medical coverage as you can. I was hit by a stolen car full of aliens who ran, fires in Fallbrook several years ago after which they were not writing policies for the seven western states for quite awhile and we were told if you make any kind of claim at all they'll cancel you...then DH was rear ended, we went after our insurance company and the San Diego Water Authority for the tremendous amounts of 'valve sealant' that came through our meter, into all of our water lines, etc..then 2 years ago in the rain I rear ended a car. And STILL they haven't tried to get rid of us. We sure can't figure out why. We know we've cost them more through the years than we've paid. After Katrina we heard the same thing...that they'd be cancelling people for the least reason. After the fires out here I can't imagine what's going to happen insurance-wise.
We know we should be taking the photos of everything and yet haven't...that's going to be the new project. We have far, far, far more than we could have proven to claim.
Thank you,Patti...I'm sure that your superstitions were what saved us!!
Robbi, we're all glad that your uncle is okay.
Dawn, you're getting the smoke now that the on-shores kicked in.
Liz, they seem to have some very interesting 'loopholes' regarding water damage..we learned that.

This whole thing is just so very strange. Yesterday it was back to normal for me,kinda cool, sprinkling and managed to get 16 plants in the ground (which means,ugh, making 16 gopher cages) and am anxious to get back out there today and, once again, it's in the mid 80's. I don't know which I am more sick of...... hot, sunny weather or making gopher baskets! I can't understand the workings of my mind or that of the DH...when we left, I accepted that the house was gone and well. We would move to Oregon or whatever, we would continue on in a different direction and that might bring it's own rewards.The DH is really in a fog. That may be true in a physical sense since he has asthma and is staying inside..but in a mental sense also. Perhaps because he's spent every day of the last 6 mostly inside and cut off from the real experiences that tie you to the reality of the event, he can't seem to realize that this could really happen. I think it's really shaken him somehow.

Sherry, I think any disease that restricts breathing is going to add to that 'fog.' We learned this with my dad, who had COPD, and my DBIL who had lifelong asthma and now COPD. It doesn't have to be that severe before it starts restricting oxygen to the brain. I'm unable to work outside in this air without a mask, and then not for long. Also, I'm coughing a lot more and I rarely get colds or URIs. Your disruption was a lot more than ours, and it took me a couple of days to even think straight. You're just strong, woman!

Yeah, I'm strong...my house is still standing and I'm complaining about hot weather and gopher baskets!! Can you believe that?! How quickly we forget. I'm outside moving hoses and wondering how in the world I could have the right to complain. I think the weather,the gophers and the kid two roads over who has just reached 'dirt bike age' made me ready to lose the house. Apparently the things I couldn't live without were:
6 cats

photos

laptop

3 small antique pictures

1 antique lamp

1 antique plate

all of our music cd's

1 suitcase and 1 large trash bag full of my really good clothes even though I'll probably never wear them again since all I live in is $10 WM pants and tee's to work in the garden..In my declining/ reclining years I'll most likely not be able to afford to replace the good stuff.

All of my earrings

My mother's wedding rings and rosary and very old charm bracelet

3 bags and 3 of my very favorite hats.
Perhaps we can be defined by the things we choose not to lose. What things would you keep?

That's a very interesting question. Real food for thought. Maybe even an idea for a new CA thread.

Sherry, I agree with kaperc's assessment of the brain fog. I have had altitude sickness and I can assure you I didn't have a clue what was happening around me. The lack of oxygen caused me to be completely disoriented. Once I had been on O2 for a day things came right back into perspective. DH and DS still tell the funniest stories about me then.

Being on the southeast coast we have often had to prepare to evacuate and originally we took many things we decided were important. Each time thereafter the list got shorter and shorter. Nowadays we take the laptops, a very few pieces of jewelery, the important papers such as birth certificates, passports, deeds, titles, tax papers and insurance info (which are all in a separate and portable file box). Actually all these things could be replaced but when you might need them in a hurry it is easier to have them. We have scanned all the important photos onto CD's which we carry and, I know this sounds silly, but I bring a LOT of underwear. Most clothes can be easily and quickly replaced with sweats and tees from WM but my favorite undies could be hard to come by. My dog has one of those soft collapsible crates that we bring and of course, his food, some water and his bowls. After doing this a few times you begin to realize how unimportant "things" are.

Oh, Ardesia, we think alike!! Knickers and socks - and DH takes all his hankies (doesn't like tissue!).

We packed with the idea of living in a shelter for a few days, so I took TP, some paper towels, some bar towels, which we used to pack around things. Bottled water and food for the birds. Big towels if need for them, too. I pad the crate of our big bird with beach towels, and we took their cage covers.

Took our wedding photos, important papers, as Ardesia said. As for clothes, we took lots of tees and jeans, a light jacket, and our hats. Camera.

Heck, I'll start a new thread.

k

Good idea, Sherry start a thread or ask Dave and terry to post it on the question poll. If you were evacuated and had only three hours to pack, What would you have to take. Something like that? It is funny what you really realize you can live without.

Here's the thread on preparation: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/784890/

Kathleen, ardisia, I'm very glad you both mentioned this. I don't have any respiratory problems or allergies that are significant, so I wouldn't experience any of this to know what's going on, but since the DH's allergies and asthma have hit him in the last 4 years or so he's become extremely forgetful, very vague and fuzzy around the edges, different behavior. Now after hearing this and speaking with my neighbor who also has asthma...I think it's quite possibly lack of oxygen! I had forgotten all about it,but a friend of the family had Alzheimer's and with his heart problems, etc. before he died, when put on oxygen he became lucid and his memory returned. We're going to have to check into this and see about oxygen. I've kept thinking he's slipping into very early senility! Unfortunately, oxygen wouldn't help me...I KNOW I'm senile! lol.....

Wonder if sleep apnea causes it, too???

This is a great question, and I would like to offer another perspective to it:

The supposition is that you have time to pack/carry away what is important to you.
But what if there were no support services on the other side of the disaster - how would this change the way you view what is important?

I had a similar question posed to me several years ago: if you had time to pack up your vehicle with what you needed/wanted, without a guarantee that you could return to your home - what would you consider important? So - not to evacuate, but to survive?

We had a nine-day power outage here last winter. Most people were on their own. The closer you lived to Seattle, the faster your power was restored; (it's an infrastructure thing).
If you lived out further & had a generator (and gasoline!), you could make do.
All this to say that reliance on government services can be dicey.
It certainly can make one introspective regarding those things normally taken for granted.
For me - it was quite heartening to see the response of those wanting to help, giving from their heart.
Lots of folks up this way that have lived in the areas affected who fully understood the gravity of the situation.
Others just shrugged their shoulders and took a 'so what?' attitude. That really p*ssed me off...

There is also that issue with the heart- forgive me as I currently cannot remember what it is called- but liquids build up around your heart and it makes oxygen absorption difficult. I think that sometimes it is associated with emphysema.

My cousins were living in Tennessee when they had an 11 day outage....foolish people had no wood supply, no back-up anything.

Katye- Interesting that you just posted that!

I just posted on the other thread that Kathleen started about this topic and I have to tell you- as a paranoid hypo-chondriac who could die any second (forgive me if I don't finish this post- just tell my mother you liked me!)- I lived in the far north of Wales in the UK for a long time with my daughter as a very premature birth, breathing issues, etc (she is okay now at 14) and we used to have 2-3 week periods with no electricity, tons of gale force winds and snow above the windows and never once did we have any contact or support for any agencies and so for some reason I just see all of that stuff as, well just stuff! I surprised myself when I had to think about a list.

Oh! I should add that we had coal oven and heating, fireplaces, I had packed away a ton of food (the coal barn had enough carrots, potatoes and onions for a year) and water plus we had a spring.

I guess that I learned to function in a very different way that most people don't consider.

Katye, we lived on Whidbey for 3 years.lol....first thing you want to have is a generator, know to turn off the electric water heater, fill the tub and other pots, pans, etc. with water to flush the toilet, and you've already got the woodstove and wood...that and emergency food. That was a real dandy of an outage you guys had up there last year. I'm sure it was a wake up call for many! I'd have togive some real thought to what to take with if having to leave and survive. Which is what we all should do...give some real thought to it.

Wow, reading this thread is like living this past week all over again. We were never in any danger this time (thank heavens) and we were able to take in a young family I work with who had to evacuate. Like everyone else, I sat glued to the television in shock at what was happening in my own county.

I'm thankful to come here and see my garening pals in the county are all okay and that others cared enough to come by and check on them. What a wonderful community this place is.

Yesterday we had some light mist that helped clear the air a bit. It was nice. This morning was still and smokey again. Fires are still burning in east county and ashes are still flying through the air. We were supposed to have our Diabetes Walk today, but it was cancelled due to the fires and bad air. Good decision!

If anything could be gleaned from this event, it would be how important it is to be prepared to take care of yourself, your family & animals.
It matters not whether you live in an area that experiences fires, flooding, hurricanes, etc. What does matter is having the foresight to anticipate what you truly need for your physical survival, along with those things that are important for your emotional/mental well-being. I do not dismiss the latter: they can make for an easier emotional transition when a disaster strikes.
This series of fires served as another reminder to me: life can change in a flash.
Make sure you're as ready as possible.

Absolutely in a flash...Saturday we went to Idyllwild (mountain top) for lunch, Sunday we enjoyed heading up Coast Hwy, Monday we evacuated. Survival....now I think about the tent and sleeping bags we gave away....and the cots....I'm sure that those who go camping quite regularly have a leg up on the rest of us.

wc - we are on a well, so a generator is a must - otherwise there is NO water! But it does require gas & that can be hard to come by depending on the circumstances.

A friend of mine trained extensively in Emergency Preparedness & is a First Responder for Red Cross. There is a public service ad that is run frequently here:
"'3 days - 3 ways; make a plan, build a kit".
She just laughed hard about that one - 3 days?! Ha! - kiss your sorry a** goodbye!
The real recommendation is to have at least 3 WEEKS worth of supplies.

The one thing you all are still suffering from now is the air quality. I don't know how you overcome that one - masks?
I have read & reread this whole thread. I was watching this on the news & getting what info I could online. I was annoyed that so little USEFUL info was available the first two days. I knew more about which celebrity's homes were endangered. Sheesh!

Curious about your radio & television coverage there - was it adequate? At least you most likely had access to tv/radio - right?

What I got out of our winter 2006 fiasco was the necessity of useful/reliable information, that is readily available. Not knowing what is happening is truly bizarre.

I did not forget about you guys... just tons of papers to write for school... so I banned myself from the lap top!!!

Did not read the updates ... just want to stop and say a quick hi!!!!!

big hug to all of you!!!!

Our well was gravity fed. One had adequate coverage if you were in San Diego County, but if you were in a motel in Lake Elsinore 25 miles away, you got Los Angles County coverage and no idea of what was going on in San Diego County.
Well, we all have a chance to put our new ideas about what we would take with us into action. News says Santa Ana winds are on their way back...music to the ears of arsonists who are undoubtedly sorry to see the fires diminish.The good news in Fallbrook would be that they have picked up a 'person of interest' for the Rice Fire...so, if this could be the person responsible for our local fire, he's off the street. Word is to be prepared once again.