Dear David:

There is lots of smoke in the air but that hasn't kept people away. I was singed on the edges from a fire last December but everything is back in place. The warm air has made things fast and firm. I even have a bounce around the edges. The wind down the canyon is blowing away the grass clippings and making things really interesting.

Your friend,

Rustic Canyon

Lake Arrowhead CC may have taken a direct hit. Many homes destroyed nearby.

Thanks John. I'm typing this while keeping a weary eye to the south, the areas being affected as of right now. The fires are heading into Rancho Santa Fe. I live at the top of a mountain so I have a pretty good vanatge point. Last night my family and I were allowed to return to our home, but not many in our neighborhood have come back since being evacuated. I was woken at 2am by a police officer on his bull horn coming down our street telling us we had to evacuate immediately. My wife and I got ourselves and our little girl dressed and barely had time to grab anything. You could see the orange glow on the ridge above us. Very fortunately for us, the fire went around the mountain and headed SW. The smell of smoke dominates the entire county and ash is falling like snow from time to time. They are saying that close to 500,000 have been evacuated in the county. It's a long way from being out and they think that the only thing that will accomplish this would be all of the fires (there are 8 seperate ones) stopping at the ocean line. I don't know if many outisde of the city know any of what I'm telling you, but the entire city has been brought to a stand still.


  It's a very trivial thing to mention, but many courses acted as a sort of fire break for firefighters throughout the county. The Bridges at RSF is I'm sure singed as well as The Crosby. The fire is heading at this very second towards Barona. Needless to say, the Nationwide tourney is I'm sure is cancelled here. Pala Mesa from what I hear is badly burned. If the fire continues on it's course in RSF, RSFGC would be in danger. But all of this doesn't really matter. There are alot of people without homes tonight and walked out of said homes with the clothes on their backs. I'll post more when I hear more..........

David,

I was thinking of you yesterday morning as I flew into OC airport...Glad to hear that you're safe.  Flying in over the fires really gives one a sense of their scale.  Even in areas not hit by fires, you could see debris and dust being whipped up by the high winds.  Hopefully, it will calm down today.

They're not allowing traffic east of my office which is 3-4 miles from the Santiago Cyn fire.

Robert

David,

My younger daughter evacuated her place in Malibu and went up to Santa Barbara.  A little over ten years ago my older daughter lost her house, belongings and dog when a wild fire swept over Plettenberg Bay in South Afica. In that fire, ten people died out of quite a  small community.

Best wishes to all of you in the Southland.


Bob

My brother lives in Carlsbad and is living in fear for his house, though things look safe for him now - he's actually hosting evacuees:  his best friend who lives in RSF and was evacuated; no word yet on the fate of his house.  Meanwhile the fires raging near Lake Arrowhead are threatening my parents' cabin, again....

So this does all hit rather close to home for me.

All you GCAers down there, godspeed and good luck.  If you get any news please do let us know.

TH

Mike - on a similar note, my brother's 12 year old son is STOKED about the whole thing:  no school today.  His 15 year old daughter is an emotional wreck.

Does life ever get better than that of a happy 12 year old boy?

TH

map.sdsu.edu

Just read at espn.com that Mickelson has evacuated his house:

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3075994&

I was going to school at Southern Cal in 1985 when a bunch of houses burned down from wind swept fires that spread from roof to roof.  I forget exactly the name of the neighborhood as I haven't lived in SoCal since 1991, but it was along my ride to LAX on surface streets.  It was very scary, so I can imagine these fires on such a larger scale are just frightening.

Edit:  now I remember, the Baldwin Hills neighborhood.

I suspect it is quite difficult to burn down a golf course, especially when they turn on the irrigation. They can act as an excellent fire break too.

Pete

depending on the fire intensity, some tree types can 'explode' ahead of the fire front.  Typically pines, not eucalypts (I think).

Often, the electricity is intentionally cut off in bushfire conditions in extreme country (potential fire start on extreme hot, windy days).  And localised power outages are likely from fire damage to the distribution system's poles and wires.  If you want to irrigate the course on such a day, you better have a 40kW generator on stand-by.

James B

Here's a map showing affected areas including courses:

http://tinyurl.com/2lh8s5

Our drought in Georgia doesn't seem so bad.  We'll keep you guys in our prayers.