San Diego County is in a state of emergency at this time. There are half a dozen firestorms raging all over. Weather forecasts are grim as the dry, strong wind conditions are expected to continue in the next two days.

Urgent Announcement from the Philippine Consulate General

Dateline Los Angeles, California, 23 October 2007
            In light of the ongoing fire that has struck seven counties in Southem Califomia, the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles has opened an emergency line for Filipino nationals who are affected and needs assistance. Filipino nationals affected by the "fire storm" may call 213- 268-9990.

It may be hard to believe but more than 250,000 have been given mandatory evacuation orders to leave their homes and proceed to evacuation centers. It is the largest evacuation order in the history of the County. Qualcomm Football Stadium has been open to serve as one of the evacuation centers.

The wildfires have engulfed a 30,000-acre area in the North County from Fallbrook to the 20,000-acre fire in the South County on Hwy 94 from Potrero, Buckman Springs, to Jamul, across the border at Tecate and now closing in on Otay Lakes. A voluntary evacuation order has been issued to Eastlake residents close to the Lake area. The Eastlakle neighborhood is about nine miles from us.

It is beginning to look like these wildfires will be worse than the Cedar fires of 2003 that resulted in 17 deaths and more than 2,500 homes lost in the fires. With the drought condition all around and wind speed gusting to 50 mph in most places, the thousands of forest and local firefighters just can't keep up so we're pretty much at the mercy of the winds.

So far, 100 homes have been consumed and this figure is expected to rise in the next two days. The Navy and Coast Guard have offered the use of their aircraft but the strong winds prevent their use because fire retardant dropped by these planes turn into mist.

At this time, battalions of Northern California firefighters are coming south to help fight the fires and the governor has mobilized the California National Guard with around 1,500 expected to assist law enforcement by tomorrow.

We'll wait and see how it goes and we will continue to pray for our safety.