Fires

Life has been pretty hectic the last several weeks. My hometown of Rancho Bernardo was hit by the San Diego Wildfires and it was so devastating. I'm a little late on posting about this, but like I said...the last few weeks have been crazy.

My dad called me at 5:30am on Monday October 22nd tell me that he and my mom had gotten a call to evacuate. Now, Sunday afternoon as church was getting out, the air was so full of smoke and ash. I went home and the fires were quite far away and I didn't feel any sort of immediate danger, so the phone call from my dad was a shock. My parents were going to try and make their way to my apartment (in the Del Mar area) as I turned on the TV trying to figure out what had transpired over the last 12 hours. About 20 minutes later my dad called saying that he didn't think that he and my mom wouldn't be heading to my apartment because there was a recommended evacuation in my area. I was in shock...I live so close to the coast; would the fires really come out this far? I decided to meet my parents down at Qualcomm Stadium. I woke up my roommates and started packing. I was nervous, but only grabbed some clothes, and my important papers. I met up with my parents who had our dog with them. My mom tried to grab our 2 cats, but they were very difficult, so they did not make the trip. My mom was worried about them. After hanging out a Qualcomm for a few hours we decided to go to my dad's office in Mission Valley. Being at the office gave us better access to the news. We stayed at the office Monday and Tuesday. It was not very comfortable; Monday night my dad and I slept on the floor (which was pretty much concrete with a thin layer of carpet) and then moved during the night and shared the couch with my mom. Tuesday, my dad was able to get into our house for a few minutes (because we knew that our neighborhood was not in any danger) which gave a lot of comfort to my mom. We still were not allowed back into our respective neighborhoods, so Tuesday night I decided to sleep in my car which we moved into the office warehouse. Wednesday morning the evacuation was lifted in the Del Mar area so my mom and I headed to my apartment for some food and a shower. It made such a difference! I do not enjoy "roughing it". I am indeed grateful that my parent's house and area was safe from damage, but so many homes were destroyed and my heart goes out to all the victims from this disaster.