November 15, 2008

"Escenario dantesco"

Night flight. Wind gusts were 70 mph. Photo by Mark J. Terrill via SFGate.

Huge suckage when a local disaster is sufficiently awful to rate coverage abroad along with descriptions like "a scene out of Dante." Yes, it's the annual burning of the California foothills, or, as the locals call it, autumn.

No way out. Roads and freeways were closed all over SoCal. Photo by Dan Steinberg, NY Times -- more photos at the link.


Some helpful websites:

SoCal Fires Liveblog at the Daily Kos has every phone number and link you might need -- road closures, evacuation centers, emergency hotlines, links to live video coverage and more.

Cal Fire Incident Information has just what it says.

CrisisWire has maps, the latest fire photos from Flickr, news links, more.

Los Angeles Fire Department Blog has news, emergency numbers, obligatory Twitter/Flickr/YouTube links.

Former Hot Shot Bill Gabbert is covering the fires over at his Wildfire Today blog. [OMG, even he has a post on that super-cute French kid. Most viral video evar.]

The Santa Barbara Independent has terrific coverage of the fire in Montecito with memorable images by staff photographer Paul Wellman. Below, two by Wellman: a yard ignites; and a resident pulls over to take one last look before evacuating his home. [More photos here. And say what you will about our Governator -- every damn fire season he at least has the decency to get his boots on the ground, talk with victims, thank firefighters, etc.]



Dante in Montecito.

2 comments:

Bill Fosher said...

Stay safe.

Luisa said...

Bill, thanks -- the sky is blue here, no wind: you'd never guess there were firestorms raging thirty minutes away. My cousin in Orange County says the winds there were terrible.