Mary writes to let us know that she’s safe (the Harris Fire is closest to her, but she’s not in the fire’s path and it’s still some distance). Her dad’s evacuated (though his neighborhood is not under evacuation order), at least for the day.
In general, over 300,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and are being sheltered around the county. If you want to help, please consider making a donation to one of the following:
She then passes on the following info:
Salvation Army
As wildfires sweep across our county, The Salvation Army is supporting the firefighters who are battling the blaze. Mobile feeding units are on the scene to bring water and food to firefighters and police and The Salvation Army is bringing in additional canteens/ mobile kitchens from El Centro and Perris.
To donate to help firefighters and those being evacuated, please call 1 866 I’LL HELP or donate on-line
Red Cross
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster.
Making a financial contribution is the best way to help. To make a donation: call 1-800-RED CROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or make at secure, online donation.
Mail a Donation to: American Red Cross, PO Box 4002018, Des Moines, IA 50340-2018
The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate a donation for a specific disaster, please do so at the time of donation.
San Diego County Wildfire Relief
Volunteer San Diego’s Disaster Program is made possible by donations of time and money. Below is a list of the ways you can help.
Make a donation: Money collected will first go towards supporting the disaster volunteer recruitment efforts for the wildfires. Additional funds will support year-round disaster preparedness and volunteer programs. You can donate online here or mail your donation to: Volunteer San Diego, 4699 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123 (http://www.active.com/donate/wildfires07).
So, as I told ***Dave last night, things on my end of the county are better. Only one of my stepbrohers is still evacuated.
The internet has really made seeing the fire progression interesting. The following is a link to a pdf of the most recent (4pm pdt) fire map of San Diego County (it’s too bad I can’t remember how to embed things):
http://www.sdcountyemergency.com/newsreleases/10242007_1600hrs_Evac_FirePerem.pdf
The TV channels have benn using these heavily for showing the progress of bothe th fires and the reopening of parts of the county. And some of the photographs that have been email to the stations have been amazing.
As you can see, I have the auto-URL function turned on. (I also have a little “URL” button to help embed things, at least on this blog.)