Thursday updates

Alberto tells me there is still nothing new for us and our house in San Diego County. I flew out to Houston yesterday at 11:40, and so am now monitoring things from a distance.

Here are some of the news headlines from yesterday. These and the rest paint kind of a confusing picture - the lines between who is evacuated and who can go home are becoming very blurred.

Also, apparently some reports from yesterday were incorrect, like the Poomacha and the Witch Creek fire merging:
Correction: Fires have not merged
Posted @ 4:35 PM
Fire officials say the Witch and Poomacha fires have not merged, contrary to earlier official reports.

Here are a few other posts I picked out:

Latest story, map and updates
Posted @ 1:55 AM
Here's our breaking news story on the fires.
And here's an interactive map that includes a partial list of the destroyed houses. County officials said they are providing updates on the ongoing disaster assessments on the county's emergency page.


Fire evac surpasses Katrina
Posted @ 10:05 PM
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender says more people have been evacuated because the county's wildfires than were evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. He urged residents to remain patient until they can safely be allowed to return to their homes.
While more than 150,000 evacuees have been allowed to return home, Rancho Santa Fe has not been one of the communities declared safe yet. Many anxious residents have been trying to get past the roadblocks, said Rancho Santa Fe fire authorities.
"We can't let people in yet, there's live wires on the ground and hot spots still burning," a spokeswoman said. By tomorrow morning, Rancho Santa Fe fire plans to have a better assessment of which areas can be lifted from mandatory evacuation.
All areas affected by the nearly 200,000-acre Witch fire have started their own assessments.

How to find out if you can go home
Posted @ 8:07 PM
County officials say they have reopened several areas that had been under mandatory evacuation.But they don't have a master list that would allow residents in those areas to know if their specific street has OK'd for their return.The county is directing people to this evacuation map, which highlights reopened areas in green. The county's map does little, however, for those looking to find their streets.

Border Patrol pitches in
Posted @ 4:43 PM
Border Patrol agents from San Diego are helping with the wildfire effort, agency officials said.Since Sunday morning, agents have aided more than 200 illegal border crossers encountered in the path of the Harris Fire.
Many of the border crossers surrendered to agents after being surprised by the fast-moving fire, officials said.Agents treated people for severe burns and evacuated them to local hospitals.
The Border Patrol is also contributing more than 300 agents a day to the San Diego County emergency effort. Agents are assisting local law enforcement officials with evacuations, traffic control, and perimeter control.
The Border Patrol’s horse unit has rescued more than 50 horses and transported them to local animal shelters, officials said.

Infrared images of fires
Posted @ 3:54 PM
The U.S. Forest Service is providing online infrared imagery that shows the location and intensity of the Poomacha, Rice and Harris Fires.Current images can be seen at http://www.fireimaging.com/



And the blame game begins.....
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071025/news_1n25aircraft.html