California Wildfires: Two More Days of Hell, They Say
It’s Sunday morning. We’ve all been warned that The Santa Ana Winds are coming. Every one in knows what that means: 4% humidity, trees in the road, fires likely to break out, and power outages. It’s part of our “Autumn” in Southern California.
7:00 AM The Winds are worse than usual. They say they’ve been blowing all night at 108 miles per hour. My son calls to see if I’m still alive and tells me he was almost killed over and over Saturday night by huge trees falling, trash cans hitting his car, and humans screaming for him to stop and pick them up. All of Malibu is on fire, just as Newbury Park is. I can hear the adrenaline in his voice as he tries to be calm for my sake.
12:00 Noon I am terrified as I walk through my house and see the sky through the windows. News anchors are calling it an “apocalyptic nightmare”. To me it looks like what I imagine Hell-at-night looks like: total blackness with an eerie red glow. It’s noon! Where’s the sun? Why can’t I breathe?
4:00 PM This is the scariest day of my life except for when the Northridge Earthquake hit. The winds are so vicious and loud I can’t hear people on the phone and they can’t hear me. Relatives from all over the are calling to see if I’m OK. They know Cookie (my Shih Tzu) and I live alone. My daughter lives in New Mexico, my youngest son lives 4 or 5 hours away, and there’s no way anyone would drive on these highways today. Between the fire lengths of 40-50 feet and the 108 mph winds, no one except firemen and police would voluntarily be on the roads. Now there are hundreds of thousands of panicked home owners are trying to evacuate before they’re burned alive.
The fires are now burning out of control from Santa Barbara to San Diego . I live in the mountain and valley interior area and every one knows fire burns uphill.
6:00 PM I begin packing for evacuation. What’s most important? Fear keeps gripping me even though I am working overtime not to let it control me.
9:00 PM My oldest son, Mark, who lives 45 minutes away, calls to tell me the fires are moving towards me and I will probably be told to leave. Where to go? I could try driving in the high winds 25 miles to Ann’s house, but she has no power and it is 95 degrees at night. I'm not sure I would survive the fire-filled winds.
I could go to the local high school, but would they let me take Cookie inside? I decide to stay put until I hear the bang on the door, but also decide not to take my blood pressure meds since they make me drowsy. What if I don’t hear whoever comes to warn me?
Midnight -- Dear God, I’m so scared I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Cookie is very upset and I’m immobilized by fear. I drift off to a troubled sleep.
3:00 AM Monday. Cookie is going crazy and I hear the house being torn apart by high winds. The rooms are filled with black smoke and it sounds like the roof is being torn off. I am, again, immobilized by fear. I lie in bed, afraid to move, afraid not to move. I call my son, Mark, and once I hear his voice I become hysterical. He can’t get details out of me in my incoherent state, so he says he’ll be here in 30 minutes.
3:45 AM Mark arrives and accesses the damage. He remarks that it looks like a nuclear bomb went off outside. My yard is full of debris blown away from my house. He hugs me and tells me he will take care of thing, "just make some coffee".
7:30 AM Mark has to leave for work, but at least I’m no longer hysterical. He calls me five minutes after he leaves, telling me that the escape highway – the only one available to me – is on fire, so stay put.
9:00 AM I take my meds, lie down and try not to watch the horrible images on TV. I finally get to sleep, albeit a troubled sleep, at 10:00 AM. Cookie sleeps beside me.
3:00 PM I wake up, groggy, nauseous, horrible headache and a throat that feels like I’ve swallowed some kind of acid. I turn on the TV and find out the fires have doubled, and some of them have been deliberately set! People wanting FEMA to build them a "better house" have deliberately set fires to burn down their own houses (and those around them)! Oh, God, what has happened to this world?
Winds are still 100+ miles per hour, humidity is still 4% and the news anchors on all channels are saying this is the worst fire season Southern California has ever had. “Two more days of this,” they say apologetically.
Two more days of Hell? Oh, God. Don’t leave me.
© 10-22-2007 April Lorier
12 comments:
Be strong in the Lord, friend, and in His mighty power. His hand covers you. People are praying for you. Be not afraid. Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. Pray Psalm 91 over and over to see you through.
My heart and prayers go out to you.
Brandy
April, I echo what Brandy just wrote. People ARE praying. Jesus said, "Fear not, for I am with you . . ."
Dear Jim and Brandy, thank you so much for taking time to comment! Yes, the 91st Psalm is every "soldier's prayer", isn't it? The Lord is so good! Every night He brings old hymns to my mind that are comforting, and I sing them (in my mind) until I fall asleep. Sort of "God's Lullabies"!
I went to your blog and was fascinated with "Divine Secrets of The Yahweh Sisters". I'm intrigued! Tell me more!
April Lorier
Thank you, my dear friend, Peggy. Yes, I keep reminding Him of His promise. Also, The Word says He's my husband, so I remind Him it is His responsibility to take care of "OUR HOME" and of me! One of my long time friends who was suddenly alone used to say, "Do you hear that scary noise, God? What are You going to do about it?" Ha! I think that's cool!
God bless your APPLES OF GOLD, Peg. I'm honored to be one of the contributing writers! April
I can't imagine what you're going through, but I admire you for sharing it with the world. I felt like I was there, going through it with you. Thanks. Rudy
Thank you, Rudy. I think you should be grateful you're NOT here! I guess you never have fire storms in Flagstaff, right? I've been there several times and it is just beautiful! Thank you for dropping by, Rudy. AprilLorier
God is always with you, dear. It may seem like he's thousands of miles away, but his angels are really busy. We hope you are doing OK under these frightening circumstances.
Darren was only 5 weeks old and my ex and my grandfather (Dad's dad) had gone fishing at 5:30am. We knew the fires were close. We lived on Cedar Street just up from Ventura Ave towards the cross on the hill.
At 7:00 am there was urgent banging on the door. The fire had crested the hill and was on it's way down, only a few hundred feet from our apartment. We had to evacuate immediately. My car was blocked by the fire trucks. I grabbed a diaper bag, my purse and my baby and walked to some friend's house a few blocks away where we watched fire crews fight the fire to within 3 feet of our place. They were so busy they left residents watching the hot spots so they could move on.
I can't imagine being trapped. I hope and pray that you will be safe and calm. Even if you should lose your place, as long as you and Cookie are safe, you might find a new path that will be the renewal you need.
Fire is a renewal. After total destruction, new shoots start up and take over where dry old rotten things had taken over. It also adds the needed "seeding" in the air to bring much needed rain and freshness to drought affected areas.
Sounds all so philosopical, but living through it is a nightmare. What an opportunity for you to use your talent to comfort and respond to all those who have been terrorized by this. LOVE YOU ALWAYS.
God bless and keep you, comforting you with his angels and with the knowledge that everything is in his hands. Your sister and Godmother, Dana and Lil
Thank you, Dana. It's hard to be philosophical when you're scared out of your mind! But I do know God is taking care of His girl. He bring old hymns, long forgotten, to my mind at night and as I sing them in my mind, it's like I'm being calmed by God's Lullabies.Isn't He just awesome?
You take good care of your self and of our mom. I love you both!
I hear on the news that California is getting some rain today. Is it raining close to you? We have been praying for just enough rain to help the firemen.
Yes! It is raining, but not so hard that mud slides will start! Thank You, God! Weathermen say it will rain harder tonight. I love sleeping in the rain, so it should be a good night tonight. Thanks for being interested, and most of all, for praying!
Thank you for taking me through this horrible experience with you. We don't have fires here. We have hurricanes, so it's interesting to read about another kind of disaster.
You are welcome, Barbara. Hey, a disaster is a disaster. I watched the Katrina nightmare on tv and it was horrible. But God is bigger than either fires or hurricanes (or earth quakes!)