I'm OK, and as of yesterday, at least, so was list member Cloud W. (Hi, Cloud -
you still hanging in there?), who lives much closer to the burn area than I do.
Today was better: less wind, a downright miraculous offshore breeze that pushed
the desert "Santa Ana" winds back, stalling some of the fires, *and* a battalion
of US Military and California State firefighting aircraft arriving to drop water
and retardant on the flames. It's helping, but we're a lonnnnnng way from safe
just yet.

500,000 people have been evacuated (15,000 of them are just down the hill from
me in Qualcomm Stadium), 1200+ have lost their homes, dozens of people have been
injured, and worst of all, 5 that we know of have lost their lives. Our air is
dirty orange-brown and ash is falling everywhere. It's not quite LaCroix's
Pompeii (thank God), but it's as close as I care to get, thank you.

--Jean Graham

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