Blazing & Smokin'!

Fire, Fire, Fire! Well it was an unexpected So Cal orientation for Curt as he quickly saw what Santa Ana winds were and what can become of October in So. Cal! Unbelievable! Even for me, a veteran of October winds and fires having grown up here. Maybe this was a good run to know how to REALLY prepare ourselves for...say....a major earthquake? Fire season 2008?

We received the 3 am phone call from our friend, Sean (it was one of those things where I heard the phone and thought it was part of a dream that Vivie needed to be fed). Once I came-to...we learned we needed to get packing and prepare to evacuate. So we shifted into emergency mode and loaded up our 72 hour kits, two outfits for each of the kids, blankets, water, and a few precious momentos and off we went...BUT WHERE? We didn't know! We just knew we needed to get out not knowing what lie ahead.

We did have a mandatory evacuation and our community was very much in threat of two different fires: the Coronado Hills Fire and the Witch Fire coming through a different direction. They have both since been contained, but the ash, soot and poor air quality is what will keep us away due to our kids' lung issues right now. When I went home to gather some clothing for the week the upstairs smelled like it did outside. So apparently the balcony doors don't have a tight seal. There's no threat of fire in our area anymore, but the air quality is what we're worried about.

Curt was worried that if we hung out too long there may be some kind of gridlock getting out of San Elijo being that the road at the top of the hill was closed so there was one way out. We didn't want to evacuate to the church because it seemed like that was just going in the wrong direction...towards the fires. So we opted to go coastal and ended up in the parking lot of the Albertsons in Carlsbad where we filled up on gas. 1/2 of San Elijo also was waiting with laptops and police scanners with the latest info. Funny way to meet your neighbors for the first time! But great to see a community come together and help one other. It was comical and sad at the same time to see what people deemed 'precious' to bring along in such an emergency (or maybe they were the smart ones who knew they'd be bored and needed something to pass the time). We saw lots of surfboards, jetskis, motor bikes...all the latest and greatest toys.

After we realized that a parking lot with 6 kids just wasn't going to work, we called some friends and ended up going to Fit West, a training center that is managed by someone in our ward. The kids hung out and played football, baseball, ran around and thought this was the coolest thing since Disneyland...Fire? What? IT'S PLAYTIME! Great way to keep things 'normal' for the kids as much as possible I suppose!

Exhausted from the events of the night, we were invited to a pancake breakfast at the Hoopes' home (our home teacher not affected by the evacuation, Thanks Tim & Maggie!!!!) with 4 other families and just hung out until we could figure out a place to lay our heads. We called a few hotels and got our names on an evacuation wait-list, but everything in San Diego and even north was booked from the LA fire evacuees and SD vacationers!

Sean and Karyn arranged for us, Hendricks & Searles to find shelter at their cousins' beach house in Carlsbad--not too shabby! Thanks Sean & Karyn!!!

In the middle of the night Bray woke up just holding his chest tight and gasping for air...he was having an attack and just felt like his heart was sinking into his chest. He literally couldn't catch a breath. We feel blessed that our friend staying with us had an inhaler so I woke her up at 2 am to use and that's what saved Brayden long enough to rush him to the ER and get help. When Curt got there it had police tape all around and was about to evacuate, but there was still one doc left in the house who helped Bray. Now he's on steroids, has his inhaler, antibiotics and is good to go...another night lost of sleep. Sleep is apparently over-rated in our family!!! What's sleep anyway????

Four of the six kids have bronchitis so even if the fire is not burning our house down, the smoke, ash, and soot is deadly for kids with lung problems. McKenzie has reactive airway disease, Vivie has chronic lung disease and the other kids are dealing with bronchitis, so we had to get out of dodge quickly! NOTE: VIVIE IS DOING FINE...she's had a low-grade fever that she hasn't been able to be seen for, but we've sheltered her from the air and she's not suffering from the horrible air quality.

We had three offers for housing and the place with the clearest air is where we went...The I-15 headed north was already shut down and luckily we got out before the I-5 closed down. We escaped to La Canada to Lori & Glen's house (Kelly's daughter). We are so grateful for their hospitality...what angels they've been to let us and all six of our monkeys in and it's turned out to be a vacation for our kids as their gaining their strength...I don't think any of them want to go home now! See the next post.