TASSY P2P FORUMS

A catastrophic series of wildfires is currently moving into the major population centers of Southern California, including communities in San Diego County and Orange County. Half a million residents have been evacuated so far, with a couple thousand homes destroyed so far (per the latest breaking news on Fox Cable as of noon today, 10/23/07).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304276,00.html

Mix an arsonist or two with 60-to-100-mph Santa Ana winds off the mountains, and you have the recipe for a disaster long feared by southern California residents.

Among the refugees: Raph Koster and family:
http://www.raphkoster.com/

Wow... the news coverage on this is incredible. Latest update is that the Interstate-5 corridor (a stretch of highway that descends out of the San Gabriel Mountains to the north into the Los Angeles basin -- the main artery into LA from the north) is under threat, with the ridge adjacent to Magic Mountain (a popular theme park) in flames. (EDIT: I-15 is currently closed.) US Dept. of Interior firefighters and the National Guard are working heroically to halt the advance of the fires, which are currently considered ZERO percent contained. Just saw a video clip of a 747-sized military air-refueling tanker jet literally skimming the treetops in hilly terrain to drop what looked like a good thousand-yard-long swath of flame retardant. THAT was an incredible bit of flying.

just to put the size of this in context...

Crikey.

heh... looks like a couple of us started threads on this at about the same time.