<p>Scary news from the other coast – here’s hoping for some rain for you.</p>
<p>^^Sorry if I’m not allowed to post in the parent’s forum, but I second that!!!</p>
<p>Post away!
Unfortunately the chance of rain is non-existent. Here is a recent clip from the news:</p>
<p>Eighteen homes have now been destroyed by the Station fire, which has burned 42,500 acres in the Angeles National Forest, fire officials said Sunday evening.</p>
<p>The blaze is 5% contained. It continues to threaten Mt. Wilson, home to a 105-year-old observatory and transmitters used by television and radio stations, cellphone providers and numerous law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. </p>
<p>The fire is pushing toward the Acton area to the north and Sunland to the west. Firefighters were able to stop the fire from approaching homes in Glendale, La Ca</p>
<p>Good points about cell phones, ebeee. </p>
<p>I remember a couple of years ago watching news footage in horror as our former neighborhood in San Diego went up in flames. We were overseas, but have many memories and friends there.</p>
<p>Very smokey. I live in the San Gabriel foothills just south of Mt Wilson. I am just starting to get scared. This fire is HUGE and traveling in every direction. I dont think I will sleep tonight. We have been evacuated twice before in years past…but I don’t know what to expect from this monster.
I have been looking at the map and areas that I hike to regularly are up in flames.</p>
<p>Our cars have ash all over with them. This is a minor inconvience. If one is located away from the hills or in non rural areas (without brush) you don’t have to worry about the flames. (UCLA, LMU, USC, CSUN, CalSTate Long Beach are fine.) However those with trouble breathing should stay indoors.</p>
<p>Addendum to above----I really cannot think of a campus that is in any way threatened. Just us dopes in the hills 
see map link</p>
<p><a href=“http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.0004720e21d9cded17ce4&ll=34.341168,-118.164825&spn=0.566957,0.823975&t=p&z=10&source=embed[/url]”>http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.0004720e21d9cded17ce4&ll=34.341168,-118.164825&spn=0.566957,0.823975&t=p&z=10&source=embed</a></p>
<p>^^^^ not an actual campus or housing in the path of fires , but air quality and the neighboring city to where my daughter is moving to is at risk.
She is an athsmatic and there was an emergency email sent to us parents with regard to all of the fall semester students who are currently enroute…I would imagine that parents of students going to hurricane prone areas when their kids in the paths would be concerned when threats are present
I am relieved to hear from residents who have more experience with these CA fires and I REALLY hope my concerns are unwarranted :D</p>
<p>Rain? Southern California won’t see any rain for at least another two months. I can’t remember there ever being any rain in August or September, and October would be a rarity but not quite impossible.</p>
<p>San Diego had similar dreadful wildfires in 2003 and 2007, so I know what it’s like. The key is to breathe as little of that smoke as possible. Stay indoors. Run the AC. Keep the windows closed. Do not exercise, even if the air looks relatively clean. If houses and not just brush have burned, the air contains a lot of invisible particles from dry wall and other toxins from burning paint, coatings, etc. So try not to get that smoke and those particulates deep into your lungs.</p>
<p>Musicmom,
I do hope you are doing OK. I’ve following news closely, as I own property there. I am worried for JPL, MT Wilson. Friends talk of the smoke but the firefighters seem to be doing a good job. I feel so badly for the 2 men who lost their lives.</p>
<p>the Cat 5 hurricane moving in on Baja will be adding some moisture to the atmosphere and by the end of the week it should pull the temperature down 10 degrees. A slim 25% chance of rain isn’t much, but we will take what we can get!
Fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and I am patiently awaiting a plague of locusts and rain of frogs.</p>
<p>My sibling in Sierra Madre says the air quality is horrendous. She was in Altadena years ago when they had a huge fire and her husband spent several days hosing the roof down. The video tape they shot of the canyon and the fire planes overhead behind their house was really, really scary. Hopefully it won’t jump the canyons to where she is now. She’s more afraid of fires than of earthquakes. Musica, my thoughts are with you.</p>
<p>We are here in SM with her! We put up with a lot to live here, but she knows that its worth it!! If you remember we had a big fire last year that burned a lot of growth and will act as a buffer somewhat if the fire comes through the canyon. I am very fearful for the Mt Wilson Observatory which is a national treasure.</p>
<p>We are too, watching Mt. Wilson, via the internet postings. My other sibling sent me an e-mail this AM and was checking up on Mt. Wilson, too, so many across the nation are watching closely. I don’t think the fires have ever come up the Canyon at least in the last 25 years or so, …close but never came into Sierra Madre.</p>
<p>Musica, just got an e-mail from sib…she thinks the fire last year will help also. The fire is close to Altadena (again) she says. She’s says on a relative basis it’s too close and she also doesn’t think she’ll sleep well tonight but anxious to get home (I think she’s texting me from the GO train LOL)</p>
<p>Our oldest just flew from the east coast to Claremont yesterday. I have been anxiously awaiting updates here on the east coast like some of you. As of 1 hour ago, that area was unaffected, and the air quality was acceptable. </p>
<p>Seeing the rapid spread last night was quite unnerving. It looks as if 1/6 of the Angeles National Forest has burned. I wish the hurricane’s moisture would move north very quickly. My thoughts are with all who live near there.</p>
<p>ProxyGC, try not to worry. I drove my son out to Claremont on Saturday to help him move in and we drove right past the fires on the way but they were a good 35-40 minutes (freeway distance) from the Claremont schools and the schools are pretty far from the mountains nearby. From what I can tell in my area (about an hour east of Claremont), it seems the smoke etc. is drifting in my direction – not in the direction of Claremont.</p>
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<p>It’s here already a little bit to the south. San Diego was quite muggy today and getting muggier.</p>
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<p>With good reason. One bad fire easily can and sometimes does destroy more homes than all the earthquakes in California’s entire history combined.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the Mt. Wilson webcam. It is taking forever to load but from that view you can see the fires.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm[/url]”>http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm</a></p>
<p>It’s actually quite humid right now in the LA area, so hopefully some of that moisture will move a bit further north.</p>
<p>The air quality was relatively good today at USC - the wind seemed to blow from the ocean.</p>