Probably anyone in the United States who has turned the news on this week is aware of the fires in Southern California.
I've received a lot of emails and messages from people who knew I lived in Malibu and were making sure that I was safe. Thanks to all of you for your concern and well wishes.
On Sunday, my daughter and I had to evacuate my house in Malibu. John was in touch with us all day from Europe as he was scheduled to return home on Monday. I don't think I should let him go to Europe on his own anymore, because the last time he went alone, I had to sandbag our driveway from the mudslides. grrr, just kidding...
Sunday morning, John called because Joey Silvera had called John's cell phone to ask if the house was OK. At that point the fire was over a mile to the west of our house, but had just burned down a couple houses, a church and a castle.
Within a couple of hours, (after eating an early lunch) I made the decision to start packing up the car with all our important documents and irreplacable sentimental things. I took our birth certificates and passports, computer drives, photo negatives, a week worth of clothes, and the pets. Isabella took some DVDs, games and a couple stuffed animals. I packed some valuable art into our second car, hoping that if the house burned the car would make it.
About 1pm, we drove across the intersection by our house and camped out with some other families, just watching the fire. Pictures that I took from there are in a photo album. Isabella made 3 new friends during the few hours that we were there.
At one point around 4pm, we weren't sure if the fire would come down the hill where our house was, but by dusk it looked like the water drops that had been being made all day were making a big difference.
We were finally able to return to our house on Tuesday night, and everything is fine. We are lucky and extremely grateful for the amazing job that the firefighters did in Malibu.
Other areas are still being hit really hard by the fires. San Diego and Lake Arrowhead are getting the worst. Half a million homes have been evacuated from the San Diego area alone, and as of yesterday almost 1000 homes had been burned and 100 businesses.
If you are able to and interested in donating money to the Red Cross, here is their information: redcross.org
While the Red Cross is acception money donations, they aren't acception donations of material goods. If you are interested in making donations of supplies (used or new clothes, food, pillows, blankets, basic household goods) for evacuees, there is information about making donations here.
211sandigo.com is another great help source that you can offer help or donations to.
The San Bernardino County (affecting Lake Arrowhead and Cedar Glen donations center phone number is (909) 386-9797.