Unreal Devastation

[cincygreg]

I know you've seen the fires on the news, but the story grows as fast as the flames.

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- More San Diego County residents faced orders to leave their homes early Wednesday as wildfires threatened new areas of charred, smoke-choked Southern California.

The newest evacuees are from Birch Hill, near Palomar Mountain, ordered out at 5:30 a.m. PT (8:30 .a.m. ET).

Earlier Wednesday, officials told residents of De Luz, near Camp Pendleton, and of the Fallbrook area near Riverside County, to join an estimated 950,000 people already seeking refuge from the fires in shelters, hotels and at friends' homes.

The National Weather Service said a red-flag warning for extreme gusty winds was in effect for San Diego through 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET) Wednesday, but forecasters said firefighters should see an end to the Santa Ana winds that have fueled the fires by Thursday.

Some residents won't have to wait for Thursday to get home. People who evacuated earlier this week from Scripps Ranch and Del Mar Heights can go home immediately, San Diego emergency spokeswoman Lynda Pfieffer said Wednesday morning.

More than 20 fires have scorched 400,000-plus acres from the Mexican border to northern Los Angeles County and inland into the San Bernardino Mountains since the weekend. Watch firefighters battle on the front lines ?

The blazes have killed one person and injured at least 70 more. Thirty-four firefighters have been hurt, authorities said.

Firefighters received help from Mexico, the state and federal governments and even inmates from California's prisons. About 7,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, including 2,300 inmates from California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

San Diego Fire Department Battalion Chief Bruce Cartelli described scenes of "utter devastation" with hundreds of homes lost and "many hundreds" damaged.

"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around," he said.

After an aerial tour of the affected area Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "We are still facing some very serious fires. The weather has made it very difficult for the air assets to get up and fight the fires. ... If the weather cooperates, maybe we can turn the tide tomorrow."

Officials have evacuated nearly 350,000 homes in San Diego County alone, where the worst of the fires are blazing. Based on numbers from the 2000 census, as many as 950,000 people may have been affected.

Among the evacuees are more than 4,000 military personnel from bases in the area.

Interstate 5, the main artery between San Diego and Los Angeles, was closed in both directions early Wednesday north of Oceanside at Camp Pendleton because of heavy smoke from a back-burning operation to contain a wildfire on the Marine base, a base spokesman said.

As the fires burned, stress took its toll on evacuees, according to a U.S. Navy medic at Qualcomm Stadium, now a shelter to more than 12,000 people.

"A lot of people are watching TV while they're here -- they're watching their houses burn," Petty Officer Daniel Brautigam said. "People are just worried sick. That phrase alone explains it all."

Christie Williams, who lost a ranch in Ramona, said she takes strength from her 4-year-old daughter, who repeats after her mother: "We're strong people."

"So we're going to make it," Williams said.

And she said she'd rebuild her ranch, called Shangri La.

"It's my home. My kids took their first steps there. I can't just leave it," she said as tears filled her eyes. "I can't just walk away."

President Bush is scheduled to visit the area Thursday, the White House said. Chertoff arrived in San Diego on Tuesday afternoon for a look at the devastation.

Chertoff called federal efforts "phenomenally better" than the 2005 response to Hurricane Katrina "because we have been preparing and planning and training together for the last 2 ? years."

Schwarzenegger said he was "heartbroken" after touring the Lake Arrowhead area, where the Grass Valley and Slide fires have burned 5,000 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes.

The combination of dry terrain, searing heat and hammering winds created "the perfect storm for fire," the governor said.

Chertoff said cots, blankets, water and other supplies have been moved where they are needed, and more are coming. FEMA delivered 25,000 cots to Qualcomm early Tuesday.

In San Diego County, the Witch Fire in the north, which has grown to 200,000 acres, is a priority because of its significant threat to structures, said Ron Lane, the county's director of emergency services.

Also in the county, a utility spokesman said the Harris Fire expanded and damaged a 500,000-volt transmission line, which will be out of service until at least Wednesday. Other transmission lines have been destroyed.

A firefighter at Rancho Bernardo said, "Every one of us out here feels like these homes are our own. We know what it's like to see people's faces when they've lost everything. It's devastating to see so much of this all at once."


Hopefully the winds will subside and they will at least be able to contain the flames.

[Beachcomber]

It's pretty amazing to see it on tv. I feel bad for all the little animals who live in those fields and forests who have nowhere to run to...

[cincygreg]

Sounds like they got everyone out though. Not much about injuries and casualties so far.

This morning it looks like they have some of the fires at least partially contained. Too bad we cant send them some of this rain, they could really use it.

[Beachcomber]

Southern Georgia and Northern Florida had bad wildfires back in the spring, and the winds shifted them right to this area. It was bad. Every morning my car was covered in soot and ash like a volcano had gone off in Tampa LOL. And the smoke! It was like fog rolling in thick all day.