California Fires

I am feeling a wave of emotion right now as I continue to watch, read, and listen to information about the California fires. My cousin, Cindy, and her family are on the verge of being evac'd and it is amazing to read and hear about what they are doing and going through right now. If you're interested, here is a link to her blog. I just spoke with her while I was driving home and they were getting ready to continue working on documenting all of the items in their home. They can see the flames (yellow, orange, and white) dancing up the canyon. The smoke is thick and black. I am so proud of them though for following the counsel and guidance of our Church leaders in having emergency preparedness items in their home. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM. They have canyon below their home and mountain above their home. It looks to be pretty dire if the flames come up their way.

I was looking at http://www.nbcsandiego.com/ a few minutes ago and there is a list of destroyed homes available. To help me gain a better perspective of the immensity of loss, I pulled up an address of one of the destroyed homes on http://www.mapquest.com/. Then, I clicked on the Aerial Image tab and it showed all the homes that WERE there the last time the satellite passed over them. To think that some of those homes...the entire street of them...are gone, was enough to make me want to throw up. Next, I entered Cindy's address into Mapquest and pulled the aerial image. She is SURROUNDED by canyon and mountain.
The number of people's lives that are now turned upside down, is shocking. To think of all the times C and I have gone to San Diego and that I lived there when I was a child and now...so much of it looks like a war zone. It will certainly be devastating to see the pictures that are posted online as the days progress.

I know Heavenly Father will protect the Duffys. Whether or not He protects their home remains to be seen as the next 24 hours progress.