Tea Fire

Wow. This is so surreal.

I'm sitting at my parent's beach house right now on Cliff Drive. Five hours ago, a fire started in the hills above my family's house. I was in Rusty's strength and conditioning class when someone commented that there was a fire in the hills. First thing I think... shit. That's above my house. Class disbands as Rusty's property is above mine, and Tim came with me to survey the area.

By the time I got to my house, the fire is on the ridge just a few miles from the house. We start evacuating everything we feel is important and irreplaceable -- good thing I'd already thought about this from the last fire a few months ago. Of course there have to be 60 mph winds TODAY. Got my cats, my family loaded all that we needed up, and by the time we left the fire was 1/2 - 1 mile from my house. You could hear the flames crackling when the wind blew just right.

Tim and I drove up to find Rusty, I couldn't understand him on the phone, just that he couldn't get out... the wind was physically blowing us around, and we stood on the ridge with Rusty and watched everything burn. Rusty wanted to stay awhile, Tim and I opted to get out while we knew we could. (Rusty is safe, by the way).

People were panicking bad. There was a car that had driven straight off the road and was angled down at probably 55 degrees down the hill, wedged in a tree. The roads are a mess.

All of my belongings and my home might be gone. At least we're all safe.