California peas check-in—have you evacuated?

Frazzled Mom please stay safe! I've seen the looting videos from that area! Several of my friends from high school (I grew up in Fremont) and college (CSUMB) have been evacuated from their homes in the area as well. Many are saying that as soon as they can get back in they are headed in to help defend against looters.

I had to evacuate Tuesday night and am in a hotel not too far from Mountain View. The air quality isn't great, but no danger of fire there at this point.

I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and our area was hard hit. Fire crews are spread too thin because they usually use "volunteer" prison labor and this year that was prevented because of COVID19.

While a house on my street burned, there were just no fire crews available to come up and help. Neighbors who had snuck back to retrieve possessions tried to use hoses to help, but now the water pipes are melted and the tank drained so there is NO water at all. More houses have been lost but we can't get clear info about which ones.

Resources are being used to save the town and any historical or defensible structures. Those of us with homes up in the mountains will have to rely on luck at this point

But fire is unpredictable and there's just no way of knowing what if anything has survived because, if you'll pardon my bad attitude - some people just SUCK! There has been so much residential looting that police have now blocked all incoming roads to try and protect the evacuated homes. It takes a special kind of scum bag to rob people facing these fires.

Keep a good thought for all those who've been displaced and are going through the torture of waiting for news and for those who've lost everything...

That's what happened to us. With two homes each filled with a lifetime's worth of belongings, it's overwhelming. We were so concerned with getting my partner's 80 year olld mom and her med stuff from next door as well as the two cats that we weren't able to grab anything else but a few random clothing items and toothbrushes.

I know it's not safe, but I understand why people were sneaking back into the fire area. Not those getting their tech gadgets and expensive stuff, but those getting the unreplaceable items. If our house burns, I will lose every photo of my children from birth to the last few years, every ceramic gift and card they made me in grade school, their baby clothes and special toys, the last two photos of my mom and her religious medal that she never took off, the quilts and blankets my grandmother made, every scrapbook, etc. The jewelry and art and collectibles are nothing but an afterthought...

I admit that we tried to go back yesterday to save some of those things when the first wave of fire seemed to spare our homes, but we couldn't get through. Too little, too late as my mom would say.