#a whole wildfire started behind my house and we had to evacuate | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

doitwritenow · 4 years ago

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I'd ask all 35 of the ask game, but I feel that might be a little too much. Instead, I'll choose: 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 23, 29, 31, 33, and... oh that's way too many. Uhhh, feel free to not answer some if you feel overwhelmed. If not, go ham! I'd love to read more about your writing/writing process. :)

Oh WOW thank you! These are so fun. Hm...

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Recently answered this one! Here’s what I said: I write fic because of the spaces between the lines of a story. The gaps and unanswered questions in canon encourage me to come up with deeper mechanics, more complicated lore, and complex character motivations in order to explain. Sometimes, one of those pieces will click into canon so well that it becomes inspiration. And then there’s nothing else to do but write! Lol. Stories are so wonderful because of what we can do with them, individually and all together, and I really like being a part of that.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? While EoI is kind of my magnum opus, I really really adore Sunrise Loves To Go Down. Something came together in that fic, some tone and some thread of style, and I am immensely proud of how it turned out. I started writing it when I had been evacuated from my house due to a wildfire, lying on a hotel bed and typing on my phone in the middle of the night, and so it felt different to write than my other works. Maybe that’s why it feels different to read, too.

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Easily? I have to say dialogue. It’s often my favorite part of any scene, and I love the way it determines tone and establishes character. Though it’s not my absolute favorite part of writing, I dance through dialogue scenes feeling like I’m on a caffeine high. Of course, lots of times getting dialogue right is a lot of work, but there’s an ease to it that some things don’t have.

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Hnnnngk the answer is pacing. It’s pacing. I struggle to pace things. I do enjoy long projects and feel proud of my ability to commit to them, don’t get me wrong. But I’d love to get better at structuring a plot to allow for the same tone without needing an overly generous amount of words. My go-to answer with pacing is always ‘write more’, but I don’t think that’s always strictly necessary. I want to be able to use the other tools in my arsenal to tell a story that’s just as complete but even more gripping. Me: *challenges pacing to a death battle* Me: *dies*

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Okay so a friend and I were laughing about how funny it could be to write about what happens to Odin after Loki sticks him in a retirement home on Earth. The Mystic Artists would obviously know he was there, what with all that cosmic threat sensing bullshit, and things would devolve from there. Like, can you imagine? The Adventures of Odin Allfather and the Home for Elderly People. Series of one-shots. Each titled something like: Odin vs. Thursday Bingo. Odin vs. His Roomate. Odin vs. the Grumpy Wizard. Odin vs. the Craft Store. And slowly other characters start to show up. Ned’s grandma is in the same nursing home, and he and Odin hit it off, so obviously Ned introduces him to Peter. Stephen comes to check up on him occasionally and Odin stages the most dramatic escape attempts of all time with no real intention of going anywhere. Now I dislike Odin in canon but how comical could that be I’m serious--

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I like prompts and challenges, but generally I work best with completely independent ideas. I can’t force my one-shot muse, so whenever it strikes I buckle down and write there and then. So yeah, prompts and challenges are really fun, but the inspiration has its own plans for my hapless self.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? Comfort zone? What comfort zone? Lol. I suppose I do have bounds of what I’m willing to write and share, but they’re not particularly limiting. Each story I write extends the limits of what I’m used to; I try not to hesitate. And most of the time, I like where things end up!

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! OCS YES I DO HAVE OCS THANKS FOR ASKING. Most of my Marvel OCs show up in EoI or were created specifically for it. But I have some other lovelies floating around, my three favorites being: - Silas Ewyn, a necromancer detective. He’s basically a vigilante archeologist, using his abilities to interact with bones to solve the mysteries of foul play victims. Silas doesn't care about politics or reasons; all he cares about is facts and bringing voices back to the dead. In the lawless Roughs (yeah, he’s a cowboy, fight me) he takes that justice back into his own hands. Though he doesn't kill, he'll go to great lengths to punish perpetrators, and he always takes a bone of the murder to bury with the bones of the victim to ensure the victim gets their justice in the afterlife, too. Which bone depends on the severity of the murder. During one of Silas’s investigations, however, he was murdered himself. Oops. But he woke up three days later with his soul rattling around in an entirely different body with no memory of the event. The only way for him to discover the truth is if he finds his old bones and solves a whole new murder... His own. Anyway I love him and I could talk forever about the truth behind his murder and all the details of the Roughs and everything but we’ve got a limited amount of time and I still have to tell you about: - Sohcahtoa and Pemdas! If their names look like math acronyms, that’s because they are. Sohcahtoa and Pemdas are kind of children’s comic book characters in my mind? Sohcahtoa is a superhero; she travels through the Sciverse bringing people together and solving scientific and mathematical problems between others who are concepts come to life. With her meter-stick sword and her protractor throwing star, she’s a force to be reconed with! Pemdas is her trusty sidekick. He’s a cuttlefish with immense knowledge of operations and formulas, and Sohcahtoa keeps him in a cube on her belt. Pemdas checks her math and gives her any theorems or formulas she might need. Lol I’m a nerd next question.

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? Just want to say: I’m not some sort of warlock, I promise! The reason I can post so consistently for EoI is not always because I write consistently; it’s because I have a cushion of chapters between what I’m writing and what I’m posting. Sometimes I’m completely barren of words and I can’t write for days on end, and sometimes I just fly through things in hours. But all that inconsistency balances itself out in the end and keeps the chapter cushion intact, so my readers get to see only me looking like I have everything under control. I’m just as chaotic as you, I promise. (Prophets is not like this with the chapter cushion. I am a bad girl when it comes to Prophets. XD instant gratification is my arch nemesis.)

Anyway! This was super fun Ish. Thanks for the ask!

#ask me anything #fanworkstuff #ironstrange #ocs #fanfiction #fanfic

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truthbeetoldmedia · 5 years ago

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Mayans MC 2x04 “Lahun Chan” Review

Guys!! We finally got some answers!! I’m so pleased! Episode 4 of Season 2 was a pretty strong episode and that’s mostly because we got some freaking answers!!

Let’s chat about what those Reyes boys were getting up to. Episode 3 ended with the boys in Happy’s house, ready for a showdown. They had immediately tied up Happy and started demanding answers. Well, Happy’s a rock. He is unmovable...or so we thought. Happy’s one weakness is his dog. Once Angel and EZ realize that, they use it to their advantage. (Thankfully, no animals were harmed! It was just a threat that I doubt either guy would follow through on, the fuckin softies.) Anyways, we learn that when Happy went Nomad during his time on Sons of Anarchy, he was a gun for hire.

Before Happy left the Nomad charter and settled in with the Charming crew, he fucked up a job. It was the death of Mama Reyes that ultimately sent Happy to live the small town life. You see, Happy was supposed to kill BOTH Mama and Papa Reyes, but she was the only one in the butcher shop when he went for the kill. He doesn’t know for sure who ultimately ordered the hit, but he does know it was one of the Mexican cartels, even possibly the Galindo cartel. The night EZ killed that cop and ultimately saw Happy’s face, Happy actually thought EZ was a cartel member sent to kill him for not executing the job properly.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see where this story lines up in the Sons of Anarchy timeline. It’s been bothering me since the twist was revealed in the Season 1 finale. One major thing I can cross off my list now!

While Angel and EZ are going back and forth on torturing Happy for answers, and it did take them all day, it seems, we see the brothers have their heart-to-hearts. Angel learns that EZ was keeping MORE intel from him, this time about their own father and who he used to be. It’s all right there in the paperwork Happy has when the hit was ordered, but all EZ does is further confirm that intel with what he learned from stuff he found in a locked box in their own home last season.

Over with the Galindos, Emily and Miguel are keeping a closer eye on Dita when she goes to her appointments. By that I mean, their security is keeping a closer eye on Dita because her only family members are too preoccupied with business. She’s been scheduled to see a therapist, but she’s not at all interested in seeing a shrink. She bribes the good doctor to say she was at the appointment and to continue to say she goes to all her appointments and then she goes and meets Felipe on the roof and out of sight.

We learn what happened to Dita in the time jump. The fire that got the Galindo homestead is ultimately what hurt Dita, except she believed that fire was there for HER. It was just a regular southern California wildfire. The area had been told to evacuate, but Dita just...didn’t. When Miguel’s security went to find her, she hid. A young firefighter ended up finding her and getting her out, but not before she badly burned.

There’s also more learned about the affair between Felipe and Dita. Dita actually admits that she believes Miguel is Felipe’s son and, therefore, Angel and EZ’s half-brother. She never did an actual DNA test to find out for sure if Miguel was Jose Galindo’s son, so I’m wondering if that’s something that could possibly be done. I’m on the side of science, here, not gut feelings when it comes to paternity. Dita assures Felipe that no one will ever know.

Can you even begin to imagine what could happen with the cartel side of things if they realize that Miguel isn’t the true heir? I imagine it’d be one huge clusterfuck.

Emily is there when they pick up Dita after her “appointment” and she notices Felipe’s truck parked close by. When the two women get back home, Dita is preoccupied with her grandson, so Emily quietly hunts for anything to explain Dita’s behavior and relationship with Felipe. She finds a picture of Dita, Jose, and Felipe from decades ago. Now Emily knows that their history runs deep.

Meanwhile, Miguel has taken Adelita south of the border in order to see how they can protect their investment in Palomo, the woman the farmers (and Los Olvidados) have put their faith and support behind to make Mexico better. What they don’t know is that mercenaries Potter is working with to track down Adelita have stuck a GPS tracking device under all the vehicles Galindo and the Mayans use when they’re south of the border. Shortly after Adelita and Miguel reach their destination, they see the mercenaries closing in on them. Adelita comes up with a plan that Miguel found Adelita and was preparing to take her back to Potter. Adelita ends up being arrested and carted away by the mercs. Miguel is in distress. *I* am in distress. Angel is going to freaking LOSE his MIND when he finds out.

I mean, holy hell.

Some thoughts on the episode:

Opie is a good doggo who has never done anything wrong in his whole life.

Happy loves ONE THING and that is RIGHTFULLY his dog.

I love how Angel and EZ can be at each other’s throats one second and then can actually work their shit out logically once they get that pent-up aggression out of the way.

I don’t like Emily, but when Dita called her a white devil, I wanted to FIGHT. Dita, YOU are a devil.

Adelita and Miguel’s awkward car ride has left me feeling all kinds of confused. These guys have awesome chemistry, but I REALLY don’t want Miguel to be the father of Adelita’s baby.

I hate love triangles.

Sarah’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

Mayans MC airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX

#Mayans MC #Lahun Chan

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confrontthefamiliar · 7 years ago

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The Fires

I hate the fires. What does it mean? Nothing.

Finding myself nauseated by all things fiction. I open a book by Don DeLillo and an image obviously meant to evoke a certain emotion makes me feel ashamed for fiction. For making up worlds that do not exist. For the pathos of it all. For using the manipulation of emotion to make the reader believe he or she is human or alive. For wasting my time. (However, I do not believe in the wasting of time).

I am currently waiting to find out whether my house is going to be burned down by a wildfire. I’ve been waiting all morning. And I can’t stand reading any fiction. This has happened to me before. I tell myself it’s because I’m meant to write something down. I just can’t figure out what it is.

There was an oddly-placed mirror at the cafe I was at in Brentwood earlier. In a corner of the cafe, in between two corner windows and a fireplace, I chose my table. I noticed a mirror the size of a car side mirror floating above and behind the table, attached to the wall. Perhaps it was meant to reflect whatever I was reading or writing to the person sitting across from me. I found this absolutely too much and chose a different table.

Sometimes everything I read reads like reflection. This is when I can’t stand any of it. Seeing writing as a reflection takes all of the mystery out of it. It takes the art out of it. It’s too bad. Idiots reflecting to other idiots. I miss the times reading felt like action and I could pick up the sentences. When reading felt revolutionary, rebellious, insurgent. Now I can see the words have just been stuck on the page. No magic.

There are two times I’ve felt like this before. The first time is when I came back to the US from traveling other countries. Anais Nin became melodramatic. Joan Didion’s prose seemed overbearing. Thomas Pynchon; maniac. All my favorites were trying too hard to convince me of various realities. Their arguments felt flat, dismal. I hated myself for wondering if I had outgrown them, as if I could do any better.

And here I am again. Trying not to try to see the meaning in the wildfires. Trying not to try to see them as an entity.

I said a prayer last night at the group home with two of the boys. One gave me his stuffed duck to pet but then he made me hold it and I think I held onto it without realizing for a good half hour as I ran back and forth into the house and outside to the front yard to watch the growing flames.

The first thing that happened was that we experienced the power outage. The boys reacted predictably: some started humming creepy horror movie soundtracks, others became animatedly panicked and excited. But we got them all into bed and asleep within the hour. Except for the boy who always takes forever to go to bed, who suddenly had a critical longing to see the stars. I made a deal with him that if we let him outside to look at them he would not leave his room afterward. He agreed. I rushed outside with him because the faster you move to go outside to look at the stars, the more cinematic it feels because it’s like you’re suddenly cutting from an interior shot to an exterior shot of the sky, and to feel cinematic is to feel more alive. So we ran outside and looked up at the stars together, frantically. Wow! He said. I told him they were brighter when I left in the early mornings at 4-5am. He didn’t believe me, of course. But looking back on it I probably just sounded like a typical grown-up kill-joy. Because I had been on the earth a certain amount of time longer I must know more about it and what things are meant to be exclaimed about(nothing) and what things aren’t. I have a lot more empathy for my dad now that I’ve realized how easy it is to accidentally project this stupid lie.That was when he first spotted the fires. He pointed out a pink cloud. Then we saw there were two pink clouds. What is that? We wondered. It’s a fire. After he was in bed I watched it grow and grow and then smoke arched over us all. What does it mean? Nothing. I hate the fires. But it feels like I’m hating sharks. Sharks don’t kill people, they just eat. Fires don’t destroy homes, they just burn.

I drove out of Ventura at 2 am, loaded with all my stuff and headed to West LA where my boyfriend lived. As I drove past the wildfires I started to feel like I was ditching my city. I needed sleep and I knew I couldn’t get it where fires raged a mile away from me but Guilt tapped me on the shoulder anyways. I texted my friend who lived in the hills to see if she was okay. She had already evacuated and was expecting to be homeless tomorrow but she didn’t need any help.

Then I started to think about my purpose in the world and what it meant to be a teacher and who I was in my community. I’m not sure how this made me feel but I’m pretty sure the best feeling is remembering how unimportant you are. How it doesn’t matter what happens to you.

I read a whole book cover to cover the next day. It happened so slightly. I was driving back to Ventura and I stopped at the county line to pee and to check the surf. I got back into my car and started reading Patti Smith. Then I walked across the street to Neptune’s and got a crab cake sandwich with fries and tartar sauce and kept reading. I drove home and saw black smoke bleeding out of Ventura. The smoke made it feel like the town was one bathroom in a cigarette smoker’s house. I took a nap and then drew a bath with Epsom salts. I finished the book in the bath. Somehow I felt a little better about my place in the world.

My cough started the morning before the fires had even ignited. What does it mean?

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vanquisher2099 · 6 years ago

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Part Eight: A Commander Walks into a Basement

John’s head was pounding as he came to. His first instinct was to see if he could see (he could) and whether or not he could move at all (he couldn’t). There was a surprising amount of light in the room, and as he slowly gathered his wits he noticed a pool table, sofa, and giant screen mounted on the wall. There was a soft carpet on the floor, which had a few bloodstains which, judging from the way his head felt, might have come from him. He was, at this point in his career, somewhat used to being tied to chairs, which was why he was a little surprised at the quality of the job. Someone who tied people to chairs on a professional basis, he thought.

A heavy tread was making its way down a set of stairs he couldn’t see, and he craned his head to try to see behind him. His efforts rewarded him with a wave of dizziness and not much else. It was moot, anyway, as the footsteps continued down the stairs and then proceeded across the carpet to behind him.

“You know,” he said, conversationally, “typically you blindfold someone when you knock them out, or put a bag over their head. Otherwise you give them too much of a chance to find a way out, or gain intel on your place.”

“That’s only a problem when you give a shit about what your prisoner knows.” The figure walked in front of John, revealing a broad-shouldered woman with her black hair in a military cut and a ragged scar across her cheek. “I, on the other hand, could not give less of a shit.”

John raised an eyebrow. “So you’re gonna just kill me, huh? Except if you were going to do that, I feel like you’d already have done it. Which means there is something you want me to tell you, at least a little.”

The woman crouched down, grinning broadly. “Look at the brain on this one! I’d tousle your hair condescendingly, but I don’t want to make your headache worse.”

“That’s awfully nice of you. I mean, I’m not going to tell you whatever you want to know out of principle, but still. I appreciate it.”

“You misunderstand me, John,” the woman said, not bothering to acknowledge the way that John’s eyes briefly widened at the use of his name, “You were right about our not killing you, of course. But I – we – don’t need any information from you. It doesn’t matter why you’re here, or what you were hoping to accomplish. All that matters is where you decide to go from here.”

John pondered her words for a moment, formulating a response. He was, of course, pleased to know his life was not in any immediate danger, but he didn’t like not knowing why his life was not in any immediate danger. “Well, to be honest with you, my plans are sort of directly tied to whatever you decide to do with me. I’m sure I could wriggle my way out of these ropes eventually, but it might be easier if you do it for me.”

“Fair enough. Allow me to give you a brief summary of the situation you’re in, John. This particular neighborhood is, for all intents and purposes, no longer an official neighborhood. It is under threat of wildfires and, therefore, unfit for habitation by its residents.” There was a self-satisfied smirk on the woman’s face. “This is, as you’ve probably guessed, not entirely true.”

“Hell of a fabrication.”

“It’s not really a complete fabrication, if I’m being honest. This is one of the hotspots for fires, sitting as it does in this narrow corridor featuring high winds and dry weather – to say nothing of an electrical infrastructure which is, put politely, a little out of date. It didn’t take a lot of convincing.”

“But they’ll eventually wonder why they’ve never gotten an all-clear, won’t they? Or a call from their insurance companies telling them ‘hey sorry your stuff is all gone?’”

“You’re not from around here, huh? There’s official evacuations in effect from two years ago. We’ve got plenty of time to enjoy the place before we have to worry about moving on. But I’m getting carried away here – the point is, there’s very little point in pulling off a trick like this if someone goes out and gives the game away.”

“So you want me to stay quiet about this whole thing?”

“Not quite. I want you to join us.”

John couldn’t stop the derisive snort that escaped him. “Don’t be ridiculous. Your plan was to tie me to a chair, tell me you’re squatting in a neighborhood you tricked into evacuating, and then tell me ‘hey by the way do you want to join us?’ You haven’t even told me who you are.”

The woman ran a hand through her hair, grinning a little ruefully. “Yeah, I know. It’s a ridiculous idea, right? But then again, you’re tied to a chair and haven’t had a real look around, so I can forgive that. As for my name, I’m Gabriella. Formerly Captain Gabriella Dominguez of the US Cyberwarfare Division, Special Operations Section, but I have, obviously, left that particular life behind me.” She walked behind the chair, and John felt his bindings loosen. “There, now you can take the tour with me.”

John stood up, a little unsteadily, and probed the lump on his head gingerly. There had been a little blood after all, as it turned out, but it hadn’t been serious. He felt more or less fit, although he was fairly certain that if he tried to run or fight he’d come out on the wrong end pretty quick. There seemed to be nothing to do now but play along and look for an escape, so he turned to face Gabriella, nodded his thanks, and said “Lead on, then.”

The two walked up the stairs and exited into a richly-appointed kitchen. A few men who also looked to be military as far as John could tell were leaned against an island in the center, drinking coffee. Both saluted at the sight of Gabriella, who sighed heavily and waved them off. “We’re not military anymore, you don’t have to salute. Christ, it’s been two years. Y’all are killing me with this shit.”

“Sorry Captain! Force of habit, Captain!”

“You don’t have to call me – nevermind. I’m giving our guest the grand tour. Any problems I should know about?”

“All quiet, Captain. The gardens reported trouble with deer eating the crops, but no signs of any further outsiders.”

Gabriella turned to John with a look on her face that seemed to say “see what I have to deal with?” John shrugged.

“Gardens?”

“Yeah, we’ve converted most of the landscaping around here to grow food. It doesn’t bring in a lot, but we’re not that big of an operation and it takes some of the pressure off our scavenging parties.”

“So you’ve what, started some kind of commune? Are you all ex-military, or is that just you and your friends back there?”

“Nah, most of us never really had any kind of formal training or employment. We just happened to run into them one day and figured we’d help.”

“Them?”

“The refugees out of San Francisco.”

John’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “I thought they all were resettled.”

“The people who had housing, sure. But the ones who were already homeless? They had nowhere to go – the closest cities were swarming with police all too happy to beat them for sleeping on the streets, and it’s not as if prison’s a particularly attractive option. We started out with a group of about ten, plus me and my two buddies back there, but as we went on we kept running into more refugees.” She paused to wave and exchange a good morning with a few passers-by headed in the opposite direction. “Moira! Settling in okay? Be sure to see the doc when you get a chance, alright?”

Moira, a thin-looking girl who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, nodded. “Thanks, Captain. He said he could see me today.”

“Tell him he still owes me an inventory of his stock by the end of the day, would you? The old bastard’s getting forgetful. Or he’s just lazy. And don’t call me Captain!”

Moira nodded, gave a curious look to John, and headed off. Gabriella turned back to John. “She wandered in a few days ago. She and her girlfriend’d been out on their own for a month before they met one of our scavenging parties on a run downtown.”

John nodded, beginning to understand. “So you’re just… helping all these people find a place to live?”

“Nobody else was. This way, we at least get a few good years before we have to move somewhere else. Everyone who can pitch in, pitches in. Those that can’t we take care of anyway.”

“What happens if you get more people?”

“Sixty all told. Of that, about fifteen aren’t able to contribute due to age or illness, but we’ve got enough supplies for twice that.” Gabriella wasn’t bothering to keep the pride out of her voice. “If we get bigger, well, we’ve got some ideas about splitting into separate groups. Sort of keep things from getting too noticeable.”

“Huh.” John considered this for a while as they continued to tour the neighborhood. “So you’re offering me a place here?”

Gabriella shrugged. “I’m offering you a job here. Except it wouldn’t be… here, necessarily.”

“I’d love to, but I’ve already got a job. Speaking of, I don’t suppose you’ve ever seen this lady before?” John fished in his pocket and produced the photo.

Gabriella ignored the photo entirely. “I’m well aware of your current employment situation, John. That’s why I’m offering you a job instead of giving you the usual ‘you can stay here if you want’ talk.”

“You want to hire me for something.”

“Yep. In return, you leave us free and clear and we trust you not to blab about us rather than planting a subdermal mic and tracker on you to make sure we don’t have to kill you later.” There was a casualness to Gabriella’s tone that indicated she was not lying about the last part.

John coughed, suddenly deeply uncomfortable. “Well uh, that’s certainly generous of you. What’s the job?”

“Pretty normal: we need you to find someone. This someone, as it happens.” Gabriella pulled a photo out of her jacket and handed it over. “One of our residents out doing some basic reconnaissance – looking for some other potential spots for us in case we have to move quickly. She didn’t report in as scheduled, and frankly my people are a lot of things but investigators aren’t one of them.”

It seemed to John that there was some other thing Gabriella wasn’t mentioning, but he didn’t feel like he was really in much of a position to argue. He took the photo, looked at it, and somehow managed to not drop the photo in shock.vHe glanced up at Gabriella again, keeping his voice businesslike. “Your resident have a name?”

“Charlie. She never gave a last name, but we uh, don’t really ask questions.”

John nodded, and looked down at the photo of the girl whose death he’d been hired to inform her parents of. “Alright,” he said, after a moment’s consideration, “I’ll take the case, I guess.”

Part Seven

Part Nine

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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California races to predict which town could be next to burn

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Impoverished towns in the shadow of Mount Shasta. Rustic Gold Rush cities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. High-dollar resort communities on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Ritzy Los Angeles County suburbs.

They all could be the next Paradise.

A McClatchy analysis reveals more than 350,000 Californians live in towns and cities that exist almost entirely within “very high fire hazard severity zones” — Cal Fire’s designation for places highly vulnerable to devastating wildfires. These designations have proven eerily predictive about some of the state’s most destructive wildfires in recent years, including the Camp Fire, the worst in state history.

Nearly all of Paradise is colored in bright red on Cal Fire’s map — practically the entire town was at severe risk before the Camp Fire raged through last November, burning the majority of homes in its path and killing 85 people.

Malibu, where the Woolsey Fire burned more than 400 homes last year, also falls within very high hazard zones. As does the small Lake County town of Cobb, much of which was destroyed by the Valley Fire in 2015.

“There’s a lot of Paradises out there,” said Max Moritz, a fire specialist at UC Santa Barbara.

All told, more than 2.7 million Californians live in very high fire hazard severity zones, from trailers off quiet dirt roads in the forest to mansions in the state’s largest cities, according to the analysis, which is based on 2010 block-level census data. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says its maps show places where wildfires are likely to be extreme due to factors including vegetation and topography.

The maps aren’t perfect in their ability to forecast where a fire will be destructive. For instance, the Coffey Park neighbourhood of Santa Rosa isn’t in a very high hazard zone, but powerful winds pushed the Tubbs Fire into that part of the city, largely levelling the neighbourhood in October 2017.

Coffey Park was built “with zero consideration for fire,” said Chris Dicus, a forestry and fire expert at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “Fire was in the mountains — there was no consideration that fire would cross (Highway) 101.”

Cal Fire is making new fire hazard maps — ready in a year or so — that will incorporate regional wind patterns and other climate factors. In the meantime, experts say the current maps, created about a decade ago, still provide an important guide to predict where wildfires could do the most damage, in the same way floodplain maps highlight areas that could be hit hardest during severe storms.

The at-risk communities identified by McClatchy also should serve as a starting point for prioritizing how California should spend money on retrofits and other fire-safety programs, Moritz said.

California’s state-of-the-art building codes help protect homes from wildfire in the most vulnerable areas, experts say. But the codes only apply to new construction. A bill introduced by Assemblyman Jim Wood would provide cash to help Californians retrofit older homes.

“This will go a long way toward these different municipalities (in showing) that they deserve funding,” Moritz said.

McClatchy identified more than 75 towns and cities with populations over 1,000 where, like Paradise, at least 90 per cent of residents live within the Cal Fire “very high fire hazard severity zones.”

Here are snapshots of 10, and the unique challenges they face:

——

Shingletown: a miniature Paradise

Population (2010) — 2,283 ‘ In Very High fire Hazard Severity Zone — 2,283

Shingletown is less than one-tenth the size of Paradise but probably carries just as much risk.

Like Paradise, the unincorporated community sits atop a ridge, and is covered in tall trees and thick brush — ingredients for a major wildfire. Shingletown was originally named Shingle Camp, for the workers who cut roofing slats from timber to supply miners during the Gold Rush era.

“We grow trees like nobody’s business up here,” said Tom Twist, a member of the Shingletown Fire Safe Council, a volunteer organization. Twist, who’s lived in the community off and on since the 1970s, said that when the weather is warm he’ll walk his property, pulling up seedlings in an almost futile effort to eliminate potential fuels.

“I’ll pull 20 or 30 seedlings a day out of the ground,” he said. “It’s almost like when I walk over there, there’s 20 or 30. When I walk back, there’s another 20 or 30.”

Just like Paradise, escaping the ridge in a fast-moving fire wouldn’t be easy; Shingletown’s main drag is winding, narrow Highway 44. And, like in Paradise, the presence of an older population would make evacuation more difficult; Shingletown’s median age is 61, according to census figures.

It’s little wonder that when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Cal Fire to develop a list of urgent fire-safety projects, a plan to trim 1,124 acres of vegetation along Highway 44 came up as the top priority out of 35 projects around the state.

Locals say they’re glad the state is paying attention to a problem they know too well. The community had to evacuate when the Ponderosa Fire, started by a lightning strike, hit in 2012. The fire burned 27,676 acres — 43 square miles — and torched 52 homes in the vicinity.

“We’re intimately aware of the dangers up here,” Twist said.

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Nevada City: picturesque and risky

Population (2010) — 3,068 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 3,064

Since the Camp Fire, Vicky Guyette has looked at the one-acre patch of untrimmed brush behind her mother’s Victorian-era home in Nevada City as more than just an unattractive nuisance.

Now, the brush is ominous — an ignition source that could torch the home built in 1859 that her family has lived in for five generations.

The same anxiety also applies to the cedars, pines and brush covering the hills around this foothill city of about 3,100 people, many of whom live or work in wooden buildings dating back to the the Gold Rush era.

“It’s very scary, especially since it’s such a cute little town I’ve been living in my whole life,” Guyette said recently as she walked down the city’s historic Broad Street, which looks like it fell out of a photo from a museum exhibit.

City officials agree that the wooded draws, steep hillsides, narrow residential streets, ancient homes and thick urban tree canopy that define the character of the city also make it particularly at risk if a fire burns through.

“Nevada City’s single largest risk for human life and financial loss is fire,” Nevada City’s hazard mitigation plan reads.

In recent decades, the city also has had some near misses with fire, including one major close call.

In 1988, heavy winds pushed the 49er Fire through 52 square miles of western Nevada County, burning 312 buildings and dozens of cars.

“At the time it was considered an anomalous event,” said Billy Spearing of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County. “It was not the normal for them then.”

With such fires becoming the new normal, Cal Fire is planning to cut a 1,802 acre fire break in southwest Nevada County in terrain that hasn’t burned in a century, helping protect both Nevada City and the adjacent community of Grass Valley, home to more than 12,000.

Nevada City also embarked on an online “Goat Fund Me” campaign to raise $25,000 to hire farmers to use their goats to eat dense brush in more than 450 acres of city-owned greenbelt.

The goats recently chewed a swath through Pioneer Park near Margaret Rodda’s Victorian home, which sits on a steep draw above a creek. But she’s still worried.

“All it takes is a drunk with a cigarette,” she said.

The goats inspired Guyette. She said she might spend the $500 to put a herder’s goats to work on the thorny thicket of blackberries behind her mother’s house.

“We need to get rid of them,” she said.

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Colfax: Fire is on everyone’s minds

Population (2010) — 1,963 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone –1,963

On his first full day in office, Newsom visited the Cal Fire station in Colfax to announce new initiatives on wildfire safety. As he spoke to reporters, surrounded by first responders, he was standing in a city that could burn any summer.

“The people who live here have a true understanding,” said Colfax City Manager Wes Heathcock. “It’s always on the back of people’s minds, especially with the most recent fires, the Camp Fire. We have a similar makeup here.”

At night in the summer, Aimee Costa, who lives on a hill above the elementary school, sometimes keeps her window open, the better to hear ominous sounds.

“You’re laying in bed . listening for that lick, that smack, that pop sound,” Costa said, describing the sound flames would make if they were chewing pine needles, brush and leaves.

A former supply hub for gold mining camps, Colfax sits a few miles from the edge of the Tahoe National Forest in the lower-elevation Sierra. It straddles Interstate 80 and serves as the last major stop between the Sacramento metropolitan area and the Lake Tahoe region. Horses graze beside deer on large ranchettes in the rugged brushy canyons along the outskirts of the city.

The terrain poses a major fire risk.

In July 2015, the Lowell Fire erupted near Colfax and chewed up thousands of acres along the north side of the freeway, forcing evacuations in adjacent Nevada County. In the years since, Heathcock said the city has been working with state officials on “fuelbreak” projects, including a spot near the high school and elementary school, which has been eyed as an evacuation site.

Gene Mapa, who lived in Paradise and escaped the Camp Fire with some family photographs — and nothing else — has relocated to Colfax, where he already owned a second home. But he knows he hasn’t escaped the fire risk; his property just outside the city limits would be threatened by a windy firestorm like the one that engulfed Paradise.

“With that wind, there would be no stopping it anywhere,” Mapa said.

��-

Kings Beach: Tourists seek fun, bring fire danger

Population (2010) — 3,796 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone –3,796

Situated on the pristine north shore of Lake Tahoe, Kings Beach is one of the most heavily visited vacation spots in Northern California.

That’s a big part of the problem.

Because so much of the population comes and goes, it becomes harder to get people to treat wildfire risk with the respect it deserves, said Erin Holland, a spokeswoman for the North Tahoe Fire Protection District. One of the district’s six stations is in Kings Beach.

“It is definitely a challenge because we have so many homes that are vacation homes,” she said. “It’s really a challenge to educate those visitors . They want to have a camp fire.”

Tahoe’s vulnerability to major fires was brought home dramatically in recent years. The Angora Fire in 2007, while it was confined to the south shore area, left physical and emotional scars on the entire basin after burning through 3,100 acres.

Holland said getting the region’s property owners and visitors to observe “defensible space” regulations is particularly difficult. Those rules call for clearing brush 100 feet around buildings and include stricter rules regarding vegetation immediately adjacent to structures.

Violators can be subject to citations, but “the goal is to really educate people, to get people complying,” Holland said. “We go the education route rather than the citation route.”

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Pollock Pines: Do the transplants get it?

Population (2010) — 6,877 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 6,533

Just off Highway 50, a few miles from the tourist haven of Apple Hill, Pollock Pines lures transplants from coastal California, mainly retirees drawn to the lovely stands of trees in the foothill community at the edge of the Eldorado National Forest.

Heather Campbell only wishes the newbies had a better understanding of what all that timber represents.

Campbell, a retired U.S. Forest Service employee who’s lived in Pollock Pines since the 1990s, is the head of the Pollock Pines-Camino Fire Safe Council, a volunteer group.

In the past few years her organization has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly from the state’s “cap and trade” carbon trading program, to trim vegetation on the ridgeline south of Highway 50.

That’s all well and good, she said, but more needs to be done. And the people of Pollock Pines, including the newcomers, have to realize what’s at stake.

“Here, everybody allows all the saplings and brush to grow and they don’t weed it out,” she said. “All these roads are incredibly dangerous, when it’s so easy to take out pruners. Take out your pruners!”

She said memories are still vivid of the Sand Fire in 2014. That fire burned 4,200 acres and 20 homes and came dangerously close to forcing a major evacuation in Pollock Pines and surrounding communities.

“They were going to evacuate 9,000 people,” she said. “They were predicting the fire to go to 27,000 acres, instead of the 4,000 they stopped it at.”

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Arnold: Trees are falling in Big Trees country

Population (2010) — 3,843 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 3,843

In the community that serves as gateway to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, residents didn’t always applaud when officials began mapping plans to thin dense stands of trees to reduce fire risk.

“Arnold resisted this for a long time because people love their trees,” said Steve Wilensky, a former Calaveras County supervisor who works with nonprofits to improve fire safety in the Sierra.

After years of protests, Arnold’s residents got a major wake-up call in 2015. The Butte Fire, caused by power lines, took out 549 homes in nearby communities. Two people died.

“If the weather hadn’t changed, they’d be gone,” Wilensky said of Arnold. “You’ve got a real parallel with Paradise in some ways . It’s a place that is really highly threatened.”

Arnold sits on a ridge, surrounded by a dense forest of drought- and beetle-killed trees. Powerful wind gusts can funnel fire up rugged brushy canyons.

A key difference between Paradise and Arnold is that as many as 45 per cent of the dwellings are vacation homes, which can sometimes make it a challenge to get out-of-town homeowners to do brush clearing, local officials said.

Wilensky said momentum to reduce fire risk has built since the Butte Fire. More than $15 million in state and federal funds have gone to thinning dangerous overgrowth in the region, Wilensky said.

One project includes using bulldozer lines that were cut during the Butte Fire to expand a fire break that stretches to town.

“Arnold is the anchor end of this project,” Wilensky said.

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Wofford Heights: Apathy in a danger zone?

Population (2010) — 2,201 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 2,147

The same powerful desert gusts that attract wind surfers to Kern County’s Lake Isabella make the lakeside community of Wofford Heights particularly at risk for wildfire. So does the adjacent Sequoia National Forest, which has been plagued by drought and tree-killing beetles.

Yet some feel that the region isn’t doing nearly enough to combat the threat.

“We could do a hell of a lot more than we’re doing,” said Judy Hyatt, who lived in the area for 15 years and served as president of the region’s fire safe council. The volunteer group disbanded in recent years from what she and others described as a lack of interest.

In 2016, the Lake Isabella region suffered through the Erskine and Cedar fires, which burned more than 77,000 acres and more than 300 structures. An elderly couple was killed when they were trapped by the Erskine Fire.

According to census figures, the median age of those living in Wofford Heights is 62, and many live in places with poor escape routes.

“Some of those mobiles up there, honest to God, I think they’ve dropped them out of the sky,” Hyatt said. “The roads are so narrow, and it really just presents an obstacle and the only way to really get to it is by air. That is when people start to die.”

Hyatt said the loss of the non-profit Kern River Fire Safe Council she once headed doesn’t bode well for the community. She said the council organized wood-chipping drives to encourage residents to remove wood debris and sought grants for fuel breaks and other thinning projects.

She said too many locals have grown complacent.

“Fire prevention is a nebulous thing,” she said. “It’s hard to quantify, until there’s a damned fire that takes out everything.”

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La Canada Flintridge: Is aggressive fire prevention enough?

Population (2010) — 20,048 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 20,048

Carol Settles and her family evacuated their home in La Canada Flintridge during the Station Fire in 2009. But she isn’t terribly worried about a repeat performance — even though her home is on a dead-end street below a brushy hillside of the Angeles National Forest. Large electrical transmission lines run along the wooded draw behind her home.

“We’ve never seen a spark,” Settles said, referring to the power lines. “We’ve never seen any of that.”

Best-known as home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the outskirts of Pasadena, the upper middle-class city has an aggressive fire-prevention program. The Los Angeles County fire department checks properties in Settles’ area once a year to make sure vegetation has been cleared and hazardous landscaping hasn’t been planted.

Fines can be issued for non-compliance. Recently, one of Settles’ neighbours had to saw off the top of a pine tree because it was too close to a transmission tower, she said.

Los Angeles County’s assistant fire chief, J. Lopez, said La Canada Flintridge has embraced rigorous fire-safety standards, which include annual landscaping inspections and stringent fire-safe building codes, even for large home remodels. Lopez said La Canada Flintridge also chose to place the entire city inside a high fire hazard zone, going beyond the recommendation of Cal Fire. That decision translates into citywide enforcement of its fire-resilient building codes.

“That’s a very progressive way to look at it,” Lopez said.

But since 2008, on average only about a dozen new homes have been built in La Canada Flintridge each year, meaning most of the housing stock was built before the rigorous fire standards were in place.

The city’s hazard mitigation plan notes many of those older homes still have “combustible roofing, open eaves, combustible siding,” and they’re on “steep, narrow, poorly signed” roads that make evacuations dangerous.

Thomas Caswell, who’s lived for four decades on a hilly, narrow, dead-end street not far from city hall, said he knows the greenbelt behind his house where he watches possums, birds and other wildlife also makes the community vulnerable to fire. It’s why he says he didn’t mind paying when the city told him he needed to hire a tree service to remove dying trees in his front yard.

Still, he knows such efforts probably wouldn’t do much good if the Santa Ana winds pushed a fire into the city. Fire officials said that La Canada Flintridge could have burned in the Station Fire if the Santa Ana winds hadn’t stopped blowing. The fire burned 89 homes in outlying communities and 160,577 acres of forested lands, the largest fire by land mass in Los Angeles County history.

“Once it comes down the hill,” Caswell said, “nobody is going to be safe.”

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Rancho Palos Verdes: Few fears in an affluent suburb

Population (2010) — 41,803 ‘ In Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone — 40,550

Rancho Palos Verdes holds a dubious honour: It’s the most populated city in California to have 90 per cent or more of its population living within a “very high fire hazard severity zone.” But few residents seem to think their suburb is in the same league as Malibu, where hundreds of homes burned last fall just up the Los Angeles County coastline.

“It’s not like living in Malibu, definitely,” said Gregory Lash as he strolled through a public access walkway in the Trump National Golf Club with his wife, Vivian, on the way to an oceanside park where a pod of dolphins and whales were breaching.

He added, moments later: “Hope that’s not naive.”

City officials say it’s not.

“This being a coastal community, we don’t get the type of brush and that kind of fire behaviour that you might get in somewhere like Paradise,” said Scott Hale, an assistant fire chief for Los Angeles County. The county leads firefighting efforts on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, whose four affluent communities all fall inside a high fire severity zone.

Locals point out that over the years, the firefighters at the five stations on the peninsula have quickly knocked down the relatively small fires that popped up.

Still, Rancho Palos Verdes’ hazard mitigation plan lists wildfire as a bigger threat to the city than earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides. Powerful winds that blow from the coast could funnel a fire up the greenbelts that cut through the peninsula’s neighbourhoods, many of which have opulent homes perched above canyons.

Much of that open space has been preserved by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, which manages more than 1,600 acres of land in and around the city. Residents such as Lash love the 42 miles of trails on conservancy lands, but all that undeveloped acreage could ignite, said Gabriella Yap, deputy city manager.

“You’re trying to preserve that, but it also comes with fire risk,” Yap said.

The city’s staff supports Southern California Edison’s plans to trim vegetation from under the lines that run through some of the open space to reduce fire threats, but the land conservancy is bristling at the loss of native habitats.

“The environmental impact of that is really significant,” said Adrienne Mohan, the conservancy’s executive director.

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Harbison Canyon: Will it burn a third time?

Population (2010) — 3,841 ‘ In Very High Hazard Fire Severity Zone — 3,841

Every 30 years or so, a massive fire blows through Harbison Canyon, 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

The 1970 Laguna Fire destroyed much of the unincorporated town that sits inside the canyon and shares its name. Harbison Canyon was rebuilt again after the Cedar Fire burned through in 2003, destroying 287 of the 388 homes.

Rick Halsey of the Chaparral Institute said the canyon is a painful example of how development has been allowed to continue practically unchecked for decades into some of California’s most fire-prone places.

“You want to create a geographical hotspot for fire, you couldn’t put it in a better place,” said Halsey, whose environmentalist organization was founded to fight calls for clearing hundreds of square miles of wild lands following the Cedar Fire. “It’s like a bowling alley for the Santa Ana winds.”

That sort of talk makes longtime resident Mary Manning cringe.

She worries that focusing on the canyon’s fire risk creates the impression that the community she loves can’t be saved from the next catastrophe. She said her community could be made more safe if state and local officials would invest in infrastructure and fire prevention that matched the rates of development she’s seen over the years. For instance, the side streets in Harbison Canyon are narrow. Some, like Manning’s, remain unpaved despite decades of building.

“There were five houses, now there are 35,” she said of the street she’s lived on since 1975.

Manning notes it was only two years ago that the local fire station became staffed 24 hours a day — 14 years after the Cedar Fire. Inside the station, Dave Nissen, the Cal Fire official who oversees firefighting in the area, said there are a number of challenges to fighting a fire in the canyon, including the narrow roads and houses stacked close together.

Nissen said firefighters reduce the risks by inspecting lots every year to make sure they’re not overgrown. On that front, Harbison Canyon’s residents don’t seem to need too much prodding, judging from the roar of chain saws and weed trimmers echoing through the canyon on a recent spring weekday afternoon.

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Associated Press data reporter Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this article.

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smtraxler · 6 years ago

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Living in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, you learn to get used to Fire Season. You have the 4 seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring & Construction/Fire Season. Fire season can start anywhere from Mid to Late July and into August and even September. I’m certain there were more than what I can remember, but it’s the ones I remember that I can write about.

The first I can remember occurred when I was about 7, we lived out in Merlin and the closest to us was the Galice Fire, which according to April 1995 Watershed Analysis for the Siskiyou National Forest burned about 21,000 acres and combined with 2 other fires and burned over 100,000 acres total. Being 7, all I remember is lots of smoke and looking out our 2nd story window and seeing more and more smoke.

The next major fires that I remember, was in 1993, I could not find any technical information but I remember that our valley was surrounded by fires and I was house sitting for my aunt & uncle in Gold Hill while they were visiting family back east. One of the fires was on the other side of the mountain from where my aunt & uncle lived so I remember being concerned about it coming over the mountain, but thankfully it did not.

As I said before, I’m sure there have been more than those two years I can remember specifically when I was growing up. However, over the last 4 years that I have lived in North East Washington, I have almost had to evacuate twice.

2015

We moved here in 2014, but my first experience with a major fire was August of 2015. It was Stampede Weekend (If you are curious, look up the Omak Stampede Suicide Races, they are interesting). August 13th was the date and I was dispatching at the Stampede Grounds and could hear them talking about a fire over our regular channels.

This fire ended up combining 3 large fires into the Okanogan Complex Fire which became Washington’s biggest fire in history, at over 250,000 acres.

During this fire, there was also an earthquake and the epicenter was about 8 miles from where the initial North Star fire started. I was sitting in the dispatch center at the police department. When I heard a rumbling like someone was running across our metal roof. As it moved through, I my chair started rolling across the floor. My husband, who works inside the dam, approximately 5 floors under the water felt it. That was my first experience with an earthquake (while being awake that is).

North Star/Tunk Fires

2016

The following year, there was a grass fire that started near Hwy 174 that ran up behind where we lived in Coulee Dam. It came very close to the switch yards, which would have just ruined everyone’s day because it would have cut power to millions of people. About 3-4 blocks up the street was the Coulee Dam Town Hall, we watched as the fire crept down the hill and got closer and closer. Thankfully, it didn’t come any further down the hill.

However the wind kicked up and blew it up and over another hill towards the highway, this was after I had driven up to go to the grocery store. Which then caused me to be separated from my family for a couple hours because they close the highway back down to my house… In the end, thankfully I was able to get back to my house and my family.

2017

Last year, we had fires on the Colville Reservation once again, mostly they were a bit further away from work. One fire in particular, was in Keller and got a bit scary for a while because the wind became so wild. We had one call from some people afraid they were not going to be able to get out because they had come over on the ferry and thought they were on an island and the ferry had stopped running. Thankfully, I was able to reassure them there were other ways out.

2018

This year we had another fire in Grand Coulee that started near Hwy 174 again and the wind caused the fire to spread rapidly. This time my daughter and I were at work, while the rest of our family was at home. As the fire spread, it came closer to town and the evacuation levels increased. At one point, we were in the area of a Level 2 evacuation, meaning we had to be on alert and ready to move.

Thankfully good friends that were clear of the fire offered their homes in case we needed to evacuate. Several of our old neighbors in Coulee Dam did have to evacuate as the fire crept down the hill behind the Coulee Dam Town Hall once again.

There are pros and cons of social media during times like these. The pros obviously are because you are able to get information out to a lot of people in a very short time and keep them updated. The biggest con of social media…MISINFORMATION & RUMORS… These were the biggest problems, people saying things they heard that weren’t correct.

It was a stressful night at work, being busy with the Stampede weekend once again, and having to worry about my family at home getting prepared to possibly evacuate. I was relieved when my daughter made it home.

In the morning when I got home, I found out that my husband had been called into work, they thought a transformer had blown and he was on call. Security had picked him up and took him to the switch yards. He was able to figure out that it was only a switch and not a transformer, and knew exactly where to find the spare part and get it changed out. Of course, the switch yards was dangerously close to where the fire…he admitted to me that there were a few times he was pretty scared, especially watching some of the livestock that were having to jump off a cliff to escape the fire or had already caught fire because they had become trapped.

Needless to say, I’ve had my fill of wildfires over the last 4 years.

Fire Season Living in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, you learn to get used to Fire Season. You have the 4 seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring & Construction/Fire Season.

#fire #scary #wildfires

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josephkitchen0 · 7 years ago

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Fire Evacuation Procedures for Your Livestock

By Mary Wilson – The year 2013 was an informative and challenging year for Half Creek Farm in Bickleton, Washington. In late July and early August, we got our first “opportunity” to give farm fire evacuation procedures a try. We pretty much sucked at it.

I raise Kiko goats, British White cattle, Gotland sheep, a llama and a Holstein heifer. We also run a small herd of British Guernsey milk goats. We are raising geese, a zillion free-range chickens, ducks and three dogs.

Our animals are generally very gentle and used to us handling and touching them. We don’t have any craziness here (in the livestock sense). This fact led me to anticipate that should I ever need to put our fire evacuation procedures to the test, it would be a fairly simple thing to load all my gentle, well-behaved animals into the horse trailers and canopy and, away we’d go. Hah! That is not what happened.

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First, and foremost, you need to realize that all those friendly, sweet, easy to handle animals become raving lunatics when they sense something is wrong. My sweet Daisy (one of the British White cows) jumped her enormous girth (which I had no idea was even possible) onto a four-foot cattle panel and squashed it in half to escape the loading pen I’d thrown together. In spite of my warnings of oncoming barbecue weather, it took hours to lure Iris (the other British White heifer) into the horse trailer. That’s when I discovered that two of these girls weren’t going to fit in the horse trailer. So I took Iris and the llama to our friends’ farm in Goldendale (30 miles), dropped them off, and headed back. Daisy was having none of it, and ended up never being loaded out.

All of the meat goats were loaded up into the big horse trailer and hauled to Centerville, Washington (40 miles). When I arrived to unload the goats I discovered that one of my really nice registered Kiko doelings was crushed in the load. Not only is this heartbreaking, it’s a financial hit, as fire evacuation procedures are not cheap!

I unloaded the goats into the pasture provided by a friend’s farm and fed them to help settle them down. I was sharing a fence line with her goats, which made me nervous, and I didn’t have time to reinforce the fence between the two herds. This proved problematic, as the hay is always greener on the other side, and her herd broke through the fence and mixed with mine. That meant that a few months after I got my herd home I had to have the whole group blood tested for CL and CAE. Another expense I hadn’t counted on from our fire evacuation procedures.

I didn’t even try to move the poultry as part of the fire evacuation procedure, choosing instead to shelter in place. We have a large area behind one of the barns that’s void of grass and debris, and we put food and water out hoping for the best. The dogs stayed with us the whole time, traveling in the trucks while we moved livestock. The cats disappeared into the woods, not bothering to look to us for saving them.

Then we loaded the dairy goats and took them to a third farm. The dairy goats were near kidding and we were worried about them. We’d spent a lot of time and money having them AI’d and didn’t want to lose anyone. The people who owned the farm worked, which meant the girls would be alone for the day. They also didn’t know much about goats, so couldn’t tell when kidding was imminent, leaving us to check on them often. This farm was 25 miles from us on a side road.

Just when you think you’re finally set, you realize you’ve only begun with the hassle of the fire evacuation procedure. Once you have your animals moved, you are then responsible for making sure they get fed and watered. This was a really expensive challenge for us, as all of our shelter farms were about 30 miles away. We got up each morning and loaded up hay and buckets, and headed out to each farm to care for our animals. We couldn’t leave extra hay just sitting at our host farms because they had animals as well and their animals didn’t know our hay from their hay. So each day we’d drive out, feed and water all our animals, make sure they were doing okay, then in the evening we’d repeat it. One of the farms put the llama and the British White out on pasture so we didn’t have to do anything with them. This was so nice!

As we had feared, one of the British Guernsey dairy goats did indeed kid. We found her and her kid on one of our evening rounds and took her home, figuring if it got bad, we’d put her in the back seat of the car and run for it.

Dave made runs around our house and property with the Bobcat to help provide protection. There were tons of flying ash pieces in the air, and for weeks after the fire they remained on every surface on the farm. It’s amazing they didn’t start more fires as some of them were really large.

We brought the animals home in waves, about five days later, and then sat down to make a new fire evacuation plan for next time. We live in the rural west and wildfires are a fact of life. We have to be prepared to evacuate. However, remember there are many other reasons to evacuate, or to be prepared for disasters. From floods, to earthquakes, to volcanoes, we pretty much have it all and should be ready to provide for our animals as well as our families. With this in mind, I’m sharing with you some of the things that might help you in times of uncertainty.

Level 1=Get Ready, Level 2=Set, Level 3=Go!

We began waking up to heavy smoke in the air and flying pieces of ash. The fire departments sent trucks down to warn everyone to get ready for fire evacuation procedures (Level 2). They started advising steps to take to help minimize damage if the fire overran their fire line. It was a tense time. The smoke in the air was a constant reminder that all was not well.

Another thing to remember is that local wildlife is also on the run. Once your animals are out, open your gates, fill the water troughs, and close up your barns. You don’t want others running from the fire to be cut off from escape, or trapped in your barn thinking it’s safe, or full of your hay.

Pay close attention to local authorities and when you are moved from Level 2 to Level 3, assume you won’t be permitted to re-enter your place once you’ve left. All your animals need to be rescued before this point.

Finally, try to make sure valuable farm equipment is under shelter, and you’ve cleared around the shelter as much as you’re able. By now we’ve all had it drilled into us to clear a defensible area around our houses, but you should also have that same area around your barns and storage shelters. No debris, scrap lumber, or usual farm “stuff” should be banked up near any structures. If it’s valuable enough to keep, put it under cover; otherwise toss it, or put it in a pile in the middle of a clear field and away from structures.

So, I’ve told you how we did it, now I’ll tell you things that we would do differently, and things we’ve learned for the first time we executed our fire evacuation procedures.

1. Your tame well-behaved animals will become strangers. They won’t follow you like they always do, they won’t pay attention to the dogs, they’ll run everywhere but where you want them. Have a good livestock handling area set up in advance. It will make your life easier anyway so just do it. Sturdy aisles, good-working gates, and a well-built loading area will make things so much better.

2. If you have a lot of animals be sure you have room for all of them at host farms. In the case of a fire, you can’t just board at your neighbor’s because he’s boarding somewhere too. You need to be far enough away from the disaster to provide safety. Setting up reciprocal agreements with other farmers in advance is something you can do this week!

3. If you have a lot of animals and it looks serious, start moving them when you reach Level 2 of your fire evacuation procedures. You may not be allowed back if you wait until a Level 3 and have to make several loads.

4. On your final trip, leave a horse trailer at the host farm. When you return to check on your animals the next morning, bring plenty of hay and store it in the trailer. This way you can take a more economical vehicle for the rest of the fire evacuation procedures as you won’t have to haul hay every day.

5. Make sure all of your animals have positive identification on them, whether it’s a brand, an ear tag or tattoo. Have current pictures of unmarked animals and keep accurate records of where everyone went. It’s easy to lose animals while they are hosting at someone else’s farm, especially if everyone is working and there’s no one to watch your animals.

6. If you have to leave an animal behind, don’t chain them, or contain them where they will be trapped. Place them in a cleared area with enough food and water for 72 hours. Don’t rely on automatic waterers as you may lose electricity.

7. Make sure the host farms have all your contact info. Place contact info on your door when you leave.

8. When you have completed your fire evacuation procedure, put a sign at the end of your drive, advising fire and rescue that you have evacuated. You don’t want them to waste precious time going in to check to make sure you are safe when you aren’t even there.

9. Be sure to take important papers like registrations, health records, and vaccinations.

10. If you are unable to evacuate all of your animals, you need to decide which genetics are the most valuable. Prioritize if you can’t take them all.

The 5 P’s of Executing Immediate Fire Evacuation Procedures:

People, pets, and livestock

Papers — important documents

Prescriptions — medications, eyeglasses, hearing aids

Pictures — Irreplaceable memories

Personal computer

Before a Fire Evacuation Procedure:

Make a list of priorities. What will you pack when you leave? Write it down so that if it ever comes up, you can pull your list and begin loading the car.

Keep a kit: This should include a first aid kit, some emergency tools, a battery powered radio and flashlight with extra batteries, a spare set of car keys, credit cards, cash, water, non-perishable food, blanket/sleeping bag, a waterproof tarp, all packed in a backpack or carryall so you can grab it and go. Keep several packed and in handy places, like one in each car, and one in the utility room.

Always establish two escape routes in case of disaster.

When you leave your home:

Leave your electricity on and a light on!

Move flammable furniture to the center of the room.

Close shutters, blinds, and heavy drapes. Remove light-weight drapes and curtains.

Close fireplace screens and dampers.

Shut all interior and exterior doors and leave them unlocked.

Place a note on the front door stating names of all evacuees and your destination/contact info.

Place a ladder outside for roof access.

Originally published in Countryside 2014 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

Fire Evacuation Procedures for Your Livestock was originally posted by All About Chickens

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johnvonstach · 7 years ago

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Some Updated Tips On Simple Tactics For Vpower Solar Energy

Although solar energy has been around a while, many different people are still interested in the topic. The key to becoming an authority on solar energy is to spend sufficient time learning all you can about its true potential. The article that follows is a great place to begin the process.

When thinking about going solar, start out small. This can be done in a couple of ways. The first is to get solar panels that you can attach onto windows – these can be used to recharge portable electronic gadgets. Camping equipment that is solar powered is also very helpful. Every little device you switch to solar will shave a bit from your utility bill.

Panels that are easily rotated have the best efficiency. If you need to install panels that are fixed, a compromise will need to be reached in terms of optimal angles for winter and summer.

Should your solar panels fail to work as they should, it is good to have a backup plan. Generators are a good idea, though you might also stay connected to a main grid so that you can access power when necessary. If you choose to get a generator, keep a few on hand and test them on a routine basis.

There are many changes from year to year with solar energy systems. The costs have dropped and the rigs are more efficient than ever. Whether looking for a big system for your business or a smaller one for your home, if you search thoroughly you can find the right one.

You can add pathway lighting to your home or your business today to get started on harnessing the power of the sun. Exterior lights can be powered at night by the power of the sun which is gathered during the day. They’re simple to install and add a bit of charm to the outdoor area.

Solar panels are installed initially at the optimal location and angle that maximizes exposure to the sun, but things can happen over time that adversely affects the exposure. Check regularly to be sure that trees aren’t overgrown and blocking the sunlight you need for your solar panels.

Turn your panels as the seasons change. As the seasons change, the amount of sunlight hitting your home, as well as the direction of that sunlight, will change as well. Altering the angle will ensure you continue to gather the proper amount of power for your home.

You should consider installing solar panels as an important home improvement project. Check out contractors as you would if adding an addition to your home. You should carefully consider each aspect of the contract, and you might want an attorney to look it over.

Hang-dry your clothes on an outside line. It may be an old idea, but it still works! Rather than using electricity to both wash and dry your clothes, just put your clothing on the clothesline to dry. Your clothes will get dry and you will save some money and energy.

People are very interested in solar power today. Do more research on solar power and do not hesitate to share your findings with friends and relatives. This article has given you many great pointers about solar energy exploration.

White House officials and outside advisers suggested Hicks’ departure would strengthen chief of staff John Kelly’s control over what has been an oftentimes chaotijc West Wing. In a statement, Kelly said Hicks had become “a trusted adviser and counselor,” but behind the scenes the pair had occasionally clashed over her more informal role. Kelly had begrudgingly supported making Hicks communications director after the short-lived tenure of Anthony Scaramucci, in an effort to integrate her role into the rest of the White House’s communications strategy. Hicks said in a statement, “There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump.” She added she wished Trump and his administration the “very best.” A former Ralph Lauren fashion model and public relations pro who worked for Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Hicks, 29, had no political background when Trump asked her to serve on his campaign. Before Wednesday’s announcement, Hicks had not been happy for some time, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One person said Hicks had been increasingly feeling the stress of the position. She was an unconventional campaign press secretary, rarely mixing it up with reporters, almost never giving interviews and, despite Trump’s fondness for cable, staying off TV. She spoke at a rally exactly once in December 2016, after Trump beseeched her “to say a couple of words.” She said nine: “Hi. Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you, Donald Trump.” Within the White House, she was seen as a stabilizing force on Trump, who at times would grow unhappy when she was not around. As the West Wing was riven by rivalries in the early months of the administration, she allied herself with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in opposition, at times, to the nationalist forces led by then-chief strategist Steve Bannon. Hicks, who has long tried to avoid media attention, was thrust into the spotlight recently when it was revealed she had been dating former Staff Secretary Rob Porter. He left the administration after accusations that he had abused his two ex-wives became public. Hicks helped craft the White House’s initial supportive response. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Hicks would remain at the White House “for several weeks” and denied that Hicks’ decision to leave had anything to do with her lengthy testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.sooeveningnews.com/zz/news/20180228/breaking-white-house-communications-director-hope-hicks-resigns

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Some New Guidance On Rapid Systems In Sault Ste Marie

Marie Animal Care and Control services,” says Cindy Ross, Shelter Manager, Humane Society. “Pet licensing has been proven to result in high return to owner rates and eliminates the possibility of a pet being adopted to a new family because their owner could not be found. We encourage all pet owners to register their animals for this invaluable service.” A registered pet also assists the Humane Society in the event of an emergency or evacuation such as severe weather conditions, human health emergencies, transportation accidents, flooding and wildfires. The City’s Animal Care and Emergency Response plan aims to control and support the humane care and treatment of companion animals during an emergency situation. “Emergencies can happen at any time. If your pet is lost in the event of an emergency or evacuation, a registered pet is easily identifiable and returned to its owners as quickly as possible. The Emergency Management Division cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting your dog registered annually,” states Lauren Perry, Emergency Management Coordinator, City of Sault Ste. Marie. Licensing revenues stay local and allows the shelter to reunite lost cats and dogs with their owners, shelter and feed lost animals, educate owners about responsible pet ownership, manage adoption programs for unclaimed pets, assist emergency first responders and social agencies with animal concerns and provide emergency services for injured animals. In addition, licenses allow dogs admission into the City’s Strathclair Dog Park. Unlicensed dogs may be subject to a Provincial Offences fine. Licenses must be purchased on or before March 31 of each year and are available at the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society or online at ssmhumanesociety.ca .

http://saultstemarie.ca/Newsroom/January-2018/A-license-is-a-pet-s-ticket-home.aspx?feed=news

VPOWERENERGY|130 Hood St, Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6C 6E5, Canada|http://vpowerenergy.com|+1 705-759-3899|JOHN STACH VPOWERENERGY

A Few Ideas For Effective Solar Power Sault Ste Marie Solutions

Have you been considering using solar energy? You can use solar energy to benefit both your business and your home. Review this piece to discover the great aspects of solar power and how it can be used effectively.

There are a couple of different photo-voltaic panels to choose from. Less expensive panels are usually poly-crystalline, but they are not as effective as the more expensive mono-crystalline panels. If you want to power your whole home with solar energy, you are best off purchasing the most technologically advanced system you can afford.

If you are prepared to invest long-term, solar energy is an excellent way to save energy and save money. Solar panels are quite expensive and it could take years before your panels are paid off and you actually start saving money on energy. If you are planning on moving, then you might want to hold out on purchasing the solar energy system until you are in a more permanent home.

Try to find grants and rebates that can reduce the installation cost of your solar panels. Your solar energy system can cost quite a bit to get started with, but there is help available usually. Do your research and you may find great programs that offer rebates, grants or other incentives to help you get the solar power equipment to get you started. The cost savings can be substantial. You could deduct some expenses via your taxes.

A panel system that tracks the sun is a great option if you can afford it. The sun is followed as it moves through the sky with these systems. These cost more than fixed panel systems, but the extra energy created will make it worthwhile.

If you’ve installed panels, keep an eye on the inverter. A green light is normal. An indicator light that is off or is blinking is cause for an expert. You likely can’t diagnose this problem alone. A technician should visit for free if you have a warranty for 25 years, which is standard.

Two of the most popular ways to cut heating costs include installing solar water heaters and solar panels. You will need 5 hours of sunlight a day to keep the panels working their best. Solar water heating is often used to reduce the cost of heating a swimming pool.

If you want to have a new house built, consider solar energy. Solar energy might be the most modern thing in producing energy, and it has almost no effect on the environment. This is the ideal time to conduct more research on solar energy.

You need to be aware of the amount of energy you use. Prior to going over to solar power, you should have a solid idea of your power needs. In order to pick the right size, this information is critical. Check your bills for a year for the best estimate possible.

Having read the article above, you should now know how beneficial solar energy is. Don’t be kept in the dark! Apply these tips at home or at your business and discover the great benefits of green power.

To read more about vpowerenergy personal solar power generator Sault Ste Marie visit https://www.johnvonstach.com/vpowerenergy/

The post Some Updated Tips On Simple Tactics For Vpower Solar Energy appeared first on VSP North America.

from VSP North America http://www.johnvonstach.com/vs-products-inc/some-updated-tips-on-simple-tactics-for-vpower-solar-energy/

#VSP North America

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kathymommy · 7 years ago

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Be Prepared! (sermon)

No one can escape news about the myriad of natural disasters that have occurred over the last couple of months. Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Maria. Earthquakes in Mexico. Raging fires in the Western United States. And I’m not even talking about the horrific massacres, terror attacks, political upheaval, war, refugee displacements, contemporary genocide, and threats of thermonuclear war.

We see on television, and for some of us, first-hand, the devastation resulting from these disasters. Puerto Rico will be long gripped by its large-scale catastrophe. And as we observe people who have lost everything, we wonder how they’ll ever recover.

As we watch the news, trying to make sense out of what we see, at intervals we get advice or recommendations from experts on what we should do if such disasters should threaten us.

We’ve all seen these helpful hints. Social media is crawling with them. Some of them are probably pretty useful, depending on the circumstances.

Get plenty of fuel for your vehicle and (if you have one) your generator.

Fill your tub with water (or, rather, fill containers in the tub with water, or else it will probably leak down the drain).

Get out your shovels and ice melt before the snow starts.

Throw your outdoor furniture into your pool to secure it. This only works if you have a pool, I guess.

Keep an ax in your attic in case you need to chop through your roof.

Put your documents in your dishwasher! It’s waterproof (no, it’s not; don’t do it).

Have some cash on-hand in case the power is out for a while because ATMs need electricity.

Write identifying information on your arm with a Sharpie marker. It’s pretty grim to imagine a situation where this would be helpful to someone.

In addition to preparing for specific disasters, there’s readiness based upon simply being strong and resilient to begin with. This is especially important on community, institutional and government levels. To build sturdy, up-to-code structures (seismic considerations weren’t a part of building codes in New Jersey until 1974); to update old, fragile infrastructures (our local electric utility is in the midst of an reliability upgrade project); to budget funds for repairs and coping with loss of services (as our trustees have done with the last several years of snow removal estimates).

Another step to be taken in event of a looming crisis is to prepare a “go bag.” A “go-bag” should rightfully be called a “go-or-stay bag” because this is assembled in case you need to either evacuate or spend several days sheltering-in-place without your normal access to resources.

I have put together go-bags a time or two in my life. I did this for myself and children when Sandy approached five years ago. As I packed my go-bag, it was useful for me to think about what I felt I needed, if I could carry only one small bag, what I judged I could do without. What was important to our survival and comfort, and why were these things important? It was a valuable exercise.

Of course, it’s impossible to prepare for all emergencies, or combinations of disasters, but taking reasonable precautions to protect life, property and services is prudent.

Some in my family are pack rats. I am too, I admit. I can let-go of stuff I really don’t expect to use again, but it’s a little harder for some people to do that. A few years ago, my basement had a flood. And by flood, I mean raw sewage. And not the kind that leaks out from one’s own house, no. This was the kind that backs up from the town sewer under the street. It was most unpleasant. This disgusting flood affected three rooms in my basement, and, as I said, my family are pack-rats.

I guess you could say this was a mini-disaster. We had to throw-out lots of stuff. Or, rather, my daughter Susan and I did. Now, I have a confession to make. Lots of the stuff I threw away were things that I had wanted to get rid of for a long time, but certain pack-rat family members couldn’t bear to part with. Magically, several useless items, like a few old broken chairs I was never going to fix, somehow made it from other parts of the basement to the flooded rooms. And, somehow, they ended up on the floor. And, just those parts of the floor that were flooded. Oops. If there was a silver lining to this mini-disaster, it was that it gave me a perfect opportunity to dispose of surplus items...things that no longer served a positive purpose in my family’s life. Things that my family was holding on to for no good reason other than the fact that they had held onto them for a long time.

Today is Reformation Sunday, and, as anniversaries go, it’s a big one. Five hundred years ago, on All Saints Eve in 1517, Martin Luther reportedly hammered his “95 Theses” onto the church door in Wittenberg.

In traditional academic style, Luther invited, or perhaps demanded, a discussion about several practices of the church (and by church I mean the Roman Catholic Church, you know, “the” church in Western Europe in those days). Some of those practices included the long-established selling and buying of indulgences, or “forgiveness for a fee.” Other points concerned the Pope’s authority, issuance of writs of forgiveness, and, well, with 95 Thesis, there were many issues large and small.

Because the whole “indulgence” question was aimed at a very important part of the (then) Catholic Church’s economy (and prosperity), serious arguments against indulgences were also a serious threat to the Church’s financial status. I mean, somebody had to pay for all those big basilicas we like to visit in Europe. But, even more than the money, the status of the Church as the broker for salvation was called into question. And if salvation isn’t brokered by the Church, how would anybody be saved?

It was a radical concept when brought out for open debate. Questions and discontent had been simmering for years, but Luther’s arguments finally launched the upheaval that we call the Protestant Reformation.

Long-story-short: the Protestant Reformation was not just the great Catholic Church going through a change. Nor was it simply the church at a crossroads. No, the Protestant Reformation was a disaster for the Church. Luther’s movement broke Rome’s monopoly on Christianity in Western Europe.

Some would say that our own United Methodist Church is now at a crossroads. Though perhaps not as ultimately or as profoundly earth-shaking as the Protestant Reformation, I don’t think “at a crossroads” adequately describes our situation. I rather think the United Methodist Church is facing a more significant crisis.

In my opinion, our denomination is met with the challenge of negotiating our way through a flooded intersection. We can’t see where the lanes are, where the pavement is under the water, what kinds of hazards are lurking in our path. And, depending on how we proceed--and what may happen in an environment we can’t control--we’re about to slide into what could be a full-fledged disaster.

But Methodists have been there before. In 1844, the Methodists north and south separated for nearly a century because of disagreement over slavery; over Christians owning people as property.

Looking back, now, it seems absurd. How could our forebears not have seen their way through the flooded intersection that split them up and carried them away in different directions? I mean, isn’t it ridiculous that brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ would disagree over something so obviously abhorrent as slavery?

And then, in 1939, when the church “reunited,” it was only with abject segregation and the creation of a Central Jurisdiction made up of Methodists who happened to be black regardless of their location in the United States.

Aren’t we supposed to be the church of Christ where there is neither Greek nor Jew? In other words, distinctions of ethnicity or heritage shouldn’t matter, and most certainly shouldn’t be a barrier to the Kingdom of God. I mean, after all, the Kingdom of God has only one gatekeeper. Didn’t Martin Luther argue this 500 years ago? But it wasn’t until 1968 that this church in America officially desegregated as it formed the United Methodist Church we more-or-less know today.

So this morning, we can sit here, in our contemporary United Methodist Church, and feel a little smug that, although we’ve had our problems, we figured all that out, and have put all that close-minded slavery and racial segregation nonsense behind us. After all, “Open hearts, open minds, open doors.” Right?

Yet, here we are again; the denomination of the United Methodist Church, struggling with fundamental questions about justice, obedience and identity. Testing the waters at another flooded intersection.

Remember a little while ago I talked about tips for dealing with disasters? How, firstly, you could take specific steps to protect items which are valuable to you? And, secondly, how you could strengthen your overall resilience by building stronger structures and systems. And, lastly, when specific threats are identified--things like hurricanes or an out-of-control wildfire--you should assemble a “go-bag”?

Well, though all three of these approaches are features of disaster-preparedness, the last one, packing a “go bag” is, in a fundamental way, unique.

Think about it. The things we try to protect: our pictures. Our documents. Our antique furniture. The hymnals. The piano. The artifacts of our heritage, history and traditions. Our homes. Our comforts. Our rules. These things are important to us. And having those things be important to us is ok. It really is!

And maintaining a strong institution or home is important to protect not only our good stuff, but to serve our needs as we go about the work of being a family, a business, a church, a community; to get back-in-the-game as soon as possible. So we need insurance, good financial management, strong communication and support networks, and sturdy-up-to-code facilities.

But, as a church, do we ever think about our go-bag?

What do we bring when, the moment of cataclysmic disaster upon us, we can only bring what we can carry?

You remember the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt. They took all their stuff. They took the bones of Joseph. They plundered the Egyptians, taking gold and riches. And then they followed Moses out into the desert.

It wasn’t long before their trip started to look like a really bad idea. They cried-out, “This is a disaster! We’re going to starve here in the desert! We were better off as slaves in Egypt than dying in this wilderness!”

You know, the Israelites had protected their treasure, but hadn’t really thought about their go-bags. They started out okay--God had them make unleavened bread for the journey. But they weren’t prepared for the long haul in the wilderness.

Ultimately, God provided for their survival. But neither Joseph’s dead body, nor their gold and plunder, fed them when they were starving, or gave them drink as their parched, dry lips cracked for thirst. In fact, if you remember the story, knowing what they later did with all that gold, the Israelites would have been better off without it.

Christian churches sense a number of possible catastrophes looming. We feel the threat of our decreasing numbers. We feel the pressure of other religions and influences penetrating territory we assumed was “ours.” Traditionalists are alarmed at the cultural, linguistic and stylistic diversity carried to the table by people who do, at times, answer the call to follow Christ. We’d like to “make disciples of all the nations,” but we kind of want them to be folks just like us!

And, to bring some of this uncertainty and fear into focus, we United Methodists are in the midst of heated debates about the authority of the Book of Discipline and, in particular, denominational policies when it comes to questions about sexual identity. The waters are rising.

Maybe now is a good time to go through our metaphorical basement, asking: Are there things that Christian churches, and especially our denomination, are holding on to for no good reason other than the fact that we have held onto them for a long time?

And maybe it’s about time we look at why we’re maintaining strong, resilient institutions in the first place. Why do we have these practices, traditions, rules and structures? What and who is it that our church is serving? What is the point if we don’t have a clear understanding of what our mission is? At the end of the day, who is it that we’re here for?

And what about our go-bags? When faced with threats to survival, what does the church pack? What do you, in your heart, carry with you?

You see, this is why packing a go-bag requires a different approach than deciding what’s important to protect or save. We don’t put photo albums in our go-bags, right? We don’t try to bring our great-grandma’s best china to the hurricane shelter. We don’t bring our bookshelves. No. We try to provide protection for that stuff, yes. But do we grab those things when we are running out the door, perhaps fleeing for our lives? Or when huddling together as the winds rage around us?

No. The only things that should be in a go-bag are things we need to live, to cope, to provide minimum but required comfort in times of stress. It boils down to this: our go-bag has one purpose only: to keep us alive.

So, maybe the church is perhaps facing a crossroads, but, what if it turns out, this crossroads is actually a raging, flooded intersection? What will the church grab hold of as it runs for its life? What will you carry for your church? And, just as importantly, what will you leave behind?

Let’s not wait for disaster to strike before we affirm what we’ll put in our go-bag. And let’s realize that it is vital to not confuse our legitimate and reasonable attachment to valued artifacts of our lives in the church with what actually gives us life.

And what gives the church life? Mercy. Compassion. Justice. These things are found in the love of Jesus Christ as shared among each other, with our neighbors, and all of creation.

You see, whatever else we have or don’t have, all we really need to hold on to is Jesus.

Because it is wholly, and only, in Jesus, who gives us life, that we live.

### Message delivered to First United Methodist Church, October 29, 2017, for Laity Sunday. Copyright Kathy Mulholland 2017

#BePrepared #UnitedMethodists #laitysunday

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kansascityhappenings · 7 years ago

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Woman survives Vegas shooting, loses home in California wildfires

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As a former firefighter and paramedic, Michella Flores has seen her fair share of emergency situations. But over the past couple of weeks she became a victim herself, and began to see things from a different perspective. She hasn’t really slept in days.

Flores, who works as a flight attendant, was in Las Vegas on October 1, watching Jason Aldean perform at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when a gunman, perched in a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, opened fire on the crowd, killing 58 and wounding hundreds.

Days later, after returning home to Santa Rosa, California, she and her parents were forced to flee their home and escape the wildfires that have devastated Northern California. The rental house is gone, along with all her parents’ belongings, Flores told CNN.

“It’s just a very helpless feeling,” she said of the past couple of weeks. “I just thought, well, I’ve been in these situations before. It shouldn’t be a big deal.

“But when it’s happening to you, it’s a whole different realm.”

Las Vegas: ‘It drove me nuts’

Flores had flown into Las Vegas on Sunday morning and was waiting for her next trip, Monday night, to Boston. She was staying at the Hooters Hotel, she said, because they offered discounted rates to airline crews. The building is blocks away from the Mandalay Bay and the Las Vegas Village, the site of the festival that unwittingly played host to the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

“I’m a huge country fan,” Flores said, so she decided to head down to the festival to listen to Jason Aldean from outside the fence along Las Vegas Boulevard since she was without a ticket.

As she was listening, she heard the first gunshots, but said she wasn’t paying much attention. It wasn’t until after the gunfire resumed after a short break that she realized that what she was hearing.

“That’s when everybody started screaming and coming out of the festival screaming, ‘Shooter!’” Flores said. “I ran down Las Vegas Boulevard.”

She managed to hide in a nearby casino’s conference room with other concertgoers. Flores waited there for hours, her only updates coming from a coworker who was listening to a police scanner.

“It drove me nuts,” Flores said of hiding in the room. “You’re sitting there waiting for someone to open the door and be shot.”

When she finally was able to leave, she went back to her hotel room and tried to sleep, she said, “which did not happen.”

She looked out her hotel room window, toward the site of the festival.

“That night, I could see the bodies,” she said.

But Flores, who has multiple jobs, worked for the next four days.

Parents’ home lost to wildfires

She finally returned home to Santa Rosa and went back to work at the airport, where she works in the line service, fueling corporate and private jets — including those used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, so she was aware that there was a fire nearby.

When she got off work, she headed to her parents’ house, where she was staying during the process of moving to another house. As she was driving, she said, “I looked up and I could see the glow” of the fires. As a former firefighter, she knew it meant the fire was close, and the wind direction told her it could be coming right for them.

She told her parents they should probably start packing their things and left to take her dog to a park. Five minutes later, listening to a local fire dispatch, Flores heard crews mention the name of the road below her parents’ home.

“I called my mom,” Flores said, “and my mom screamed in the phone and said, ‘It’s at the bottom of our driveway.’” She turned back, arriving at the house right behind a fire engine.

Flores stayed on the scene to help firefighters protect the home, even as the wildfire devoured the neighbor’s house. At 4 or 5 a.m., she said, the house was mostly intact, so she drove to Oakland to attend training for work while her parents went to an evacuation center. When she got off that evening, Flores said, “I went back and the house was gone. Completely.”

Thankfully, she and her parents were able to move into the rental Flores was preparing. They don’t have a lot, she said, but she’s thankful.

‘I don’t sleep’

“Unfortunately, you’d like the whole world to stop and pay attention and say, ‘Here, we’ll help,’” Flores said. “But the rest of the world keeps going on.”

She said she felt unlucky, but recognizes there are others even more less fortunate than she is.

“Puerto Rico,” she said. “Well, gosh, they’re worse off than we are.”

Read more: Survivors of Hurricane Maria desperately need aid

Flores said she still hasn’t fully come to terms with what she’s faced this month, and knows she’ll have to grapple with it eventually.

“I don’t sleep. I haven’t had any time to process any of this,” Flores told CNN. And it’ll hit at some point when it calms down, and that’s when I’ll have to deal with it all.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/10/15/woman-survives-vegas-shooting-loses-home-in-california-wildfires/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/woman-survives-vegas-shooting-loses-home-in-california-wildfires/

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