I’m driving north towards the fire like a mad demon racing the clock to rescue my stuff. I’m jetlagged coming home from Hawaii to an inferno. Status of West County is on standby evacuation. Just went to Mandatory Evacuation! Fuck. I can see the wildfire from Stony Point Road. Slamming it. I haven’t even unpacked from Hawaii. All I have are inappropriate clothes. And now I’m rescuing my stuff. On some level, I never unpacked from the Tubbs Fire. How many more trips down the stairs can I endure? Stuff is highly overrated.
Oh the joys of mandatory evacuation. Onward. Made it to Stony Point Road vía Llano Road. All the main roads are jammed. Thank you WAZE and Google Maps! I’m headed south. Everyone is evacuating from West County using the main roads. Not me. With this many people on the move, it’s like a traffic jam on steroids. Hwy 116 is jammed, Hwy 101 is jammed. Backroads rule. Almost in Petaluma. West Marin, here I come. Phew, what a run, my car crammed to the gills, on a dangerously low tire, to boot. No way to get air. This fire really presses home that all that memorabilia should be scanned. Fire makes ephemera of the past.
Someone give me an updates please, before I get out of range. I only have my iPad. NIXLE phone alert is not reliable in a pocket canyon. No cellular reception. The horror of the Tubbs Fire was enough to last a lifetime. Now the Kincade Fire, both courtesy of PG&E. Our world is forever changed. Ok, so my middle of the night wakey-wake paranoia was justified, there were 3 fires in Sebastopol, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa, but firemen were right on it. I scanned the sky for signs of unusual light, and sniffed the air...so far, just the stars.
I lost all internet, but text eventually came through via 1-2 intermittent flickering bars on my iPad. No bars at all on cellphone. None. Browser is absolutely useless in a situation like this. Text via FB and Messenger is the best way to get info out. Sort of like SMS text. My friend has an old school wall phone that doesn’t need electricity to receive alerts.We were told last night that the power would go out, so that made it doubly alarming to say the least. 1AM, no power or cell, but iPad has 1-2 bars. Normally I have zero T-Mobile coverage. A relief, to be not completely cut off. Power on @ 11:30AM. Yes. Dear PG&E, we’ve no way of getting news of the fire when you cut power to protect grid. Not everyone has reliable cellular service. #Rural #NotRocketScience
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