by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/10/23 00:38 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/10/22/5616362.aspx
So Stacy (who I just met at IUC31, if you were there you may have met her too?) calls me up on the phone last night.
I ask her how she is doing.
A bit taken aback, she asks me "Don't you know what's going on here?"
I need to pay more attention to the news, truly. :-(
She quickly filled me in as she travelled to Target for supplies for herself the refugees staying at her place....
Basically, San Diego is burning right now. And this is not a mock weblog incendre kind of thing, this is real fires. The sky is red, the sun is almost muted in response. At last report over 250,000 have fleed, and there is something like zero containment right now.
There are seven fires in San Diego and an eighth in Malibu, and with huge winds that can blow the fires anywhere, they are not really getting much of a handle on any of it yet.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency, and some of the evacuees staying at Stacy's place had the dubious privilege of watching their own homes burning on TV.
I'm watching the San Diego County Wildfires 2007 blog as the news go by (you can see what I am seeing here) and that site should have more info on donations needed for those who would like to help.
And if you are a Microsoft employee than anything you give to the various non-profits that are helping out here can be matched by Microsoft....
But either way if you can help then please do. If you want to include useful links to places to donate things to, then have at it!
I am just idealistic enough to be horrified at the sponsored ads showing up on sites like the San Diego Channel 10 news Animal evacuation Info site (ref: here). I just thought of two new criteria maybe even more critical than relevance -- sensitivity and savoir-faire? EXAMPLE -- moving the "Think you pay too much for your mortgage?" ads on a page designed for pedople who sre being displaced from their homes and need to board their animals?
This post brought to you by ☲, ⺣, ⽕, ㈫, ㊋, 火, 炎, and ䷝ (U+2632, U+2ea3, U+2f55, U+322b, U+328b, U+706b, U+708e and U+4ddd, a.k.a. TRIGRAM FOR FIRE, CJK RADICAL FIRE, KANGXI RADICAL FIRE, PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH FIRE, CIRCLED IDEOGRAPH FIRE, the CJK Ideograph for fire, the CJK ideograph for flames, and HEXAGRAM FOR THE CLINGING FIRE)
# Gabe on 23 Oct 2007 1:02 AM:
Here's a good place to find information:
# Dono on 23 Oct 2007 1:47 AM:
I suggest adding the following two characters to the end list:
火 U+706B 'fire'
炎 U+708E 'flames'
Good idea, Dono. Thanks! -- Michael
# Vindalou on 23 Oct 2007 1:45 PM:
from my step mom this morning (she and my dad live outside San Diego)
During the Cedar Fire (2004) 50,000 were evacuated
These fires they have evacuated 300,000 and more coming. Livestock is being abanoned since they cant get them out. The shelters and hotels are all full.