Wildfires are raging in Southern California today. Some 250,000 people have been evacuated from San Diego county. In Malibu a church, several homes and historic castle burned. Sections of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) have been closed because of the fires. Numerous homes have already burned but no exact numbers have been given. Firefighters can't even protect some homes because they are too busy rescuing people. Here are some highlights and resources.
The currently very busy Los Angeles Fire Department has a blog and a Twitter.
Many multi-million dollar celebrity homes are threatened by the first. Hollyscoop points to homes of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Harry Morton, Jennifer Aniston, and David Geffen.
Paul Kedrosky writes what he saw this morning in a post titled, "Surrealism in San Diego."
This Envisat image captures the smoke arising from raging wildfires burning in Los Angeles, California.
Daily Kos has a collection of emergency links and stresses not to click them unless you are in the area because servers are under pressure.
TMZ.com says the castle that burned in Malibu - Castle Kashan - was about to be sold for $17 million. (via Brian Alvey)
The Moderate Voice: "We won't use the trite phrase 'it's deja vu all over again' but Southern Californians have been there, done that, seen the region suffer a massive financial and environmental blow, with property destroyed, families homes wiped out, shelters popping up to house displaced residents, and forests burned black with horrific tales of animals dying in fires or being trapped to bleed to death on wire fences as they fled in terror."
Crazy Aunt Purl blogs that "Los Angeles is smokin'"
SignonSanDiego now has a blog covering the fires in San Diego.
The San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin also have a fire bog.
Center Networks has a post about how social media websites are being used to report and learn about the fires. They mention a couple other twitters including @kpbsnews and @nateritter. There's also the LAFD Twitter we mentioned above. Center Networks also linked to a couple Flickr photo resources here and here.
Wired's Monkey Bites points to another Twitter covering the fires: @viss.
Eat the Press: "But perhaps the most important question facing us today is this: How long, exactly, will it take Anderson Cooper to fly to Malibu?"
People and their pets face danger from the fires in California.
The Disney Blog reports on some minor wind damage at Disneyland from the powerful Santa Ana winds.
CNN Anchor Glenn Beck made an ugly comment. Glenn Beck said, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today." Glenn Beck's strange and insensitive comment is being discussed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
The Google Lat Long Blog blogs about its San Diego fire map.
Defamer blogs about Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger's ability to manage the crisis.
The WOW report finds a celebrity home map on the BBC. For more about the stars read how David Geffen is helping out.
Gizmodo: "Those wildfires in Southern California are getting dangerously close (as close as 100 yards) to some of our favorite companies, as Sony, HP and Broadcom have shut down business for the day and evacuated their offices. Some employees have or will lose homes to the fires, which frankly sucks balls. Stay safe guys!"
Wildfires are raging in Southern California today. Some 250,000 people have been evacuated from San Diego county. In Malibu a church, several homes and historic castle burned. Sections of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) have been closed because of the fires. Numerous homes have already burned but no exact numbers have been given. Firefighters can't even protect some homes because they are too busy rescuing people. Here are some highlights and resources.
