The Neighbors Are Watching

Nonfiction

SanDiegoFireBlog.com

Monday, October 22, 2007

Del Mar: Mandatory evacuations listed

Posted @ 6:16
PM

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for neighborhoods within Del Mar and Carmel Valley. Residents are encouraged to evacuate to Qualcomm Stadium. Residents should call 2-1-1 for all nonemergency calls related to this fire. Residents may also call the City of San Diego Community Access Phone for additional fire information.

91 comments:

Dell said …

I’m in Solana Beach. We have been under “advisory” evacuation all afternoon. Now that there’s mandatory evacuation in Del Mar, it must mean things are getting worse. That fire is spreading fast.

October 22, 2007 6:41
PM

thinkhard said …

Does mandatory mean you must leave? Where do we go?

October 22, 2007 6:42
PM

Dell said …

Mandatory means you must leave, advisory is highly recommended. If you can get out, do it. There is no point staying if it is not necessary. That Witch Fire is destroying everything in its path. It’s huge.

October 22, 2007 6:43
PM

Laura said …

Yes, also wondering what this means for the Fairgrounds evac site—are they going to have to move to Qualcomm too?

October 22, 2007 6:53
PM

Dell said …

the del mar fairgrounds are now filled to capacity. i just got the reverse 911 call telling me to be ready to evacuate from solana beach. i believe the evac sites are supposed to be “protected,” but i have no idea.

October 22, 2007 6:55
PM

Laura said …

Thanks, Dell. I think that makes sense re the fairgrounds—it is surrounded by wetlands.

Good luck to you on the evac … be safe.

October 22, 2007 7:00
PM

Dell said …

Yes, everyone be safe and god bless!

October 22, 2007 7:10
PM

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Del Mar evacuation lifted

Posted @ 6:31 PM

The City of Del Mar has lifted all evacuation notices within the city, according to the county’s Office of Emergency Services. Residents who evacuated are allowed to return to their homes.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Teen missing in Carmel Valley following evacuation

Posted @ 3:42
PM

A 17 yr. old girl is missing from her Carmel Valley home following this week’s evacuation. The family reported Diana Jones missing this morning. Jones failed to return home after the mandatory evacuation on Monday. It is not clear why the family waited until this morning to file the report. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office at 619-555-4545.

0 comments

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Seeking Information

Posted @ 7:22 PM on Oct 27, 2007

[Photo]

Fire and law enforcement officials are seeking help in an investigation into Walter Wayne Simon, 45, who was arrested Oct. 24 for impersonating a firefighter at the Rice fire. Simon was detained in East County driving a Chevy pickup with personalized firefighter license plates. Authorities found fire equipment inside the truck.

Authorities want to know if anyone has seen Simon at the fires or at fire stations. Contact Sheriff’s Department.

1 comment:

Anonymous said …

Dude looks scary; what a disgrace to the REAL firefighting heroes.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Missing teen was new mother

Posted @ 9:38
AM

Diana Jones, the Carmel Valley teen missing since last week’s evacuation of the area, had just given birth, according to a source close to the family. The four-week-old infant is safe with the teen’s parents. It is not clear whether Jones and the infant were alone in the house when Jones disappeared. The family is asking anyone with any information or who may have seen Jones to please contact the Sheriff’s Office.

4 comments:

Anonymous said …

Nobody got hurt in this mess except illegals trying to sneak into this country and they deserve everything they get so this girl’s probably fine if she’s legal.

October 29, 2007 9:40
AM

Sarasmom said …

What a terrible thing to say! What if something happened to her? The parents are probably reading this right now. You should be ashamed of yourself.

October 29, 2007 9:45
AM

Anonymous said …

[comment removed by Administrator]

Anonymous said …

You’ll never find her.

October 29, 2007 10:00
AM

T
here was a breeze high up, rustling through the palm trees, but the air below was still and hot. There was no shelter from the bright sun that beat down on her outside the locked front door of the house that belonged, according to its mailbox, to “The Montanas.” She could see that some of the other houses on the street had little overhangs on their front doors; a good thing if you didn’t want to roast to death while you stood outside in the summer waiting for someone you’d never met to come home.

But this door had no shade, nowhere to rest, and nothing to hide behind. She was tired and overheated. The initial rush of adrenaline she’d felt when she first knocked on the door—not knowing who would answer or how that person would receive her—had worn off, leaving her feeling sweaty and tense. She hated just standing there, her broke-ass suitcase propped up next to her and her worn-out purse on top of it. No way she fit into
this
neighborhood—that much was obvious.

She waited. Five minutes. Maybe ten. Finally, she had to sit. She eased herself down on the burning concrete driveway, folding her thin skirt under her, more out of a need to protect her legs from the heat than a desire for modesty. Her feet were dusty—dirty, really. She needed a shower and some water to drink. Who would have thought it would be hotter here than in Las Vegas? Or maybe it just
felt
hotter because you never sat outside
in Vegas in July and cooked yourself like a chicken. The baby kicked hard as if agreeing with her. “Sshh,” she whispered, hand to her belly. “You don’t have to tell me.”

The longer she sat, the more nervous she became, and she couldn’t understand why. It was a quiet street, peaceful. No dogs barking or lawn mowers running. Just that little whisper of a breeze up high and that tiny hum in the air you could hear when it was superhot, as if things were growing or stretching. Maybe it was
too
quiet here, like there was no human life to make any sound. Like everyone had disappeared or been vaporized and she was the only person left. But no, of course not. For sure there were people behind all those closed doors. It just seemed unnaturally still. Wrong.

She wished she could listen to her iPod—just drown out all this silence—but between packing and fighting with her mother this morning she’d forgotten to charge it. She hadn’t even made it through the short flight over here before the battery died. She wondered if you could actually get addicted to an iPod because she was definitely having some kind of withdrawal from hers. Without her music, she barely even knew how to think in a straight line. She pulled herself in, tried to fix on a mental point in space, and came up with how much she hated her mother. That feeling was so strong, so big, it allowed her immediate focus.

How could a woman be so heartless as to kick her own child out of her house?

This was the key question and everything else—the hurt, the anger, the indignity, just built on top of it.

It wasn’t bad enough that her mother had pushed her out—
given up on her
—or that her mother was sending her to the home of some asshole white guy who obviously had never even given half a shit that he had a daughter at all. But when her mother had resorted to used-up clichés to defend her actions, that was the worst. Because that made everything—her entire life—meaningless.

It’s for your own good
, her mother had said.

I’m at my wit’s end with you
.

You need to learn some responsibility and get your head on straight
.

I’m so disappointed in you
.

What was her mother most disappointed about, really? That she’d gotten pregnant? Or that she wouldn’t have an abortion? She didn’t know if she’d ever get an answer to that question, not that she was going to try. It was almost funny how wrong she had been about her mother. You’d think you’d know the person who’d birthed you, wouldn’t you? Before telling her mother she was pregnant she’d imagined all kinds of scenarios: She started with the one where her mother cried at first but then took her in her arms and made it all right, the one where her mother shouted and stayed angry but dealt with it, and the one where her mother got disappointed and sad and wanted to discuss “options.” But she never would have imagined or predicted her mother’s quiet disgust upon hearing the news
or
her explosive rage when she refused to have an abortion.

“How can you even say that?” she’d asked her mother. “How could you even suggest it? What if you’d aborted me? Do you wish you had now?”

“Was I a stupid seventeen-year-old when I had you?” her mother countered. “No. I was a grown-up and fully aware of what I was doing. Not you. You have no idea what it takes to raise a child or what it means to give up yourself for another person.”