First, the good news is that we are all safe. We did not have to evacuate during the terrifying Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise just up the hill from Chico. It was dicey for a while and we were packed and prepared to leave just in case. But, thankfully, we were able to stay.
Thank you to all of you who checked in on us and offered places to stay. You are all so appreciated.
Here are a few photos that I snapped that sort of show what it looked like from down here in Chico.
Thursday morning, about 7:30 am I drove to the end of my street to head to the gym and saw this over the foothills. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it wasn't good.
As I drove South on Hwy 99 I could see the smoke across the skies in front of me. Again, had no idea what was going on but knew it was a pretty big deal.
Suddenly traffic backed up and turned into a dead stop. I had a very bad feeling as I took the next exit off the freeway. I called the girls to make sure they were okay as they had left the house for school a few minutes ahead of me. I had this terror in my gut that something was terribly wrong. Fortunately Amira answered her phone and told me they were fine. She was wondering what was going on with the sky and the traffic too. I could hear emergency vehicles all around.
An hour later I had to drive out to a client's office. You can see the patch of blue up to the left of the photo with the black billowing smoke and part of the sun beneath. I called my friend Grace who lives in Paradise and told her that if she had to evacuate to come down to my place. 15 minutes later I got a text that she was on her way. I had no idea what she had to go through to get out of Paradise until way later.
The photos may look like an overcast day, but I assure you, these are not clouds of moisture. This is all smoke. It was so high up in the air that we were not choking on the smoke down low yet.
This is the view from our front yard looking south on Thursday afternoon.
View from our front yard looking west.
Thursday night we were packed and ready to go. This is the view from the end of our street that night. Needless to say, it was not easy to sleep.
Friday morning the smoke was all low. The below photo was not taken using any filters. There was just an orange brown haze all over the town. And then it got dark like night. I couldn't get good photos of that. But believe me, it was creepy.
Saturday morning it was shockingly cold and raining ash. I didn't have the N95 mask yet, so I tied a bandanna around my face to go out and feed the poultry.
The rest of Saturday the girls and I went out and got donations together for people and our neighbor gave us face masks.
Now we are living the "new normal" life. So many of our friends and a few people that I work with lost everything. My friend Grace was able to take her dog and her cockatiels but couldn't get her little birds or the cats before they had to leave. She is devasted and checking shelters daily in case they were rescued. Their home was actually on fire when they left driving through the burning hellish black morning soot with the rest of their entire town. Their cars filled with smoke and their door handles melted as they slowly crept through the flames and soot. They were lucky enough to get out. It's confirmed they no longer have a home.
So, we are grateful to have the wonderful safe home here in Chico. And we are grateful to have our family and friends safe. We are grateful to all those who reached out to us to check on our safety. And we are especially grateful to those who offered to open their homes to us if it came to that.
The fire is still burning (away from Chico). Our air is still filled wish smoke and ash. Now we pray for rain.
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