We've been watching the skies all day, praying and hoping. Around noon, the winds turned back to the east, and aircraft were able to come in and dump water and fire retardant on Mt Miguel. Within a few hours, the fire had been turned back to the east, and was no longer creeping westward towards us. About 1 hour ago, all mandatory and voluntary evacuations for Chula Vista (immediately to our south) were been lifted. While we are safe, and it looks like we will not have to evacuate, I'm staying packed till Thursday when the Santa Ana winds are expected to stop. Authorities expect containment of the Harris fire (that was most threatening us) by Oct 31.
It seems really odd to be relieved, while at the same time remembering that at least 8 fires are still burning in San Diego County, will continue to burn for another week, and people are still being evacuated from other areas. At this time, there are almost 550,000 people who have been evacuated around the county, and over 1000 homes destroyed. Yet people remain upbeat, and volunteers and supplies continue to be offered at the various shelters around the county. This is such a great community of people - I'm really encouraged to see so much community spirit and cohesion.
Someone asked me WHY so many fires started at once. Good question. It's a combination of things, but mainly has to do with the extremely dry conditions, the humidity being down around 6% in places, and the hot Santa Ana winds blowing from the east. Those conditions make the atmosphere so volatile, it doesn't really take much for fires to start. A downed power line can create a spark... It happened very quickly, and all over SoCal. Please continue to pray for calm winds, a rise in the humidity, and cooler temperatures.
Fires continue to burn throughout the county, and north of us in San Bernardino and Orange County.
From the LA Times:
Best quote of the day so far... It's completely quiet in the house as my husband and I take care of the necessary details of possible evacuation. Suddenly I hear him on the phone: "Hey! Yeah. Um, I was wondering... I know this is kind of an odd question today, but... is the pool open?" I burst out laughing from the next room. Classic! San Diego is on fire, we face a possible evacuation at any moment, and my husband, having done all his chores, wants to go for a swim. I love it. He gets off the phone after ascertaining that it is indeed closed and asks me with this dopey grin on his face, "What? I want to go for a swim. I don't see a problem here." Nice.
In the midst of cleaning and organizing and checking evacuation reports, I log onto my online mountain bike forums to see what my friends in the area, and across the country have to say. Alfonso, who works for SDG&E posted this photo overlooking the Otay Town Center, not far from his house. 
Alf's house is less than 3 miles from mine. Using simple math, if the winds continue to blow at 30 mhp, and evacuations have been issued for areas east of Hunt Parkway (10 miles from us), that means we'll be evacuated before the afternoon.One thing that gives me great courage is being surrounded by these amazing San Diegans, who have a collective attitude of, "Do what you gotta do," and "It is what it is." Already volunteers have shown up at various shelters with homemade sandwiches and positive attitudes. When asked what they came to do, they told the reporter that, "Well, we figured someone might need our help, so we came." So, in the sense that there is a huge loss of property and destruction, yeah, it's really bad here. But in terms of attitude and strength and courage, it's really good here.
Please keep us in your prayers, that the winds will die down quickly, that the dew point will increase and humidity will rise, and that people will continue to find the best in themselves through this.
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