West coast woes

[Troyskie]

G'day gang,

I've been following the fires in Cali etc, looks like it's getting set to go nasty with the heatwave kicking in.

I heard today about the power issues last week.

Is everyone ok?

Stay safe everyone & good karma to you all from Oz.

Troyskie

[racerrad8]

We are good on Oakdale is relation to the fires, but the heat...


We are breaking records daily for excessive heat, 110 on Sunday 109 yesterday and predicted for 108 today. The overnight temps are not providing any relief with the low when I hot up at 5am was 81 with cloud cover. We are in California and not used to high humidity, but with the heat thia time, there are storms in the area and humidity up in the forties.

On top of that is the rolling power outages. I got the email warning last night...

Thanks for checking in, Randy - RPM









Due to extreme heat across all of California, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) that runs the state's electric grid, may require PG&E and other electric utilities to turn off power for short periods of time called rotating outages. These outages may last between 1 to 2 hours for most customers. These are not Public Safety Power Shutoffs due to extreme fire danger, and are not related to any issues with PG&E's equipment or its ability to deliver energy locally. Other power utilities in the state may be directed to conduct similar rotating outages. These outages are called by CAISO to keep energy demand from exceeding supply, and prevent larger outages on the grid.

Based on the weather forecast, these potential rotating outages could occur during peak periods of approximately 3 pm to 10 pm each day, starting Monday, August 17th and continuing through the evening of Thursday, August 20th. A decision on whether to do them will be made by CAISO each day. PG&E strongly encourages customers to conserve energy and cooling homes in the morning hours through Thursday night. These outages could happen statewide and not just in PG&E's service area.

For more information visit pge.com/conserve or caiso.com. Or call 1-800-743-5002. Thank you and stay safe.



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[andyoutandabout]

Thanks for the thoughts from down under.
I know Oz is no stranger to wild fires.
Here in Napa we have two separate events knocking on our door; the Hennessey fire and the Gamble fire. Both are currently 0% contained, but you can guarantee the Firefighters are giving them their full attention.
The US is certainly in turbulent times.
However, we shall prevail.

[Mike 86 in San Dimas]

I live in San Gabriel Valley, up against the SG mountains and very close to the "Bob Cat" fire., LA county California.  Watching the fire try to crest the peaks from my commute on the 210 frwy. Incredibly smoky. Never seen anything like this. I normally ride to work rain or shine. But the smoke and ash are so bad, I think it would make me sick. And I am not that sensitive. To anyone that grew in this area in the 60s, reminds me of the smog alerts, sore throat and chest pain and not being able to see the mountains that are just a few miles away! Cant see them now from less. The air/sky is orange and the weather is cooler than should be because the suns energy cant get through (from weather report). Look forward to this passing. Reports say this fire will go on to mid October. Hate to think about damage to our forests. Good news is so far minimal damage to structures. Winds are blowing the fire deeper into forest and not towards foothill communities.
We are planning some camping in Oregon next month starting wonder if that gonna happen now, Oh well suppose to stay home anyway. Mask on.

[Troyskie]

G'day Gang,

Are you folks ok?

The news is hard to follow. It seems to swing from sensational to factual & I'm not sure how bad these fires are.

I try to follow Calfire etc, but it doesn't seem so bad, yet I see so many homes and businesses burnt.

My personal survival method is, air, water, power, comms.

Air is a simple breather mask P2 or better. An eye goggle things is also critical.
Water, fill your tanks, pool, bath, whatever. Use electric pumps (beg, borrow, steal), not petrol or diesel (cause you don't want to refuel during an ember attack). Wear a camel back, or take heaps of drinking water (you will need it).
Power, borrow or buy a small generator (yes petrol or diesel), use this to run the pumps.
Comms, use what ever non landline comms you can get. I gave my neighbours cheap hand held UHF transmitters and instruction that we do an hourly radio check and that is it, no chatter, discussion, nothing, just one channel for check and help if you call out.

From personal experience you will lose the following when you need it most:
Water pressure. Everyone is trying to soak everywhere and everything, plus evacuating and leaving the hose/garden on. The Fireies pumping all the water they can out of the system.
Power. Most power lines  will burn at some spot if they are on poles.
Comms. These go with the power.

[T Legg]

In Nevada we have had a mild  fire season but the smoke from California next door has been thick almost every day since late August. It has finally cleared up this week. Ian and I took a ride a couple weeks ago out to the area around Bucks Lake that we rode through this spring. We rode out twelve miles or so down LaPorte road to where it was closed due to ongoing fire activity. We stopped and talked to a group of firefighters. They told us where we were was the worst part burned and that most of La Porte road area wasn't burnt to ash. Bucks lake is ok but down the road torwards Oroville the road was closed and there were also fires in the Feather river canyon still burning. Most of this was started by lightning. As bad as the fires were there is far more untouched forest than burned where we rode.

[andyoutandabout]

T'sky, appreciate the concern. This year has been a doozy for many reasons, fires just one aspect of the chaos. Here in California we had about a week of this......
Mars orange skies and ash snow. (My house early morning. Note how the lights are starring the air quality is that bad)
But then, Mama Nature rallied and now you'd never know anything happened (Drakes beach, last weekend).
However a trip to Lakes Berryessa would soon remind you (plan to go this weekend) as I'm sure the devastation is intense there.
As for reliable news, I stick with the BBC rather than attempt to unravel the hidden political agendas ingrained in US so called 'news media'. Ok, so they might lean a little, but they've kept a clear head and deal with facts rather than alternative ones.

[Troyskie]

Thanks fellas.

Fingers crossed the drought will break soon, but the forecast doesn't look good.

They are some crazy pics. It looks like many of those trees will re-grow. Is that correct?

Strangely, I'd rather deal with fires than this pandemic.

[T Legg]

They are some crazy pics. It looks like many of those trees will re-grow. Is that correct?


[/quote] In the worst part of the burned area the soil was burned to powdery dust all of the trees even the huge ones were killed the brush was vaporized as were the creeks. These areas will have to be rehabilitated for new trees to grow anytime soon but most of the area was untouched with circles of moderately burned brush and trees where spot fires were controlled by the firefighters.These areas should recover quickly and many of the large trees there will survive being burned.

[Mike 86 in San Dimas]

Hey Troyskie, The fires are primarily in wilderness areas, so not too life or structure threatening. Easy for me to say, people have died and lost homes and that's horrible. Cant imagine how many animals may have perished. There is one fire "near" us that we keep tabs on. Been burning for a month or so now. If high winds develop in the wrong direction look out.

[Harvy]

My ex-boss Alex has been in California these past few months fly 110 hours per months firefighting. He is piloting a Skycrane.
I spoke with him a couple of days ago.... Has been over here since Feb and as you can imagine is missing his family back in Aus.
So if you see a Skycrane out fighting the fires, give him a big thumbs up. 

Harvy