California Wild Fires

The evacuation shelter at Qualcomm Stadium will close Friday at noon, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced today. No decision has been announced whether the stadium will be used for Sunday’s scheduled football game between the San Diego Chargers and the Houston Texans.

The Rancho Bernardo service center is drawing evacuees from all over San Diego County, and no one has been turned away, officials said. Other centers, offering help with insurance, federal aid and counseling, are being or have been opened. They are:

Orange Show Fairgrounds
Dome Building
689 South E. St.
San Bernardino, CA 92408

Ramona Community School
1710 Montecito Road
Ramona, CA 92065

Fallbrook Community Center
341 Heald Lane
Fallbrook, CA 92028

Rancho San Diego - Cuyamaca College
900 Rancho San Diego Parkway
El Cajon, CA 92109

Activities Center
George A. Caravalho Santa Clarita Sports Complex
20880 Centre Pointe Parkway
Santa Clarita, CA 91350

The centers located at Rancho San Diego-Cuyamaca College in El Cajon and the George A. Caravalho Santa Clarita Sports Complex in Santa Clarita will open tomorrow (Friday) morning. Additional local assistance centers will be opened as needed and will be posted on the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services homepage at www.oes.ca.gov.

If you need someone to help in carrying supplies, or where a pickup truck is useful, please let us know by using the site’s contact form with your contact information. We will put the two of you in touch.

President Bush arrived in San Diego today to take an aerial tour of the fire-ravaged areas of the county, visit burned-out neighborhoods and meet with firefighters. More here

Update: Matching Temporary Housing with Those Volunteering Their Homes

Confirmed via telephone as of 10/25/2007 12:30pm –

The Rancho Bernardo Local Assistance Center at
The Rancho Bernardo-Glassman Community Center
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Residents:
Just show up: 18448 West Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA 92127
Phone number: don’t call: phone mailbox is full: (858) 538-8129

On hand or expected:
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* help with FEMA coordination
* possible help with insurance
* possible direct help with finding temporary housing

Hours:
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Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Rancho Bernardo:

The first of five planned San Diego County service centers opened at Rancho Bernardo-Glassman Community Center late yesterday to help fire victims restart their lives, authorities said. Modeled on the Scripps Ranch service center from the 2003 Cedar fire, it is staffed by FEMA officials offering cash assistance, Small Business Administration representatives providing low-interest building loans, mental health and crisis intervention counselors, county staff to issue duplicates for lost documents from insurance companies and the state insurance commissioner.

The center can tell evacuees if their homes are lost or standing. San Diego police can escort those with salvaged houses back for strictly limited essentials: prescriptions etc. Residents were allowed into burned out homes yesterday, but some burned their hands digging through the rubble, so that access has been cut off.

As Qualcomm stadium begins to empty out and more people try to figure out what comes next, the service center will be there to help, said center director Debra Fischle Faulk.

“People are going to need help finding temporary housing and we’re trying to get a list countywide, and also hotel vacancies,” Faulk said.

“This is truly a one-stop shop now,” said Lt. Brian Ahearn of the San Diego Police Department, “where not only can they get an escort to their home, but they can get insurance information, alternate housing, find out how to obtain important documents maybe lost in the fire.”

07:55 AM, Oct 25 2007

The population at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego’s much-lauded evacuation center, is dwindling. At daybreak, officials estimated that fewer than 1,000 people remained, down from a high of about 12,000.

On Wednesday night, San Diego police began broadcasting a message that only true fire victims were allowed. About 1,000 people immediately got up and left, officials said. As news circulated that evacuation orders were being lifted for various neighorhoods, the stream of departing people increased.

At a late-afternoon press conference 10/24, local officials were upbeat. The shift in wind, additional firefighters, and more air tankers have blunted the fires’ growth and are smothering it, slowly but relentlessly.

“Today I can finally say: It’s a good afternoon,” said county Sheriff Bill Kolender.
Supervisor Ron Roberts, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, had what he called several key pieces of good news:

* A major electrical transmission line has been repaired.
* Evacuation orders are being lifted for a growing number of communities.
* “One-stop” centers are being opened for burned-out residents to meet with city, county, state and federal officials to seek assistance, along with insurance company representatives and charitable groups.
* One of the first centers is in Rancho Bernardo, one of the hardest-hit communities, with the loss of nearly 300 homes. The center will be open seven days a week.

“The vast majority of San Diego is open for repopulation,” said Mayor Jerry Sanders.
Councilman Brian Mainschein, who represents Rancho Bernardo, predicted a quick rebuilding effort.

“We will rebuild Rancho Bernardo, and we will do it in a way that makes the city and the entire region proud,” he said.

Rick Hutchinson, assistant fire commander, said that the fires were no longer devouring acreage. “We are actively pursuing the fire,” he said.

In total, three San Diego County hospitals evacuated 315 patients. They are Aurora Behavioral Health Care/San Diego, Pomerado Hospital in Poway and Fallbrook Hospital. None have reopened, but Pomerado and Fallbrook would like to by the end of the week, state officials said.

An additional 14 nursing homes evacuated 1,293 residents. Three homes have since returned with 442 residents, said Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director for the Center for Healthcare Quality at the California Department of Public Health.

“I think it went extremely well,” Billingsley said of the evacuations. “I’m very proud of the job that we have done.”

Due to confidentiality, please use the contact form to respond.

If you are an organization or agency coordinating the placement
of evacuees with those opening their homes, please contact us
with your information and we will post it here.