Breaking news

If you have glanced at the news today you are probably aware of the wildfires in Southern California. My folks and my in-laws live in San Diego, in areas that are out of danger, but I also have friends who live smack dab in the center of the fires. I know they have evacuated, and I will not be calling them because everyone has been asked to limit their cell phone usage in the area.

Trying to get news has been interesting. I can get a map of where the fire (Witch Fire) has burned as of 11 o'clock last night. I can get updates about evacuations. I can get live radio coverage

Naturally the news medias are mostly covering evacuation information because the winds and the smoke makes it impossible to see much from the air, and reporters are not on the ground in the midst of the fire area (or at least are not supposed to be...duh.)

During the crisis in New Orleans Bernie discovered bloggers who were posting updated coverage. Guess what? Same thing is happening in this crisis. Firefighters and residents are posting on the fly. I'm not sure if they are posting via mobile phone, or what, but it is interesting to see coverage on blogs that scoop radio, television, and newspapers.

Aren't newspapers just the most pointless things when it comes to breaking news?

Anyway, if anyone out there is interested, here's at least one blog worth watching if you are interested in the story. The map of the fires at the top of this post is from that blog. Photos from the blog are amazing. This is a huge, huge fire. Here is a link to google maps showing the areas that are currently aflame. My friend lived on Lilac in Ramona, which I now can see was in the path of the flames.

Please be praying for those who have lost homes, church camp grounds and retreats in the area, and for people to know what to do. I just heard a request for coffee to be brought to the evacuation centers. Wish I was there to help.