OT- Disasterous wildfires in Sonoma and Napa valleys
Al21
Posts: 330 ✭✭✭
I live outside of Sonoma, CA. I'm ok because I live around vineyards. Many of my friends are evacuated. There are fires in all the hills and mountains around Sonoma valley. Cal fire was unable to cope with all the fires happening at once (14).
My daughter lives in Santa Rosa, was evacuated, and firefighters were able to stop the fire at the edge of the subdivision. Please keep all the people affected in your thoughts.
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May the good Lord be with them.
Sorry to hear of your plight. I hope you remain safe.
Hope you remain safe and the fire doesn't get the grapes!
...be careful out there.
The Sonoma and Napa areas erupted in more than a dozen fires late last night. So far more than 20,000 acres have burned along with countless homes and businesses. It looks like a war zone.
The unpredictable fires have engulfed many very expensive homes, while leaving others just across the street untouched. Gas mains have not been shut off in many areas, allowing hot fires to shoot flames about like an eerie Hollywood movie. Shocking stuff. Tragic, really. So far one fatality.
Lance.
I hope people evacuate when told to. As horrible as it is to lose all one's possessions, when your life is at risk....
Horrible....can't imagine what it must feel like to be in the path of a fire.
I did not see any storms, what caused this? The wind?
bob
Wind like a blowtorch.
My dad's house and street were untouched. A block away, complete devastation.
I've stayed in the Sonoma Hilton probably 40+ times. The entire hotel burned to the ground overnight with almost no warning. Terrifying.
We need a "Sad" button like Facebook has.
The wine country fires are so horrific and have been very deadly, I heard 10 have died. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected. We here in Orange County are also experiencing and watching fires ravage multi-million dollar homes in the hills around Orange and Anaheim. And the dry high winds are predicted to continue tomorrow. So very horrible for everyone involved in both the Northern California fires and those down here.
The Penny Lady®
That's brutal.....I've been seeing quite a bit on the news....
Good luck to you and God bless......
@Al21... Good luck to you and your daughter.... And to all those in the fire ravaged areas... this is a terrible situation. Eleven dead and hundreds missing..... Very, very sad...... RickO
Was that Hilton an eco-friendly version made of wood or something. I've stayed in a 100 Hiltons and I wouldn't think any of them would go like that?
Just read some of the NYT article where it said the aluminum wheels melted off of cars and ran down the sidewalks like rivers of mercury...Ugh!
Just heard that a good friend, Jess Patrick (Patrick Mint) lost his home in the blaze. So sad.
That is terrible news. I cannot imagine what these people are going through, losing their homes and possessions in such a tragedy. I hope that Jesse and his family are well, and did not suffer any physical injuries.
I am reminded that well known numismatic dealer Jack Beymer and his wife also live in Santa Rosa. I have not heard any news from him, but wish him well.
A water dropping helicopter hit this hot spot just in time to save these apartments. In 2008 they weren't so lucky.
EAC 6024
Just received this from one of the vineyards I deal with:
Dear Hourglass Supporters,
First, let me say thank you to all for the concern and best wishes. Due to lack of power and poor internet connectivity we have not been able to respond to you all individually, but please know your thoughts and prayers are an inspiration, and instrumental in keeping our spirits up. While these past 36 hours have been harrowing for us in the valley, they have also been a tremendous demonstration of just how great a connector wine is, and how deeply it can unite us.
We understand the news can be overwhelming right now, so we wanted to share directly with you what is currently going on in the Napa Valley and at Hourglass. The fires in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino are severe and with ranging issues that continue to develop. The full extent of the damage will take weeks, or months, to fully calculate. Sadly, what we do know for sure is that the damage is extensive.
The situation here is still very much in flux. As you receive this, the fires closest to us, Tubbs (Calistoga to Santa Rosa) and Atlas Peak (Napa to Solano County) remain at over 50,000 affected acres and 0% contained after burning for more than 36 hours. We are grateful to report that the winery and all Hourglass staff have so far made it through unscathed. Additionally, we had already picked 97% of our fruit for this harvest so our grapes are safely fermenting away in the winery. Our attention right now is on keeping ourselves safe and helping our friends throughout the valleys that have not been as fortunate.
As the fires are still active, we are keeping close tabs on the wind. That will be the biggest wild card over the next several days. On Sunday night when the fires escalated, the winds were upwards of 50 mph. Thankfully Monday and Tuesday have been relatively calm, which has dramatically slowed the advance. That said, we are scheduled for a second round of gusty winds tonight. This creates a very uncertain condition that we are monitoring closely. We are hopeful, but must still be cautious and vigilant until the fires are contained.
We are of course not fighting this alone. The California Department of Forestry, all the local emergency departments, and a range of firefighters from around the state and beyond have converged on Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties to battle the blazes. Red Cross has set up evacuation centers throughout the counties and there is disaster relief of various forms funneling in. As you would expect, neighbors and communities have rallied together in support of one another.
We will be sure to keep you posted as things progress. Should you possess the gift of a rain dance, we would be delighted for you to break it out! Other than that, your thought, concerns and prayers are all felt and deeply appreciates. We are blessed to have the support of a great network of friends!
With gratitude,
Jeff Smith and the Hourglass family
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
My wife, her sister, and their mother are in Manchester, CA, just north of the wildfires. They are on a "girls" vacation, hoping to go to wine country and imbibe. Instead, they are still enjoying wine, but not venturing too far from a escape route, hoping to get back to the San Francisco airport tomorrow. Ironically, they originally had tickets to spend a week in Puerto Rico, but a couple of hurricanes made them switch their plans.
It has been an event filled weather week for me and mine. As a side note, I was talking with my friend and fellow forum member lkeigwin (see his post above) this past Saturday on the telephone, and we discovered that I was sitting in the middle of a tornado occurring just a few miles from my residence. It looked like the Wizard of OZ outside my windows for a few moments. It is raining again here today, more forecast for tomorrow. I wish I did "possess the gift of a rain dance" for you, Jeff Smith and the Hourglass family, so I could send it all to those in California,
My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this devastation. Unimaginable terror. Please be safe, all of our friends and family in this area.
Bob
Sixth generation California Rancher. It's October. The place burns down. In 1965 I watched the ranch house burn down. My Grandma was devastated. We moved into the cowboy line shack. It's October. California is a tinder box in October. Always has been, always will be. Problem is there's so many people here now that seem to be surprised by it all. It's October. No surprise here. It's October. SANTA ANA WINDS.
At 6:10 pm PDT I texted dealer David Stagg of Santa Rosa, hoping that he's ok.
Haven't heard back (it's 9:26 pm now.)
I heard a vineyard owner on the news saying that vineyards act as firebreaks and that grape vines don't burn. First I've heard that, the old-growth ones I've seen around here (MD) burn like firestarters.
Drone footage of fire damage in Santa Rosa...very moving.
Lance.
latimes.com/local/lanow/94852716-132.html
Real time map with MODIS satellite data (showing active burning perimeter), zoomed in on the Santa Rosa and Napa area fires:
arcg.is/1Kf0ye
Any updates on the local dealers? Several seem to be in the path.
A southern California firefighter once told me that an acre of scrub oak burns with the intensity of the atom bomb dropped on Japan. Fortunately scrub oak is not killed by the fires and regrows so that it can burn again in a couple of years!
What gets me is that California would rather see the forest burn than thin by logging. I just don't get that fact. Power lines should be nowhere near trees. Period.
bob
The units are a bit off, I think.
Fire intensity is normally measured as kW/m = (kJ/s)/m (on the edge of the fire).
An A-bomb releases energy many, many factors faster than a fire does.
It's hot, but the shock wave is more destructive.
The energy release of the Hiroshima bomb was 63 TJ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent
Burning wood can theoretically yield around 10 MJ/kg (burned at 70% efficiency).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel
So if you burn a wide enough area with 6,300,000 kg of wood at 70% efficiency, you could release the same amount of energy as the Hiroshima bomb.
It would be released much more slowly, though.
It appears Jack Beymer's shop is OK for now. He's on the west side of Santa Rosa and the fires are on the east and north side of town. Things can change.
Thanks Rick for the update on the Beymer's and their shop. I've been thinking about the Beymer's with all the fires in their area and wondering if they are OK.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
One of my family members lives there and can see the flames out the front door of their house, or did several days ago. It seems like it might have passed them by, I'm hoping. Fire is really scary.
will say some prayers for them guys for sure. how very sad (:
I received the October 23, 2017 issue of Coin World Saturday, and read it this morning. There is a story on page 8 by Jeff Starck titled, "California Fires Burn Dealers' Homes / Coin Ships in Affected Areas Reported Safe, but some Suffer Personal Loss."
I could not find this article online to provide a link. In part:
"Tom Miller, store manager at Big Oak Plaza Coins, which is known nationally for its owner, Jack Beymer, said the store is safely outside the evacuation zone, but that one employee had their house and car destroyed by the fire."
"According to Miller, the homes of dealers James and Peggy Elmen (World-Wide Coins of California) and Jess and Dian Patrick (of the Patrick Mint) were also destroyed."
I know Jess Patrick and can't imagine what it would be like to have experienced these wildfires and lost their house.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
Coincidentally, I visited both homes for the first time just a couple of years ago on a two day trip to Santa Rosa. Both had world class numismatic libraries, and I spent a little time "playing" with them. Really tough loss for both of them, I'm sure. Not to mention whatever else was lost.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
My second post. I could go on, and on, and on. Suffice it to say that the situation is a combination of IGNORANCE, GREED, and just TOO MANY PEOPLE. I don't want to come off as some sort of environmentalist nut job, but the fact of the matter is that for much of California, the ecosystem THRIVES on fire. It's the nature of this place. You can't fight Mother Nature. But, the developers, politicians, etc., either don't care or don't know. Human suffering and loss of property means nothing. It's all about the "All Mighty Dollar." My sense is that we're in for a very rainy winter in California. Think Oroville dam disaster. The ecosystem here also THRIVES on FLOODING. It's the nature of the place. You can't fight it. But if people were informed, and there wasn't so much greed on the part of developers, and there were some meaningful restraints placed on population growth, the problem could be somewhat mitigated. FAT CHANCE. Come early next year look for stories about unprecedented flooding, deaths, property loss, etc, etc. Fire and water. That's what makes California, California. It creates beauty. It's Mother Nature. But it's a disaster for humans. IGNORANCE. GREED. TOO MANY PEOPLE. The perfect California recipe for DISASTER.