My heart truly goes out to all that have lost their homes and to all that are about to lose their homes to this terrible fire. I know tragedies like this make you wonder, Why is this happening to us? And I wish I could be the one with the answer but I sadly I don't. I can tell you that I do know what it's like to lose a home to such a horrible disaster. Through the grace of God, I managed to live through three hurricanes...Francis, Jean and Wilma. Two of those hurricanes took two of our homes. These are frightening times and the best that I can tell you is to grab whatever faith you have and hold onto it with everything you've got.
I'm not a religious fanatic but I can tell you that prayer goes a long way. I don't have much but if there is anything I can do to help, please contact me. Like I said, I don't have much but I will do whatever I can to help. Oh, and my heart goes out to the loved ones of who already lost one person to this horrible fire.
You can contact me at guardian06@bellsouth.net. My prayers are with you all. ;-)
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Feeling the Heat From Witch Creek
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From the beginning, on Sunday, I had a bad feeling about the Witch Creek fire, because it started in almost the same spot as the Cedar Fire four years ago that brought 50-foot flames within a couple of blocks of my house and destroyed two dozen nearby homes. Still, people I talk to at the supermarket are calm almost to a fault. When these things happen I jump—just in case. Some of these people are so mellow. They won't do anything until they get the call from emergency officials to evacuate.
We're ready if the call comes, but we're not necessarily going to wait. If we see the fire moving our way faster, we're out of here. I went outside yesterday and I saw my friend Carl, who was packing up some things too. I said, "Here we go again." He said he doesn't think it's going to burn this far south. I'm not sure that, deep down, he believes that.
My daughter, now seven, can tell how tense we are. She remembers the 2003 fire, when huge flames came within 100 yards of our car as we fled. Whenever she sees a fire on television, she's bothered by it again. Today we're keeping cartoons on one television and trying to keep her from getting more nervous. She keeps saying, "I just want to have a normal day, Daddy." We all do. Out of her earshot, my wife and I quietly discuss what else we should pack—and where we would live if we lost our home. Just asking the question feels devastating.
The fire is all around us. We watch and wait and hope. A half-million people are displaced, and hundreds of families have lost their homes to the flames. But we, at least for now, are still in our own home.
© 2007
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