From my friend Kim:

Wednesday
Interstate 5 was closed this morning due to them setting backfires at Camp Pendleton. Schools are closed for the rest of the week. Air quality is terrible in many places…. But at least the kids can play outdoors and there is television here — and though it’s useful for the news, it is amazing at entertaining children with cartoons on cable for hours on end…. my work has shut down the San Diego facilities, but yes, they also have their doors open for those who want to work, because they know that we all can’t just sit around watching the news all day.

Evacuations continue in some areas. Evacuations are lifted in others. I receive text messages on my phone. The latest: “all San Diego County residents urged to conserve water and power and try to stay indoors today.”

Many people are without power.

Over 500,000 people were evacuated. Or maybe it was 500,000 households. It’s hard to get a handle on these numbers. Over $1 billion dollars in damage? Over 1500 houses DESTROYED. Many more damaged.

I’m annoyed at the comparisons to Katrina. The people here were evacuated safely — not necessarily because of the great reverse-911 calls and the news coverage, but because they mostly had vehicles and places to go. A half million people were evacuated but only 10,000 or so were at Qualcomm Stadium.

If anybody wants to know which blogs have the best information, I can provide a list. News websites are OK, but the local bloggers are amazing. I just paypal’ed $30 to one woman that has been blogging through the night and day.