We are now in an evacuation center

Just an update.

Night before last a voluntary evacuation was declared for our area. During the night 40 houses and 10 other structures burned as the flames made their way toward us. That night my sweety and step son went to the shelter, I stayed home.

In the morning (yesterday) the winds shifted and headed towards Paradise. This AM the phones were out and the visibility in our yard was about 20 feet. A third of Paradise was evacuated as were all people on all sides of our hill.

Around 10 this AM on the scanner one CalFire authority suggested giving us on Yankee Hill 3 hours to evacuate. His boss overrode him and said he wanted us all out in one hour! "I don't like the way this is looking" he said. I left around noon after checking on a few local friends.

Last I heard another 40 houses burned today but I haven't seen this confirmed. As of now while there have been some injuries, no one has died from the fires themselves.

Now here we sit in an evacuation center at Chico State University. The dogs, bearded dragons and geckos are in a nearby animal shelter. They just announced that another 6000 people have just been evacuated (including all of Paradise) and we should expect this shelter to fill up in the next few minutes. Right now its about half full.

We are going to be helping the Red Cross computerize evacuee lists (http://www.redcross.org/) etc. and they have kindly allowed us to set up two of our computers in the shelter (with a VERY good internet connection compared to what we have at home hehe... we're high tech refugees LOL -- its a brave new world).

Anyway, that's about it for now. At the evac shelter we have much better info on fire news, effected areas etc. Its worse than I thought it was. I plan to post the figures tomorrow. Looking at the official fire map is unnerving.

I wont be online nearly as often until this is over, but I will try and keep those who may be interested updated on my Multiply blog: http://johnofallfaith.multiply.com/ at least. I also plan as of now to continue answering my AllExperts.com questions.

I ask for everyone to continue in prayer for the absolutely awesome firefighters, ambulance workers, shelter volunteers and all those good people who are giving of their time and finances to help.

This is no where near over.

God's best,
~ John of AllFaith