Here’s an excellent story from our local paper, the Pinnacle News, about the fire burning up in Morgan Hill (CA). (Glad it didn’t start coming in your direction, tom!)

Reading about everyone packing to evacuate reminded me of what happened here during the El Nino Flood of ’98 (feel free to skip this if you’ve heard the story before – LOL). After the roads were all washed out, no phone or electricity, John and I packed a couple of bags, put most of our precious ‘things’ up on tables (just in case, although the worse of the flood had already happened), and parked the vehicles on the highest spot we could find. The next day, a red cross helicopter landed nearby, said there was more rain coming, and did we want a free ride out. So we grabbed our bags, and our dogs and left. It was a month before we were able to make it back here – the only road was washed out in 3-4 places and everytime they’d make a temporary bridge it would get washed out from all the additional rain and the river’s power. Finally the rains calmed, but we still had to rent an SUV to forge the river in a few places after the river had shrunk a bit. When we got home, everything was fine, just sitting there, waiting for us, like it was in suspended animation. Even the plants were fine after a whole month, and the two Cuban Tree Frogs, although they were a little on the thin side. 🙂