« The California Fires | Main | Influenza: Avoid A... »
 

I Hope My Family's OK

By: Sommer | October 26, 2007 | Category: Home and Family

My mom’s oldest brother and his family live in Aliso Viejo, CA. I’ve only visited them once or twice so I’m not really familiar with the geography; all I know is that it’s south of LA and north of San Diego. When the wildfires started burning, I know it sounds callous, but I didn’t pay that much attention to the reports on the news. I’ll admit that I’ve become somewhat immune to hearing about all the disasters and crime that’s proclaimed loudly by the media 24/7.

Our family tends to live under the credo that unless you’ve heard otherwise everything’s fine so I didn’t really start to wonder about my family’s safety until Wednesday. (We’re a close family, but we all feel comfortable living our own lives spread out across the country - so this type of behavior really isn’t strange for us.)California fires map

After a little online research and some help from maps I learned that their house is about 28 miles north of the Horno/Ammo fire which was 40 – 50% contained and 16 miles west of the Santiago Fire, which was 30% contained, both as of Thursday afternoon.

So far, the fires are still pretty far away from Aliso Viejo but there’s no doubt they’re still burning. I’ll keep an eye on the status of the fires and hope that no more start even closer. If the family had been evacuated I could have used USA.gov Find Family and Friends page to check on their status with several organizations including the Red Cross and FEMA. 

My thoughts and prayers are with all those who’ve been affected by these wildfires.  For additional information on how you can get help or help those in need visit USA.gov/californiafires.

| Comments [2] | envelope Email This Entry | Tags: california   family   fire   sommer  

Comments:

We welcome your comments and expect that our conversation will follow the general rules of respectful civil discourse. This is a moderated blog, and we will only post comments from bloggers over 13 years of age that relate to topics on Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog. We will review comments for posting within one business day. You are fully responsible for everything that you submit in your comments, and all posted comments are in the public domain. We do not discriminate against any views, but we reserve the right not to post comments.


I know locating family members in a situation like this can be hard. I had the problem when the bridge collapsed in MN. I called the RED Cross for help. Like you I was fine until the FBI called me and wanted information about my son. Red Cross can help save many problems.

Posted by nadine on October 30, 2007 at 10:53 AM EDT #

Nadine,
I hope all is well with your son. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Sommer

Posted by Sommer on October 30, 2007 at 11:02 AM EDT #

Post a Comment:
Comments are closed for this entry.