Night Thoughts

October, 2007

America’s Finest City

What better time to return to blogging than during one of the biggest media events ever in San Diego? As if there isn’t already enough info out there about Firestorm 2007 — or whatever your medium of choice has chosen as a moniker — here I am finding it necessary to throw in my two cents as well.

Thank you to those who have called and e-mailed to check on Rich and me. I know the national media make it look like the entire city is up in flames but, in fact, the city center, where we live, is fairly normal, albeit smoky. The overall atmosphere reminds me a bit of post 9-11 when everyone was in a daze. It is similar now, what with so many being displaced, out of work, out of school (all week) or hosting friends and family in their homes. Some businesses and restaurants are closed because staff are unable to be there due to evacuation. We’re asked to stay off the roads, keeping them clear for emergency vehicles and evacuees, and to stay indoors, to protect our health. You can imagine what that’s like for kids. I told a friend’s kids, who have never seen snow, that this is what a snow day is like back east, and they were unimpressed. “At least you can still go out and play in the snow, can’t you?” one asked. He had a point. San Diego kids aren’t used to being cooped up in their small (but quaint and overpriced) bungalow-style homes.

Rich and I were in L.A. Monday morning, unaware of any fires in San Diego until he turned on his cell phone and saw all the messages. We checked out of the hotel and boarded a train home, which is about a three-hour trip. We were on our cells most of the way calling newspaper staff (Rich) and friends (me) to try to find out exactly what was happening because the L.A. media were only reporting the L.A. fires. As the train chugged and we dialed, we started to realize how ominous the situation was. Several of Rich’s newspaper staff were stranded in the northern part of the county because the freeways were closed. Others had been evacuated. When we neared Solana Beach, north of the city and directly west of one of the fires, the conductor had to come on the PA and confirm it really was 4:00 pm and not twilight — the smoky skies were so dense they covered the sun, giving it an orange glow familiar from the Cedar Fire four years ago.

But the train slipped out of that fog and back into the city, where the sky was blue and the air was relatively clear. Back home, Rich jumped in his car and went to work. I joined him later to observe the newsroom in crisis mode as background for a journalism class I am teaching next semester. Newspapers might be growing irrelevant in the Internet age, but you wouldn’t know that when there is a major news event that causes circulation to spike tremendously. Information was changing so quickly the paper’s paste-up crew were pasting over statistics just minutes before press time.

What really took a hit, though, was the newspaper’s Web site, signonsandiego.com — actually, it took nearly 10 million of them on Tuesday, compared to a million on an average day. Web surfers know the best place to get specific info is a city newspaper’s Web site and not national sites like cnn.com. SignOn, which crashed intermittantly due to heavy traffic on Monday, added seven servers yesterday. They’ve been doing yeoman’s work there, trying to keep maps and evacuation notices current. Today they published the first list of burned structures so evacuees would know if their homes had survived or not. It makes me wonder once again what we ever did without the Internet.

It is interesting to compare the national media with local. I thought Matt Lauer and staff did a great job on the Today show Tuesday, in some ways out-producing any of the local media with his vignettes (who could forget the affluent RB couple who revealed they had no insurance on their burned home?) and interviews (local DJ/talking head “Hacksaw” practically crying as he overstated, “My city is burning down”). That was until the local NBC affiliate had to break in and bore us with their drivel for the second half of the Today slot instead of sticking with Lauer reporting locally.

Another favorite piece of coverage was when an MSNBC anchor told the OEM director she’d heard the whole city might need to be evacuated if things didn’t improve and then asked what kinds of plans he had for that scenario. He paused and said, “That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Uh, I don’t think anyone could plan for that kind of evacuation.” Yeah, transporting 3 million people wouldn’t be too easy — especially when the only safe place to go is east because north is L.A. with its own fire problem, south is Mexico (most of us would rather risk the fire than go there for relief) and west is, well, the ocean. And guess how many ways there are to go east out of San Diego? Yep: one freeway, next stop Yuma, Arizona (OK, there are stops in between but I doubt anyone would hole up in the desert at Barstow). It’s easy to understand the anchor’s misinformation when our SD city attorney, who has visions of grandeur and cannot seem to quash his ego, suggested this same “solution” to city officials, who roundly denied him. He’s just mad because there’s no one to sue, I figure.

Some of my other favorites came during interviews at the shelters. It was heartwarming to see so many people reaching out with donations, to the point where the shelters asked that no more supplies be delivered. Movies were shown on the JumboTron at Qualcomm Stadium to occupy anxious families, while hundreds of off-duty teachers arrived to lead kids in lessons and games to take their young minds off of fire and tragedy.

The other stories weren’t so heartwarming — the guys who went door-to-door with fake evacuation notices and after the families left came back to pillage their homes; the illegals who posed as evacuees at the stadium and loaded their trucks with freebies, only to be caught later rushing to the border with their loot — but there are always a few bad apples in the basket. In general, I think San Diego held up its slogan — “America’s Finest City” — with aplomb. And I feel confident saying this was all happening well before FEMA arrived and started taking credit for it all. (President Bush probably will strain his arm giving himself a pat on the back tomorrow when he gallops in to survey the damage.) The city, county and state were on top of things from the beginning. I don’t think our Mayor Sanders will have trouble winning reelection after his performance this week.

People have e-mailed and called me, wanting to know how this compares to Hurricane Katrina. It doesn’t. The whole county isn’t under siege as the national media portray it to be. As I said earlier, the city center is fine. People can get supplies, food, water, medicine — there is no shortage of anything (except rain!). The airport is open, as are most roads now, and there are plenty of places to get help. More than that, though, the demographic of these evacuees is different. With Katrina there were thousands of disadvantaged people with no resources whatsoever. In contrast, the people affected by the fires mostly are affluent or at least upper middle class. There are exceptions, no doubt, but the median income in Rancho Bernardo, perhaps the hardest hit area, is $65,000. In Rancho Santa Fe, where some mansions burned, the median income is $197,000. These are people who can pack up their SUVs, drive to a hotel and go out to a restaurant if they are hungry. Granted, having to rebuild a home is a hellish two-year process, but judging from the homes rebuilt in Scripps Ranch after the Cedar Fire, the end result might be something even better than what burned. There is always a silver lining, I suppose, and new granite counter tops with cherry cabinets might have to be the panacea for losing some cherished photos, clothes or other personal items.

As everyone has said, what really matters is each other. It is mind-boggling that a disaster like this has taken only one life directly. In San Diego, the feeling this week — much like after 9-11 — is camaraderie and solidarity. We’ve been reminded once again that “stuff” is nothing compared to family and friends. It’s just too bad it takes a devastating fire to do that.

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October 24, 2007 | 0 Comments | View or add comments
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