On Fri, 21 Aug 2020 09:35:18 -0700,
et...@whidbey.com wrote:
>Greetings Jeff,
> I grew up in Cupertino and Saratoga. I spent most of my summers
>when I was a teen in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We used to hitch hike
>from Saratoga to Los Gatos and then to Santa Cruz to enjoy the
>beaches. Camped in all sorts of places in the Santa Cruz Mountains
>that were not actually campgrounds, but just places where we wouldn't
>get caught. Also Big Basin and Henry Cowell state parks.
> Now there are all these fires in your area. It's making me
>heartsick. I hope you are OK.
>Sincererly,
>Eric
Thanks for asking. I'm ok and my house in Ben Lomond is ok. The fire
burned to within 1500 ft of my house. My house is the blue marker:
<
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/CZU-Fire/Jackson%20Ave%202020-08-29.pdf>
I haven't seen it yet. I expect everything to be covered with a thin
layer of ash. The area is being slowly "repopulated". I expect to be
back home in a few days.
Most of Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Little Basin were destroyed.
None the historic buildings are left. Henry Cowell Park is untouched.
The nearby Fall Creek Park is mostly burned over. See my collections
of
info links. Some spotty areas survived, but none of the fire maps
offer sufficient detail to show them. If you're interested in a
particular address or area, try:
<
https://sccgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5461c7f372e24ab68ca386e73d58e35a>
for damage inspection results:
Presently, I've been evacuated. I setup housekeeping in my formerly
palatial office in Santa Cruz.
<
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/CZU-Fire/Office-2020-08-29.jpg>
I had given the landlord notice and was scheduled to be out of the
office on Monday, so the office was almost empty when I arrived. I've
been spending most of my time keeping track of the fire, posting
explanations of how things work to neighbors on Nexdoor.com, acting as
self appointed public info officer, and making some rather bad
predictions. Some accumulated info links at:
<
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/CZU-Fire/>
Water might be a problem. Too soon to tell:
<
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijMv6hk1Zc>
My office is next to the San Lorenzo River. At one point, it was
decided that the fire might enter the city via the brush growing in
the river. Unlikely, but possible if the winds and very hot weather
continued. It was therefore possible that the area around my office
would be evacuated. That meant that I had my car loaded and packed
for a quick escape to parts unknown with minimal notice. At one
point, the fog trapped the smoke from the fire in the adjacent river
canyon. It was awful, so I went to Costco and bought a Winix C535 air
purifier. That helped.
I managed to squeeze in a few computer repairs. All were unsuccessful
because all my tools, software, and spare parts were in my house in
Ben Lomond. It didn't help that I was also a nearly sleepless and a
rather nervous wreck, while the computer owners were no better.
Drivel: It's amazing that a large number of residents didn't think of
calling their home telephone answering machine to see if their house
still had phone and power service, which is a good indication that the
house is likely to be intact. I had to repeat this suggestion many
times.
Also, I was into "car camping" when I was a teenager in Smog Angeles.
Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead were my hangouts. I liked it so much that
when I finally decided to buy a house, it was in an area that looked
much likg Big Bear.
--
Jeff Liebermann
je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS
831-336-2558