I woke up, a couple of mornings ago, to the sound of the alarm on my computer’s battery backup system, telling me that our power was off. It was 4:30 in the morning. The windows were open and soon I could smell smoke. A few minutes later I could hear the CDF helicopters in the air above our house. The power off, the smell of smoke, the sound of helicopters…uh oh. I had just undergone oral surgery and even in my Vicodin-induced stupor I knew that all this added up to something bad.
I nudged my husband into consciousness, and used my throbbing tooth as an excuse to stay in bed. Being the wonderful husband he is, he got up; got in is car and drove down the hill to see if we should start packing up valuables.
We were lucky. A tree had fallen over onto some power lines, which sparked a brush fire. The brush fire just happened to start directly across the street from the California Department of Forestry fire station, fortunate for us. They put it out quickly and our power was restored 12 hours later.
There are fires in our hills once again. There are 1400 burning in the state of California at this moment. There also have been floods in Iowa. Natural disasters on both ends of the spectrum, both destructive, both changing lives forever.
The one thing they have in common is that they both bring people together.
Genie, of the Inadvertent Gardener, has asked me to put the word out about the farmers In Iowa. As you have probably heard, the 500-year flood has done major damage to Iowa and the land along parts of the Mississippi river. Some of the people affected are the small farm farmers, the people that you buy food from at the farmer’s market.
Genie wants us to help these people. For more information on what you can do to help please visit her at The Inadvertent Gardener.
Chigiy, thank you, thank you, thank you for posting -- you rock. Seriously.
Posted by: Genie | June 30, 2008 at 09:22 PM
Chigiy - I think about you and all the California bloggers that I read every time I watch the news about your terrible fires. I hope that you are safe.
Yes, the flooding was bad (all over Iowa) but we can get over this. Clean up and rebuild. But you guys out there are continuously threatened by fires it seems. To live with that year in and year out - I just don't know how you do it.
Thank you so much for posting this and for thinking of us back here in Iowa and other Midwest states. This has been a most unusual year, what with one of the worst winters in memory and now the "500 year flood", one can't help but wonder what the rest of the year will bring!
Stay safe and stay well.
Posted by: Sally | July 01, 2008 at 04:28 AM
Oh, Chigiy - I'm so glad you're okay. Were your kids freaked out?
Hearing the stories from CA and the Midwest is pretty scary.
We're nowhere near as dry but there were fires breaking out on highway verges over the weekend.
Thinking of you and Genie, and CA and Iowa,
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Posted by: Annie in Austin | July 01, 2008 at 11:19 AM