Don't know about the rest of CA, but in San Diego there is ONE BILLION DOLLARS worth of damage already with minimal containment. :(

UPDATE re FIRE

My grandson and girlfriend were able to return to their homes today. All is well. The biggest concern was Daniele's Rancho Bernardo home, the fire missed her place. We are all so grateful , but are still concerned for those who have been hit so hard.

It's so so sad.

I can't believe how devastating it is.....

Things are better today.....fires are being contained....smoke and ash at my house is pretty nasty this morning....the winds are blowing but less.....the link has a pretty informative map.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21466781/from/ET/

My parents have been working at an evacuation site and they say it is amazing how much support is coming from the community. They have horses, chickens, dogs, cats and other animals and the animal shelter has people helping with those. Restaurants and grocery stores are donating tons of food. Other donations have come in from various locations to take care of the animals and provide necessities for the evacuees. The Red Cross is working hard trying to organize everything and there are a lot of work being done.

I know some people are able to go back to their homes, if their homes are there but there are many that are still in a center waiting to see what happens.

Two of my evacuees just headed home...my son and dauhgter in law...I still have one here..my ex-sister in law's german shephard....all is good!

There has been tremendous support.

There have also been people arrested for looting and people arrested for taking "donated" items and selling them....freakin' amazing!

Roads are open....fire danger down....going to work this morning!

My ex-sister in law is still one of the few evacuees...and her german shepard.

Air quality still bad...through the week-end

Things are better....the healing begins for many ~ My prayers go out to them.

Those of us on the other side of the mountain are beginning to experience the smoky skies from the fire. I'm not complaining, though--I know that it's the onshore flow that is bringing the smoke our way but it is also the onshore flow that ended the Santa Ana winds and brought the cooler temperatures and humidity that is needed to fight the fires.

We found out yesterday that the huge house in Rancho Santa Fe we built survived with minimal damage. I guess 3 windows blew out and there is a little damage here and there but relatively little compared to the house across the street that was destroyed. Down the street, there were a dozen homes destroyed.

I also found out that my cousins, prior to moving to Toronto, bought a place in Lake Arrowhead for their retirement. They don't know yet if it survived.

So much destruction. It's so sad.

I'm so grateful that all of you So Cal posters are OK. I can't help but have tears in my eyes for all of you down there.

God be with the rescue workers.

My mom returned to work today, my stepfather is still working at the evacuation center and my mom expects to go there after work. There are still many evacuees there.

Bless your mom and stepfather for their kind hearts. Bless all the volunteers, too.

This is going to be an insurance nightmare for a lot of those people. If they can prove that there was arson in some of it, then the insurance companies will have to pay. If it is a natural disaster, then they will probably balk.

Wonder if all our premiums will go through the roof the way the rates for people in Fla and all along the Gulf Coast have gone.

On another forum I received a really, really good idea for insurance (one that we'd all benefit from).

Using your digital camera, take photos of each and every room to document what you have. After putting the photos on your computer, buy a USB storage device (for as little as $45 you can get 4 Gigs of storage) and transfer all the photos to the USB device.

Then, if you have a scanner, scan all important documents and transfer copies to the USB device. If you keep that USB storage device in a safe place you'll have backup for insurance in case of disaster. If you don't have a scanner, you could take digital photos of each document, but it wouldn't be as legible IMO.

I'm going to work on this this weekend! No one knows when the "big one" will hit (I live 6 miles from the San Andreas fault).