Now is not a good time to be living in Southern California. There used to be just earthquakes, and now there are fires all over the place. More than 100,000 acres have burned and over 250,000 people have been in evacuated in San Diego alone. Luckily, I’m not in any danger, but I have friends and family who could possibly be evacuated from their homes.
I used to grow up with the Santa Ana winds, but I never thought that they could cause such destruction. I heard yesterday that the wind reached hurricane force on occasion. Usually, the Santa Ana winds only last about a day, but this year it’s lasting a few days, making the firefighting that much more difficult. It’s hard not to link the increased severity of these winds (and therefore the massive wildfires going on) with global warming. Mother Nature is lashing out at us for all the harm we’ve done to her.
It’s pretty surreal to see pictures of the flames engulfing Southern California. Watching the news, it’s more like I’m looking at a volcano than California. Sometimes I feel untouchable from all the tragedies and disasters of the world, that they could never happen to me or the people I care about. In reality, though, no one is safe. But what can we do?