Pray for Sylmar, CA fires

Yikes! How bad is it? Are the Townends in trouble? Is LHS in trouble? All we hear on the national news is about the Montecito fired. Jenn Perlich's post on Facebook is the first I'd heard that Sylmar was dealing with this.

What do you guys know? Do they have it contained? Have many homes been lost? Has the school been closed this week?

Friends and former students- please check in and let us know you're okay

LHS Alumni, and EVERYONE, please pray for the thousands of people who've been evacuated and those losing their homes. And please pray for the safety of LA Lutheran MS/HS!!

Fast-moving Sayre fire forces Sylmar residents from homes
- Los Angeles Times 8:54am

Source: www.latimes.com

An explosive brush fire driven by 60-mile-per-hour gusts ripped through the northern San Fernando Valley today, burning homes before leaping both the 210 and 5 Freeways...

More than 2,500 acres had burned by 5 a.m. Saturday morning, with more than 1,000 structures threatened by uncontrolled flames and more than 10,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation.

Fire Update

Okay, maybe it was hyperbole for me to compare this year's SoCal fires to Hurricane Katrina, so far only one person has died due to the fires and only 200 homes have been lost- be that as it may, it is still dangerous and tragic, so please keep praying. (Incidentally, New Orleans recently received over 8 inches of rain in just a day or so, so many of the neighborhoods that suffered the most during Kartrina are under water again, please keep those folks in your prayers too.)

I've heard from a few of my friends in the LA area who are all okay, but they all know someone who's affected, and of course the smoke makes a place plagued with pollution and allergy problems even worse.

One of those friends shared these links with me for anyone interested:

Here is a link to Tim's weather station here in Sylmar, just in case that's interesting: http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCASYLMA2

Also, here is a link to the fires currently burning. You can get an exact picture of where each fire is. I've been watching it today:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.00043d0e9ca465cefeeed&ll=35.960223,-117.443848&spn=4.827737,8.876953&z=7

I've been listening to KCRW.com, the NPR station in Santa Monica for updates.

Please keep Southern Californians in your thoughts and prayers!