Sterling’s “Office of Calamity Management”
Peutz Valley, East San Diego County

Rita and I are AOK. The skies over Peutz Valley are now clear, the birds are singing, there is no wind, and the smoke here has cleared. Rita is down in San Diego proper with our friend Eileen Clift. She’s got the dogs and a mountain of our possessions and business equipment.

Our valley has not burned, thank goodness. In 2003 it was nearly all reduced to blowing ash. This time fires came within a few miles to the north (Tuesday night). That fire front became the top priority for water bombers Wednesday morning and they knocked it down. There is still fire to our south but it is 10+ miles away. We’re pretty confident that, unless there is a sudden and significant weather shift, we won’t be directly affected by it.

Heavy wind Sunday night took down a three of our major sycamore trees and some shingles, but otherwise we’ve suffered no property damage. Cutting up and dragging off an 18″ diameter x 20′ long sycamore trunk blown down and blocking the driveway was a bonus workout. 

Evacuation orders for our valley have not been lifted yet. I’ve been staying day and night in the valley anyway. After taking six loads of possessions down into San Diego, I have continued to prepare for attack as long as I’ve had energy and enough safety to do so: laying out hoses; testing and tuning irrigation sprinklers; raking leaves; cutting trees and limbs too close to the building; moving fuel cans and emergency electricity generator out into the open pasture spaces away from potentially extreme heat; clearing all trash cans and building materials away from the building; etc. Many neighbors have done the same.

I’m wishing I had set up the gasoline powered water pump I have been sitting on for three years. It could draw from our 10,000 gallon swimming pool and additional 10,000 gallon water storage tank to supply large fire hoses. Alas, one more item to add to the after-action-review to-do list. Just the idea of approaching fire is a powerful motivator to get all kinds of things done on the shoulda woulda coulda list.

When the fires burned closest to us Tuesday night they looked like mile-long giant flaming snakes and chimeras winding up and down the east and west slopes of El Capitan reservoir. These slithering orange monsters cast against the blackness of the smoky mountainsides drew many spectators to our narrow winding road - effectively the only way out of our valley. There were hundreds of cars streaming in and out. This is bad – it’s a problem if we really need get people out, and a small percentage are villains casing abandoned homes for looting just like 2003.

Wednesday night stalwart neighbors blocked the road with trucks and started turning people away if they couldn’t declare to what address they were going to specifically who they were going to visit.

Thursday night we established a barricade at the valley entrance that was manned by neighbors on 2-hour watches. I armed them with convincing orange highway vests, “Friends of Peutz Valley” baseball caps, traffic cones, two stop signs, and a clipboard with valley phone directory. To make it extra-quasi-official someone produced a yellow spinning/flashing light that you attach to the roof of the car and plug into the lighter socket. At night the whole get up looks very imposing. I pulled the 2:00-4:00 AM watch last night – now that there is no visible fire from our road there isn’t any traffic, but it felt good to do something constructive - i.e., drift in and out of sleep in the idling but flashing car like any self-respecting volunteer watchman.

Sleep in general has been problematic. One to three hour naps here and there is the best I can hope for until things really settle down. Friday looks like I’ll get a chance to rest. I’m guessing that by Saturday we’ll move the car loads of belongings back to the property and get reset.

Regarding our business, this upset in our local economy has interrupted some work we had planned, but it has surely created all kinds of needs for facilitation, planning, and change management. Our newly launched San Diego-Tijuana Region Game and the soon to be launched San Diego Regional Vision Project will have new urgency to them. The old axiom “There’s nothing like a public hanging [or burning] to focus the mind.” will demonstrate it’s truth once again. 

The pain we endured after the 2003 fire was something I hoped never to go through again. I feel a rising and falling tide of dread blended with a familiar solidarity between our neighbors. Alternating feelings of relief and grief surface in the slack moments. The tears start coming when I hear stories of help going to those who really need it. I wish Rita and I had unlimited resources to devote ourselves to recovery efforts the way we did in 2003. Back then our valley was under siege and we did what we had to for survival for over a year. As a result we are now rich with know-how and experience, but have to get funding to enable much contribution to the recovery efforts around the region. With some rest I’m sure the juices will begin flowing again and we’ll find places to both serve and be sustained.

Warm regards to everyone,
Joe

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