If you need to flee from a giant fire that threatens to turn your world to ashes, Ronald Garza allowed between bites of an ice cream bar on Tuesday, “this is probably the best place to be”. By “this” he meant Qualcomm Stadium, now filling with more than 20,000 evacuees and volunteers, where Garza waited for a free massage while his wife was off getting coffee. “Starbucks,” he said.Officials are calling these some of the worst wildfires that San Diego County has seen in modern history. More than 500,000 people have been forced from their homes. But there is also a unique feel to this natural disaster, a distinctly California style, and it is not just the constant presence of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the TV screens.Meaning: California is dealing with it. Automated “reverse 911” calls were alerting residents to mandatory evacuations. Shelters opened almost immediately. “This is going to be a major hit on the economy here in San Diego,” Schwarzenegger said. “But we’ve been through this before, and we’re going to help San Diego.”Many evacuees of the wildfires mentioned Hurricane Katrina, and while they quickly said that the two disasters were completely different, they seemed to be proud of the coordinated outpouring of help and support.“Nobody does disasters better than California,” said R David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, after visiting Qualcomm Stadium with the Republican governor.Every motel room in San Diego is booked, so good souls have taken to posting offers on Craigslist of free room and board for evacuees. At emergency shelters in high schools and recreation centers, the huddled masses have flipped open their laptops to scroll through satellite maps to pinpoint the fires’ progress. Some of the most up-to-date information is coming out of the neighborhood blogs, which are filling with images of yellow skies and burning hills, taken with cellphone cameras.“This is a neighbour-helping-neighbour situation,” San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said at Qualcomm, drawing a round of applause from his constituents.In San Diego County, schools and colleges are closed and many businesses have told workers to stay home, so the freeways are eerily open.
