No news is, um, no news on the Walbridge Fire

Walbridge Fire

So the Sonoma County Fire Incident Map seems to be down once again. I have received no notifications in over a day—I expect I should be receiving them as there are any changes to evacuation zone status, whether new ones are imposed or existing ones lifted or reduced in status. The silence is just all kind of weird and my inability, yet again, to get a map is, well, unsettling.

I do have a bit more of a gif for the western U.S. (figure 1):
wus
Fig. 1. Western U.S. satellite imagery, compiled by author, as of August 21, 2020, 4:02 am EDT (1:02 am PDT).

There’s really not that much happening weather-wise (figure 1), which I would expect should be helping firefighters to get a handle on the situation. But, damn it, I can’t get a map. Well here’s one from another page (figure 2):
FireShot Capture 271 - County of Sonoma Fire Incident Application - experience.arcgis.com
Fig. 2. Screenshot from Sonoma County’s Fire Incident Application page, taken by author, August 21, 2020, 4:50 am EDT (1:50 am PDT).

It (figure 2) looks pretty much the same as before, although I have no indication of fire spread here.

Google Maps is similarly unhelpful, showing nothing at all for Sonoma County, though it does show the LNU Complex in neighboring counties to the east.

I suppose I should offer a shout out to Healdsburg, which was also menaced by the Kincade Fire last year; Windsor actually had that fire encroaching. This all has to be simultaneously terrifying and wearying for all concerned.

It’s been four straight years of apocalypse in Sonoma County now: This includes the Camp Fire of 2018, which although 100-150 miles away, still blanketed much of the San Francisco Bay Area in smoke so thick you could barely see down a couple blocks.

I’m wondering when my mother can return home; I think the answer has to be, not fucking yet.


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