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Letter to the editor

Lessons to learn from wildfires

By Judy Stark, Times Homes and Garden Editor
Published November 3, 2007

As I watched and listened to news coverage of the California wildfires last month, I realized how many lessons we can learn from our neighbors on the Pacific Coast to be better prepared for hurricanes.

The 2007 hurricane season ends in 27 days. We've made it through another year without so much as a stiff breeze or a memorable downpour. A lot of other things are probably on your radar screen these days: cool weather at last, the approaching holidays, the Bucs.

Still, there will be another hurricane season, starting in just seven months, and there will be another hurricane.

On National Public Radio one evening I heard about a woman in a shelter who was desperate to call her daughters out of state, but her cell phone battery was dead. Red Cross workers were trying to find her a charger. Okay, three tips there: Charge that phone once a hurricane draws near. When you evacuate, take your charger. And get yourself a charger that works off the battery in your car. You have to wonder: Wouldn't anybody else in the shelter lend this woman a phone?

Another story quoted a woman who drove all over the county in a car with only half a tank of gas looking for a motel with a vacancy where she could evacuate. Every gas station was closed so she couldn't fill up. Finally she drove home, siphoned the gas out of another car into her tank, and set out again looking for a motel. Tips there: Fill your tank when the storm looms, and make a plan in advance about where you'll go.

A third story described a pet-friendly shelter full of dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and exotics (read: snakes 'n stuff). Some people had to evacuate with virtually no warning. I asked myself: If I had to throw Mr. Corky, the Irish terrier, into the car and get moving, would I know where his inoculation records are, and would I have a box and a spare cooler handy for his food? (Plus an extra jar of peanut butter for his favorite evening snack?) Note to self: Get Corky ready next hurricane season.

News stories reported that utility lines were cut in the wildfire areas, leaving much of the San Diego area without power - even neighborhoods nowhere near the fires. If anyone needs a good argument why solar energy is a good idea, here's Exhibit A.

The homes editor in me sees a silver lining to the grim clouds in California.

All those homes that burned will have to be rebuilt, resulting in hundreds of jobs in the construction trades. The slowdown has meant layoffs for thousands of workers. At least in the San Diego market, the job market will improve.

Suddenly there's an eager market for all that excess inventory, the homes and condos that builders built or speculators bought and couldn't sell. But watch those depressed prices start to skyrocket as supply and demand come into play and a slow buyer's market rapidly becomes a seller's market, or even a bidding war.

Some relief agencies are seeking donations of gift cards to the big national retailers: Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, etc. Those will translate into a lot of sheets, towels, dishes, glassware, toothbrushes, clothing - all the things we take for granted. The post-wildfire economic engine is powering up.

Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 1, 2007, 17:06:44]