If you've been watching the news, you've learned that Southern California is ON FIRE!!1!!one! Below are a few thoughts on living through a minor natural disaster.
1. Reverse 911 is a life saver. In the future, municipalities will need to register cell phones to cover the young and landline-less.
2. TV news cannot deliver actionable information fast enough to make it worthwhile. Watching the same 3 pictures again and again (house on fire, tree on fire, reporter in front on fiery treehouse) is useless. Their maps could have been drawn by a drunk first grader. Local news media do their best, but network news is completely useless. It is utterly devoid of anything but the broadest information ('Southern California is a living hell!') and the shallowest emotion ('It sucks to evacuate in the middle of the night!')
3. In terms of staying informed, blogs and interactive maps combined with good radio are the way to go.
4. Americans love to help: Qualcomm has been turning away donations since Wednesday afternoon. There are currently more volunteers than they can use.
San Diego County can relax a little, but we're not out of the woods yet. There are still more mandatory evacuations in some rural areas, but the major population centers are (relatively) safe.
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