Re: Back home and safe

Sorry, I thought it would post my name. This is Keith Thompson, <kst@sdsc.edu>.

Back home and safe

Sara and I evacuated Monday evening from our house in Rancho Penasquitos to my Mom's house in University City (yes, with all the cats). We returned home Wednesday evening. Sara's on heavy antibiotics for a cat bite, but doing ok. Everything is ok; I think the fire's closest approach to our house was about 6 miles. Now we just have to fish some of our valuables out of the swimming pool (where they would have survived even if the house didn't).

Hi, I created a blog for recording the event!!

Appreciate Nathaniel for taking the time and efforts to initiate the blog!!

I am a graduate student research assistant with SDSC, also a PH.D. student in CSE,UCSD. And I came here from China in 2004. We had enjoyed UCSD and San Diego very much, and had never expected such an event would have happened here. But it did happen, all we can do is to try our best to rally together to fight with and get over it. We would all love to see a beautiful San Diego and California again, which will definitely take a lot of our courage and efforts.

Since UCSD is closed for the whole week, many students have left San Diego for safe home. After spending 2 days at home, I decided to go out to get more involved and offer some help. Together with several other Chinese students, I have been visiting 2 shelters the day before yesterday and yesterday, to see what's going on there and what we can help. The day before yesterday, for the Del Mar Fairground Shelter; yesterday, for the Qualcomm Stadium Shelter.

I created a Google Blog the day before yesterday to record what I saw and am going through here. If you get time and are interested, welcome to visit
http://glasswort9.blogspot.com  Your suggestions/comments are extremely welcome on the blog. I would appreciate your taking time to read my reports very much (of course, when you guys have time and would like to :))

In my above blog ( http://glasswort9.blogspot.com), on the right sidebar, there are also links to the photos I took these few days, which look like this
( Our Photoes during SD_WildFire

    * 10/24_Qualcomm_Stadium_Shelter
    * 10/23_UCSD_Mesa
    * 10/23_DelMar_Shelter
)
including Del Mar Fairground Shelter, UCSD Graduate Student Housing and Qualcomm Stadium.

Or, I directly give the url here, in case you guys are short of time :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/glasswortucsd/2007_10_24_QualcommStadiumShelter

http://picasaweb.google.com/glasswortucsd/2007_10_23_UCSD_Mesa

http://picasaweb.google.com/glasswortucsd/Del_Mar_FairGround_Shelter_1023_2007_10_SD_WildFire


After reading my reports and viewing these pictures, some UCSD fellow students also want to go to some shelters for voluntary help. I am very glad that what I recorded can be of some help to them and others. I just started the blog yesterday, and I will keep writing and shooting... I wish I could learn a lot from you guys here.

PS. I would like to recommend another site my friends @ SDSU are making:

1)  Web Mapping Services for San Diego Wildfires 2007 - Created by SDSU Students &amp; Scholars:

       http://map.sdsu.edu/

2)  San Diego Fires Wiki | TalkLinks: 

       http://sdfires.pbwiki.com/TalkLinks

Hope these info would be somewhat useful.

Wish everybody be safe and every family be safe!!
Salute all these courageous people around!!
We will be definitely OK and return to normal life soon!!

Jing Zhu
Graduate Student Research Assistant
SDSC

PH.D. Student
CSE,UCSD

Replacement Computers

Greetings from Scripps Ranch!

This might not be a top priority but...

If anyone knows of someone who lost a
house and could use a replacement computer
let me know. I have two Macs, a desktop
and laptop.

-----------------------------------------
Timothy H. Kaiser, Ph.D. tkaiser@sdsc.edu

Thanks and latest updates?

Thanks to Nate and all for setting up this blog.  A lot of us have been emailing around and this will help get the news out.  Thanks also to everyone for their generosity.  It’s an important time to pull together and help where we can.  As we get a better idea of what we can do to help Tom and others, we can organize to provide what is needed. 

There are still a few we haven’t heard from out east.  Please let us know what you’ve heard and if you’re safe or you need anything as you can.  Has anyone heard from Hans-Werner?

                 Fran

------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Francine Berman

Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center

Professor and HPC Endowed Chair, UC San Diego

http://director.sdsc.edu

berman@sdsc.edu

858-5346195

------------------------------------------------------------------

Can Foster 2 Cats in My Home -

Greetings, and positive thoughts to all.

 

I can foster 2 cats in my home, although I already have 2 small dogs & 2 cats of my own.  Not to worry, they will be separated for a time until I feel they can live all in harmony under one roof.  (I am a former professional pet sitter).

 

Please contact me to discuss.

 

Work:  858-822-5413

E-mail:  kagehiro@sdsc.edu

 

 

Tom's House

This is an image of Tom's House. It speaks for itself.

Jing Zhu Has Created A Blog About The Fires

From Jing,

I am a graduate student research assistant with SDSC, also a PH.D. student in CSE,UCSD.
I also created a Google blog yesterday to record what I am seeing and going through.

I went to Del Mar Farigrounds Shelter yesterday and Qualcomm Stadium Shelter today. I wrote reports about these and also took lots of pictures.

If you would like, here is my blog: http://glasswort9.blogspot.com Would you pls. add that into your blog as a link in case anybody would be interested in reading?

From Gracie

We were evacuated on Monday and were back in on Tuesday, fortunately. The Rancho Santa Fe fires were coming due west at that time and we got an evacuation call at about 10:00am Monday morning. We were blessed to be able to return pretty quickly.

We are "guardedly optimistic" and are watching all the coverage carefully.

From Darlene Piche

Appears at all the folks in my group (CAIDA) are okay.

UCSD has sent this around

The campus has made available special resources for those UCSD faculty, staff, and students that lost their homes in the San Diego fires (see http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/fireinfo). A brief summary of some of these resources follows:

* HOTLINE ESTABLISHED: A special hotline has been established for UCSD students, faculty, and staff who lost their homes in the fires.

Please call (858) 534-5523 or send an email message to gethelp@ucsd.edu.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firesupport

* COUNSELING: The Faculty and Staff Assistance Program offers counseling and other services. Campus employees should call (858) 534-5523, and Medical Center employees should call 888-426-0023.

Psychological and Counseling Services offers equivalent services for students: Call (858) 534-3755 for appointments.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firesupport

* EMERGENCY LOANS: From today until November 30, 2007, faculty and staff who have lost their homes in the fires may obtain up to a $3,000 emergency loan, which will have no interest charged over the 12-month period beginning January 2008.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/emergencyloan

* "LEAVE" DONATION: Beginning immediately, we have temporarily changed the rules for the Catastrophic Leave Donation program, so that employees who have lost their homes may receive leave donations from other UCSD employees.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firehelp

* STUDENT BILLINGS: The due date for current student billings is being delayed until October 31, 2007. We encourage students to use E-check to ensure timely payment.

* DO YOU HAVE ROOM TO HELP A COLLEAGUE? NEED A PLACE TO STAY?

If you are a UCSD employee with space in your home, and would like to volunteer to take someone in temporarily who lost their home, please call (858) 534-5523 or send e-mail to volunteerspace@ucsd.edu. If you were displaced by the fire and need a temporary place to stay, please call (858) 534-5523 or e-mail gethelp@ucsd.edu.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firehelp

* 403(B) LOANS: Participants in UC's 403(b) Plan may borrow their own funds for emergency needs or, if ineligible for a loan, they may be able to take a hardship withdrawal.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/403loan

* SUPPORT GROUPS FOR FIRE VICTIMS AND SUPERVISORS: Support groups and crisis counseling has been scheduled for UCSD students, faculty, and staff. Separate groups have been scheduled for supervisors of those impacted by the fires. For dates and times,

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firesupport

* CHILD CARE PROBLEMS: Since many K-12 schools are closed for the rest of this week, supervisors are asked to provide flexibility in granting leave for parents with child care problems.

* DONATIONS OF NEEDED ITEMS: If you have new or "like-new" clothing and other articles that can be useful to families of UCSD employees and students who lost their homes, they may be brought to any UCSD Dining Facility.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firehelp

* DONATIONS OF CASH: If you would like to donate cash to impacted families in San Diego, please contact the San Diego/Imperial County Red Cross at http://www.sdarc.org or the Salvation Army at http://www.salvationarmyusa.org

* BENEFITS INFORMATION: You may not be aware of benefits available to you, such as alternatives for filling prescriptions.

--> SEE http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/firebenefits

Cindy Lee

Hi –

Cindy Lee from the Business Office was evacuated Monday morning and has just been allowed back into her home in RB which is fine.

 

Thanks for setting this up!

 

Lyle

 

 

space available in Mission Hills home

We have a spare bedroom/bath and extra mattresses available in our
Mission Hills home. The air quality has been fine down here. Anyone is
welcome. Contact Nancy at wilkinsn@sdsc.edu, 619-260-8269.

Tom Hutton's House Lost In Fire

Tom's house in Poway was lost to the fire yesterday. Tom is fine and is in Reno for SC07 hot stage. Tom did not have time to get any of his keepsakes out as he was in Reno. He has the clothes he took with him to SC and his car.

He has lost all pictures and the SCinet team have created a photo gallery to help start rebuilding his memories and help him recover from this devastating event.

You can go to https://scinet.supercomp.org/gallery2/v/ForTom/ and upload any images you have. Login button is on the top right.
Username: scinet
Password: scinet