Ashley McNamara Photography

If you watched the news during Katrina you probably thought, “I wonder what I would take with me if I had to leave my home?” then you turn the T.V. off and don’t think about it again until the
next disaster…Much to my surprise I was faced with this question but in a much different way. I live in San Diego and my family was evacuated for the fires, I never thought I would have to pick just a few things that were most important to me and leave the rest to potentially be destroyed. On Sunday, October 21st, our tiny community was red and smoky but there was no real threat so we went about things as usual by Monday, The 24th it was a much different story. We woke up about 8:00am and outside of our bedroom window there was a line of cars as far as the eye could see and we knew then that the fires were close. We turned on the news and we shocked to see that we were being evacuated and that the Witch fire was just mere miles from our home. The sky was a deep orange and ash was falling, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

By 9:30am things were much worse. The police had entered our neighborhood, they were knocking on doors telling people to “GET OUT!” at that point I was in a panic, I grabbed some clothes, my
cameras, computer, important documents, and server and left. As I was leaving I had so many emotions. I never thought I would be in the position, I mean we all know that its possible but how many of us have put much thought into what we would do? I know I didn’t. Coming around the corner the danger was clear. It was close..and the Santa Ana winds were blowing it in fast!

It took about four attempts to actually get out of the area..All major streets were blocked from fire or traffic. Luckily we have our trusty GPS! We were able to take back roads and avoid the traffic. (Here is a view from about 10 miles away it was surprisingly calm during this picture because just moments before the Santa Ana’s were blowing gusts of 80MPH winds.)

Once on the freeway I was able to think clearly and started to calm down. At that point all that mattered was what my family was safe.

(View from the freeway.)

We ended up in Santa Ana staying right next to Disneyland! So for the next 3 days we turned something really aweful into a mini Disney vacation! It was a great way to get your mind off of everything..So for your viewing pleasure…DISNEY PICTURES!!

We ate lunch at the golden horseshoe and had lunch and a show! This band was a lot of fun, I could hardly eat they were so funny!

All and all the whole experience was surreal. We were lucky enough to be able to come home thanks to the wonderful firefighters who held the perimeter around our community, the fires came within 2000 feet from our home according to Google maps. That is too close for comfort.

(Screen shot from Google maps)

A big thank you to everyone who has called me and emailed me wishing our family well during the evacuation we really appreciated all the thoughts and prayers. Also a HUGE thank you to the firefighters and law enforcement because without you I would probably be typing from a hotel room right now.