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What's the haps?

California Burning (Update: Glenn Beck has foot-in-mouth disease)

By: Santosh :+: Under: What's the haps?
On: ⋅ October 25, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Update: Glenn Beck, the conservative loudmouth on CNN, apparently think Californians hate America.

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.

Conservative loudmouths have a history of wishing ill on California.
Bill O’Reilly for instance:

“If al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead,”

Original Post:
As wildfires in Southern California are forcing the evacuations of close to a million people, it is but natural that the problem hits closer to home given the large number of desis living in California.

Imagine seeing that through your bedroom window
img: via LA Times

While damage to residence and material possessions has been extensive, the positive news is that the loss of life has been relatively low in numbers (3 dead at the time of posting this article). Qualcomm Stadium, showcase of LT2 and the San Diego Chargers is being used as a relief center.

Among the evacuess there are the residents of a large apartment complex in Rancho Bernardo, CA, which houses software engineers from India, who work for Sony, were among the evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium.

From LA Times:

Prasad Kallimath and his friends and their families had come to San Diego County closer to the beginning of their journeys.

Kallimath arrived on a temporary work visa in 2002. He found an apartment for himself, his wife and young child in a Rancho Bernardo complex recommended by another Indian native who worked with him at Sony.

The complex became home to dozens of young Indian families. It was a mile from the Sony plant where the men worked and about the same distance from a good school for the children.

“You would choose your place of living when you were pretty much done with your career,” he said. “Until then, you go wherever the job takes you.

This week, it brought Kallimath here.

By afternoon of the first day, Monday, he and his friends had laid out their new homestead, a patch of blankets, quilts and pillows spread across 20 feet of concrete.

By evening, they had traded up, moving to a private corridor on level three, right next to the elevator and with stunning sunset views.

This last line was what really got me.

They hope to move again today, back home. It’s a small hope.

We hope too, Prasad. For your sake and for anyone and everyone affected by this fire.

Note: Please feel free to use the comments space below to express your support for the victims of this massive natural disaster. If any of our readers live in that area (and our website statistics say some of you do), please get your kundis to a safe location away from the fire and then if you have any pictures or anecdotes of the fire please feel free to share it with us. And, most importantly, if you know of any reliable sources to help the victims by donation of money and relief supplies, share them in the comments section or email them to us and we will post it.

Links for helping the Victims:
Red Cross: Accepting money donations only, no materials.

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