Monday August 31, 2009 
Monday August 31, 2009 For the past week, I’ve been in Northern Minnesota in a fairly remote wilderness area, staying with friends in their summer cabin. My mobile didn’t work, and I couldn’t get email to save my life. But I could get to Facebook. And thanks to that, we were able to take decisive steps during the wildfires that threatened our La Cañada home.
The first hint that something was amiss came on Wednesday, when I saw an update from one of my more casual Facebook friends commenting on smoky conditions. I instantly tensed up – when your house is 100 yards from the National Forest, fire is a constant concern.
I started to surf for news, but found pitifully little. Apparently the 2,000 homes under wildfire assault in a northern suburb of Los Angeles wasn’t of sufficient interest for newspapers to cover. If only Lindsey Lohan lived in my neighborhood…
I can’t begin to describe how frustrating it was to search for updated information. There simply was very, very little. Oh sure, today the story has finally become a priority for our pathetic downsized newspapers – the fire has killed two firefighters, destroyed 18 structures and swept over 42,000 acres, with no control in sight. But last week, when our home was in a mandatory evacuation area? Ha – good luck getting an update.
One hundred yards from our house (photo courtesy of Washington Post)
Thank goodness for social media. I starting messaging other folks in my Facebook network, and quickly learned what was happening. From there, I was able to connect with our friends and the house sitter who evacuated the pets and a few valuables from the house. With our fur family safe, I was able to take a more detached view of the situation.
Look, no one wants to lose their house. And I was kicking myself for not having a few other items taken out when I had the opportunity. But given that I was almost 2,000 miles away, I was just so grateful not to have to worry about the Boo and the cats that the rest seemed inconsequential.
Up until our return last night, we monitored what was going on, largely via Facebook. The online news continued to be of limited help, but we could count on our local friends and bloggers to keep us in the know via updates. And as the fire spread, impacting more of our friends, we not only know what is going on but we could offer our support and prayers to them, as they did for us.
The mainstream media failed us. But we found Facebook to be an e-community that is truly a neighborhood, offering information, support and friendship.
Posted by terrymckenzie ( Aug 31 2009, 07:49:48 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
