Winter in Malibu

2007-Q4-Webster Jog-a-thon

The jog-a-thon this year was winter themed rather than the more traditional Halloween theme. It was a blast (although I missed it this year to grade term papers). They actually had snow at Webster! Someone brought in a snow-blower and they made snow all over the place. They had a little sledding hill and an igloo full of snow for snow-ball fights. The kids had a blast.

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Matthew's Big Day

Matthew was chosen by the Malibu Optimists as a Malibu Young Leader! It was such an honor. He was honored at a breakfast attended by adults from the community, then a Sheriff's Deputy took him and other leaders (2 from each public school in Malibu) for a day with City Officials. He met the Mayor, City Council, and the judge. It was a terrific day for Matt and an honor for all of us. Be sure to congratulate him!

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Long-delayed update...

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. Here are the final photos from our day avoiding the fires.

While this fire was much less damaging to Pepperdine, it was much more damaging to Malibu. Somewhere around 50 homes were completely destroyed. One of Madison's friends lost her home completely. They didn't get a thing from the house, not even a purse. One of Matt's friends also lost his house, but it was not destroyed by fire. The smoke damage exceeded the value of the structure so they also suffered a terrible loss.

Keep these families in your prayers over this holiday season.

Another day in Malibu...

For the second time in a month, we were awakened early to evacuate for nearby fires. This time the fires were on "our side" of the campus. As you can see from this photo, the fires were right behind our house. We later learned that these fires were still a mile away, but they looked very close.

We left the house the first time at 5am and came home about 8:30. Then they relocated us again at about noon. We were at the Campus Center until 5pm or so. What a day. The kids loved it, but Michelle and I were exhausted from the emotional stress. Nothing on campus was lost, but nearly 50 homes in Malibu were destroyed.

The fire dept. used the Pepperdine campus as a base for the fire-fighting operation. So all day there were dozens of choppers landing at Alumni Park to refill with water from the two "duck ponds" there. There were also 15-20+ firetrucks on campus most of the day. The constant roar of fixed-wing aircraft filling their tanks with water from the Santa Monica Bay and dropping it overhead was amazing. I hope I have some video footage of it, but Matt was playing with the camcorder so much I may have run out of batteries. :-)

As far as I know everyone is safe and there was no loss of life. Certainly a memorable Thanksgiving weekend.

Fire Damage

Fire Damage

There's evidence everywhere of the fire damage from a few weeks ago. I keep meaning to bring my camera out and snap some photos of the blackened trees, rocks, and hillside. I hope I do it before it gets washed away.

Here is a photo I took with my mobile phone today. It's a tree by the parking lot at the kid's school. You see this effect on trees all over here right now. If you look closely you'll see the right side of the tree was close to the fire and the heat of the flames killed the leaves. They are still there, but all brown. The left side of the treee was on the far side of the flames and it is still green. Isn't that odd?

2007-Q3-Pepperdine Fire

This morning at about 6:45 am we were awakened with news of a fire near campus. We evacuated by 7:20AM to Camarillo. Now we're at a friends house in the Conejo Valley. Here are some photos of the smoke over campus on the way out.