Scenes from the road ---- Faces of evacuees

By: The Californian | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:26 PM PDT ∞

Nowhere else to go

Daryl Mendenhall sat in a hard folding chair Tuesday at the Temecula Community Recreation Center, a walker in his right hand, a crutch clutched tightly in his left. The Lake Henshaw resident, who suffers from altitude sickness, has been there since Sunday night.

Yet, like many of the 200-plus evacuees at the temporary shelter, Mendenhall was in good spirits: At least there was a place to go.

"They evacuated us, and I went to the Wal-Mart in Temecula," he said. "I don't have anyone, and I didn't know where else to go."

Mendenhall, 51, has no idea whether his camper made it through the fire that has ravaged so much of North San Diego County, particularly Fallbrook. He said he's tried the camper lot, but the phone line apparently has been disconnected.

"Not knowing, that's the hard part," Mendenhall said. "The people here, though, have been wonderful. On that part, I don't want to leave here."

---- Brian Eckhouse

Rather be at school

TEMECULA ---- Stephanie Guise, 10, of Pauma Valley said she started crying when her family got the call to evacuate their home in the predawn hours Tuesday.

"But when my dad said everything would be OK, I felt better," she said.

Stephanie was part of a caravan of roughly 20 people who fled Pauma Valley and found refuge at the Community Recreation Center. She said she was supposed to be spending the day at school.

"I actually would rather be at school than have the day off because of the fire," she said. "Because going to school is not as much drama as we're going through right now."

---- Nicole Sack

One large family makes Temecula shelter home

The extended Rojas family of Fallbrook appeared to have the largest contingent at the Temecula Community Recreation Center on Tuesday.

Five nuclear Rojas families congregated at the temporary Temecula evacuee center. Everyone was safe, so there was some comfort to be had.

"Even though our house might be in danger, at least we're all safe," said Gregoria Rojas, 13.

But like most at the shelter, they had no confirmation whether their homes had made it through the horrific fire that some worry flattened Fallbrook.

"Monday night, an officer passed each house, and said you have to leave it," said her uncle, Gerardo Rojas, 45. "Everybody was scared: You know the fire's pretty close."

Another niece, Sonia Rojas, said she resisted leaving her home of two years.

"All of my neighbors left ---- everyone but us," said Sonia, whose nuclear family's home was closest to the Fallbrook fire. "We didn't want to leave; it's our memories."

As Sonia fled her home Monday, a large tanker plane flew by, cutting through a big red dust cloud, she said. They first went to The Promenade mall in Temecula off Winchester Road, where they spent five hours, before learning that the American Red Cross had set up shop at the recreation center.

Less than a day later, she and 16-year-old sister Adilene Rojas playfully rolled around cots at the shelter.

"We're just trying to be OK, put a happy face on it," Sonia said. "We've been through a lot."

---- Brian Eckhouse

"I'm fine. Well, I'm not exactly fine"

Most evacuees of the Fallbrook and De Luz fires carted themselves or car-pooled to the temporary shelter at Temecula's Community Recreation Center.

Not Eleanor Hayhurst, 80, and her son.

A sheriff's deputy drove the Fallbrook residents from their home ---- near plumes of smoke ---- to the shelter on Rancho Vista Road, east of Ynez Road.

All they had was a heavy-duty black garbage bag filled with essentials. That, she said, was their life.

"It's kind of nerve-wracking because you're not sure what happened," said Hayhurst, who is in declining health. "That's everything we have, that sack. We don't know if everything is gone or if we're able to go back.

"I'm fine. Well, I'm not exactly fine."

---- Brian Eckhouse

No answer

TEMECULA ---- Chris Kleppe, who lives off Cole Grade Road in Valley Center, had planned to be at his job at a tire distribution center in Escondido by 6 a.m. Tuesday, but held back after he called the warehouse and got no answer. By dawn, when the evacuation call came, he and his wife were already wide awake.

Chris and Pam Kleppe loaded up the small bed of their white Suzuki Vitara with a cedar chest they had filled with letters and other keepsakes. Their first stop, around 6:30, was a temporary shelter at Valley Center High School, but it was full. They headed toward I-15.

At a gas station on Highway 76, a law enforcement officer advised them to go north, through the smoke, toward Temecula. They saw flames on a hillside near the Mission Road exit, and then more smoke, and then blue sky when they climbed out of the valley and toward Rainbow.

The couple stopped at an AM/PM gas station at Temecula Parkway to fill up the Vitara around 10 a.m. The cedar chest and other belongings were covered with blankets and lashed down with elastic shock cords.

They had brought their dog and cat, too.

"We've got our turtle in a little shoebox," Chris Kleppe added.

---- Chris Bagley

A bolt, no lightning

De Luz resident Reg Watts, 72, was asleep when a neighbor called early Tuesday morning and said there was a fire nearby.

"I said, 'The Rice fire, right?'" he recalled. "I hung up the phone, and noticed a flash of light, and thought, 'There wasn't any lightning.'"

Within seconds, deputies were there asking him and his wife to evacuate.

They scooped up their pets, and by 2:15 a.m. had checked them into a temporary Animal Friends of the Valleys shelter at Ronald Reagan Sports Park in Temecula, Watts said. Five minutes later, they secured two spots for themselves in the Temecula Community Recreation Center, also at the sports park.

Although De Luz residents were being allowed back into their community with identification Tuesday morning, Watts remained at the shelter. He was nervous about plumes of smoke that could be seen lifting above the hills.

Watts didn't just remain at the shelter ---- he stayed in one spot: on his back in a green cot on a gymnasium floor.

It wasn't by choice, said Watts, who suffers from post-polio syndrome. He had polio when he was a 17-year-old.

"I can only sit up for so long before the pain in my shoulder blades and back becomes intolerable," Watts said.

---- Brian Eckhouse

'Fallbrook is dead'

TEMECULA ---- The Gomez family, made up of two parents, two brothers and two sisters, sat in the shade of Community Recreation Center on Tuesday morning. The group had fled Fallbrook late Monday night, and ended up in The Promenade mall parking lot around 9 p.m., where they stayed until they learned about the Red Cross shelter.

"We could see the flames when we left," said Alejandra Gomez, 18. "We were told we had to go. I was able to pack about two bags of clothes and that was it. I had to leave my fish behind; I hope he's OK."

Even being at the shelter, she said, there was very little sleep to be had.

Alejandra had a calm demeanor, but was obviously stressed about the uncertainty of the family home. She shot a dirty look at her brother, who tried to keep a sense of humor about the situation, which was out of the family's control. But his outlook was notably grim.

"Fallbrook is dead," said Nathan Gomez, 17. "We haven't heard much about what is happening up there. I heard one of the churches has definitely burned. But I think Fallbrook is dead."

---- Nicole Sack

Two-time evacuee optimistic

The Hagans of Fallbrook have been in this position before.

They were evacuated from Fallbrook during the devastating 2002 Gavilan fire, and miraculously returned to their home in one piece. The same, Patty Hagan said, wasn't true for all but one other house in their cul-de-sac.

Now, they're at the Temecula Community Recreation Center, a temporary shelter full of worried ---- yet calm ---- Fallbrook residents.

"During the Gavilan fire, everything burnt to the ground but my home," said Hagan, 51. "Everybody now thinks Fallbrook is going to burn to the ground. I think it's going to be there.

"It's going to be there when I get home."

The Fallbrook fire, however, was within 100 yards of the Hagans' home when they evacuated Tuesday, said John Hagan, 61.

His wife isn't discouraged.

"I'm fine," she said. "I just need rest. I need food."

The shelter, which is sponsored by the American Red Cross, provides both: cots for all evacuees and food.

---- Brian Eckhouse

Shelter manager affected

In a shelter of calm evacuees, it was difficult to find someone more at ease than Jackie Hill, a volunteer with the American Red Cross who managed the shelter Tuesday afternoon.

That may be expected from someone assigned to ensure that 250 evacuees are comfortable and nourished, but Hill too is an evacuee.

Monday afternoon, Hill's mother ---- who lives in fire-ravaged Fallbrook ---- was evacuated to Orange County.

So Hill, who lives just south of Temecula in San Diego County, prepared Tuesday morning to pick up her mom and then head to the Temecula shelter.

"As I was preparing to leave the house, I heard we were being evacuated," said Hill, 62, who probably was affected by a fire that tore through Pauma Valley on Tuesday. "So I had to slow down, and pack up with my husband.

"At least we're all safe."

---- Brian Eckhouse

Four dogs, two cars

TEMECULA ---- Betsy and Tom Buzulak got a 4 a.m. reverse 911 call telling them to leave their Pauma Valley home. Evacuating is something they have done in years past, and they were always lucky to escape harm.

"We thought today's call might have been a false alarm, but we decided not to take any chances," Betsy said. "Living in San Diego County, we don't get any information about what is happening in Riverside County. But we came to Temecula."

The couple actually ended up at the Vons grocery store on Rancho California Road, where a sheriff's deputy directed them to the Red Cross shelter down the road. The couple drove separately, Tom in a pickup and Betsy in a sedan. Yes, they needed to pack up a lot of stuff, but the main reason for the two vehicles was because of the dog.

"We had to separate the two big dogs from the two little dogs," she said, "so they wouldn't get eaten."

---- Nicole Sack

Like cattle

TEMECULA ---- Susan Hughey and her family slept in their vehicles in the parking lot of a grocery store Monday night.

With fires raging nearby late Monday, the Hugheys were fleeing their home ---- and so was everyone else in Fallbrook. Their plan was to evacuate west on Ammunition Road through Camp Pendleton. But with the traffic on Mission Road moving south an inch at a time, Hughey said, she was worried. So the family steered their two vehicles into the relatively uncongested Albertson's parking lot near the intersection of the two roads.

"If the fire shifted and we were all there in a line, we would be like cattle," Hughey said. "There was nowhere to go."

It was 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. Hughey and her daughter were again inching forward in the SUV, this time at the Shell gas station off Temecula Parkway, where about 25 vehicles were waiting for about 20 pumps. Her husband and son were waiting for another pump. They had just returned from Fallbrook, where they found their house undamaged.

The sky above was blue, but there was a gray haze to the south, and the faint smell of ash was everywhere. Light but sudden gusts snapped around as more backed-up cars waited to pull in to the station's concrete pad.

"We're hoping things will subside," Hughey said.

---- Chris Bagley

Unexpected niceties

PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION ---- Dennis and Judy Magee got the call to evacuate about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. But they've had their bags packed and ready to go since 1999.

That's when the couple first thought to prepare an emergency kit in case the dire premonitions of the Y2K disaster proved correct.

The millennium proved uneventful, but the Magees stayed prepared with blankets, first aid and food. They didn't use them until Dennis Magee's niece woke the couple up early Tuesday, telling them they needed to evacuate their home at the Pala Indian Reservation.

The couple arrived at the Pechanga Resort & Casino. While Judy Magee, 68, napped in the van in the parking lot, her husband took in a few games of video poker.

"I didn't make any money, either," said Dennis, 72. "Paid this lady's wages for a couple of weeks," he said, pointing at a nearby Pechanga employee.

The couple eventually settled in the luxe grand ballroom, where more than 100 evacuees from various tribes took refuge Tuesday. Dennis Magee ---- who had surgery the week before ---- also got to trade his crutches for a wheelchair provided by the casino.

Judy Magee was glad she didn't need the meatloaf and apples she had packed in the cooler. While her husband snacked on a hot dog, she ate pasta and potato salad.

"I sure didn't expect all this," she said.

---- Rani Gupta

Midnight flight

TEMECULA ---- In the hours before dawn Tuesday, Ray Roman gathered up a few belongings from his house and drove north with his friend Greg Ciuffredo. Both live near the perimeter of the Witch Creek-Guejito fire, which has spread west from Ramona to threaten Roman's and other homes in southern Escondido and thousands more in Poway, where Ciuffredo lives.

The two slept for a few hours at the Best Western motel on Jefferson Avenue. Shortly after 10 a.m. they emerged from their room, arms full of pillows and luggage. They had awakened and tried to make reservations for another night but found the motel was already full. They wondered whether they should try to find another nearby motel or drive back to Roman's place in Escondido.

"We're going to eat," Ciuffredo said.

"To Denny's," Roman added.

---- Chris Bagley

Overflow

TEMECULA ---- The parking lot at the Best Western on Jefferson Avenue was full, but cars continued to lumber in ---- and out again ---- as motel staff told one person after the next that there were no more rooms. It was 10:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Gloria Garcia sat in a chair on the sunny second-floor balcony and looked on as her daughter Shelly Barnett stood by, cell phone pressed to her ear, for an update on their home in Rainbow. Garcia and her husband had stayed at the motel Monday night. They planned to stay again Tuesday, but he had driven back to Rainbow to check for damage. There wasn't any, but the plant nursery across the street from the Garcias' house was ablaze, he told his daughter.

Eight others in their extended family had stayed in a room downstairs and in a camper across the street. Pam Gloady and her daughter, Kayla, also members of the extended family who live in the Fallbrook area, had arrived Monday evening but found no rooms. They and Gloady's sister had driven to Lake Elsinore, arriving just in time to take the last two rooms, Gloady said.

Gloady and Kayla walked out of the second-floor room. The four stood there, chatted briefly with a visitor, and then began to mull over the day ahead. One of them suggested The Promenade shopping center. Another wondered whether Mulligan's Family Fun Center would be open.

---- Chris Bagley

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