Slowing winds raise hopes in California
WSN Network

San Diego: Flames drew perilously close toward thousands of homes in Southern California’s firestorm on Thursday, despite a break in the harsh winds and a massive aerial assault that raised evacuees’ hopes of going home for good.

The hot, dry Santa Ana winds that have whipped the blazes into a destructive, indiscriminate fury since the weekend were expected to all but disappear on Thursday.

“That will certainly aid in firefighting efforts,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Meier said.

The record high temperatures of recent days began succumbing to cooling sea breezes, and two fires that burned 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County were fully contained.

But even with the slackening winds, the county remains a tinderbox. Firefighters cut fire lines around the major blazes in San Diego County, but none of the four fires was more than 40% contained. More than 8,500 homes were still threatened.

President George Bush, who has declared a major disaster in a seven-county region, was scheduled to arrive in California late on Thursday and to take an aerial tour of the burn areas, accompanied by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As nature’s blitzkrieg starts to recede, many of the other refugees will be allowed back to their neighbourhoods. More than 500,000 people were evacuated in San Diego County alone, part of the largest mass evacuation in California history.

31 October, 2007