This is a recent satellite view of Southern California:

There are currently about a dozen wild fires burning throughout the southern part of the state, where my sisters and friends live.  Despite the wide ranging destruction being caused by these massive fires, it's almost impossible to get news about anywhere other than Malibu.  It's sickening.  Sure, there are a lot of rich people with expensive homes, but there are hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated.  Malibu is all you can talk about?  Granted, they do talk about San Diego from time to time, but when they talk about L.A. fires, it's almost always Malibu all the time.

Thankfully my sisters are all safe at the moment, though friends Chris and Jen just evacuated.  This is probably the worst I've seen it in a long time, and the fierce Santa Anna winds howling at 50+ miles per hour aren't helping any.  If you wouldn't mind, take a moment to say a prayer for everyone out there.

Update @ 10/23 11:30 AM:  Ventura County has got some bad ass firemen according to my brother-in-law.  They were doing all volunteer flight ops last night, doing mountain canyon drops with night vision goggles.  When you consider the 30+ mph winds, and the updrafts from the fire, in some tight canyon areas, that is damn impressive.  They're pulling out all the stops to fight these.