Firefighters are just beginning to gain control over the wildfires which have raged through Southern California over the past five days, burning nearly 500,000 acres of land and displacing as many people.
For Princeton students who call Southern California home, the wildfires have added a great deal of fear to an already stressful midterm week.
Megan Leahy '11, a student from the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, has lived in the same house for her entire life and has experienced threats of wildfire before, but she has never "experienced anything close to the destruction that has apparently taken place at home," she said in an email.
Her parents called her Monday morning to say they were evacuating their home and "taking some valuables and sentimental belongings with them but leaving most behind."
That same afternoon, Leahy learned from a friend that her home and most of her neighborhood had been destroyed by the flames. Headlines in the news described her suburb as the "hardest hit" by the fires, she said.
Leahy said she "faced the difficult task of informing my parents, who had lived in our home for over 20 years and raised both me and my brother there."
Over the past week, Leahy has dealt with a range of emotions ranging from "utter devastation to complete gratitude that my family is safe to a calm resignation." She plans to head home for Fall Break to be with her parents and siblings and to see the destruction for herself.
Some alumni have had closer experiences with the fire. Sarah Dabby '07, who lives in Del Mar, was home when the fires broke out. She described her experience of packing and having to leave her home as "remarkably calm, considering the circumstances."
Dabby had not thought too seriously about evacuation on Sunday, but as it got late and the winds blew stronger and the smoke thickened, the threat of fire and possibility of evacuation became more probable.
"I slept a grand total of about three hours Sunday night, listening to the wind pound at my window and trying to avoid inhaling ash and smoke," Dabby said in an email.
With the possibility of evacuation looming, Dabby spent the next day packing with her family. By 8 p.m. Monday, her family had "received a reverse 911 call to evacuate immediately." As Dabby left the house with her family, "the thought of seeing it for the last time was ever so briefly overwhelming."
Dabby's neighborhood was un-evacuated by noon of the next day. Dabby was struck by the generosity of the people of Southern California and noted that volunteers and donations of any sort are actually being turned away "because too many people are offering to help."
Current students from Southern California have expressed difficulty being over 3,000 miles away from their friends and family during this week's emergency. "It was strange to think that while everyone else was studying for midterms, I was worrying about if my house would burn down," said Stephanie Feldstein '08, who is from Chula Vista in San Diego County.
"For the first time," she said, "the 'Princeton Bubble' felt oppressive, not comforting."
Vikram Rao '11 said his family in San Diego also was forced to evacuate when fires raged three miles from his house. His house has been salvaged due to the easing of winds and the tireless work of firefighters in the area. Rao does plan on going home for Fall Break and will "explore the desolation." Rao is a writer for the The Daily Princetonian.
Cindy Organ '10, from Del Mar, said in an email that her experience has been "very scary." Her family was forced to evacuate on Monday but was allowed to return home on Tuesday after winds had changed direction. Organ is a copy editor for the 'Prince.'
"[The fire] leaves some houses untouched and others burned to the ground on the same street, and information about exactly which houses survived is hard to come by," she said.
Rebecca Foresman '10, also from Del Mar, has also had her family evacuated, yet is mostly "worried for my friends that live in Rancho Santa Fe and those areas that are more northeast," where fires are not contained and continue to spread.
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