I'll never forget that day ... just a couple months after I returned to the Bay after finishing University ... even before anything was wrong, I knew there was a ill-wind blowing that day. My family lives about 15 miles from the main damage, but I know the burned area SO SO WELL ... Oakland/Berkeley Hills are so dear to me ... everything between Walnut Creek and SF, along the 24 ... that's my hood right there.
But I just felt something in the air that day, before it even started. It was WAY too hot and dry and windy for that time of year ... the sky even seemed weird, color-wise. It was a very strange day ... if you were around, you know what I mean.
After it was over, me and some friends drove around the burned areas in the Oakland Hills, where they'd let you go ... we could still see tree stumps smoldering ... whole thing was surreal. And the damage ... just incredible.
But it really did have a LOT to do with the area needing some serious raking, and clearing out of dead wood, and thinning the trees, esp. the non-native Eucalyptus growing on the Hillsides ...
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