2:50pm: Fires whipping through Orange County today. I snapped these photos while driving home from the grocery store @ 1pm. Two of our friends are under mandatory evacuation in Anaheim Hills. The fire is burning on the north side of the 91 freeway. It's almost 3pm now and we just heard that the fire jumped the freeway and is now burning near the 241 toll road. Traffic on the 91 has come to a complete halt with reports of people abandoning cars as the fire advances. The winds are still blowing---not as hard as last night. Our family is safe, we are tucked away from the hills with a couple miles of neighborhoods between us and the flames. But we have friends and family living up in these hills with nothing between them and the fire line. Please pray for their safety and the safety of our firefighters. These wind-driven fires move so quickly and are so intensely hot that a safe situation can become dire in a matter of minutes.

The smoke is black and heavy. There is ash and particulate matter in the air. The winds are keeping the smoke high above our house right now.

3:03pm: just got a call from our friends. They arrived safely at a friends' house and are waiting for the fire to pass.