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10/23/2007: "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Carlsbad ..."

Actually, it's not that funny after all.

Let’s say you’re a business traveler sitting in the airport in St. Louis. Killing time as you wait for your flight, your gaze wanders to the gate monitor broadcasting the latest news from CNN. All you see are flames as the voice over tells you that Southern California is on fire again, with over 1,000 homes and 300,000 acres lost – most in San Diego County. Oh, and where are you flying today? San Diego. Is it any surprise if your response isn’t just “No” but “Hell No”? Better buckle up – it’s gonna be a bumpy flight.

That was the scenario facing most of the folks who planned to attend a three-day user group meeting that I was supposed to be attending starting this morning. I say “supposed” because the organizers – those same folks sitting in the St. Louis airport – wisely cancelled the conference yesterday afternoon.

The largest fire, dubbed the “Witch Fire” is burning due east of Carlsbad and, as one of the fire chiefs said yesterday, “It might burn all the way to the beach.” It’s not there yet, but as you can see from this shot taken of the hotel at which we were going to meet, it ain’t far …

The email I received from our hosts this morning puts it pretty succinct:

Our Carlsbad office was evacuated yesterday afternoon. We don’t know how long the office there will be shut down, but we are getting frequent updates regarding fire containment and risks.

In addition to the office being shut down, we have at least a dozen employees that have been displaced from their homes. As a result, we will be slightly impacted in our normal operations.

Please keep our folks in your thoughts this week.

Bet your ass ...