ICR Families in San Diego Return Home | The Institute for Creation Research

 
ICR Families in San Diego Return Home

Weary firefighters, aided by a drop in the winds, have mostly contained the fires that swept through the San Diego area last week, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. Fire came within a few miles of the ICR offices in Santee, and several ICR families were among the evacuees who fled the conflagration. The Santee office was closed for a few days to allow employees to stay home out of the acrid smoke, to give them time to prepare for their own evacuation if it became necessary, and to help keep the roads free for use by those affected by the fires.

We are extremely grateful that the ICR family has remained intact, and praise God that their properties were spared and they have been able to return home and to the office. We appreciate the prayers and the many expressions of concern we have received during this time. A personal update from Steve Austin, Professor of Geology, is below:

The Austin family survived the wildfire! When the evacuation order came for the entire city of Ramona about 9 PM on Sunday, our family moved our trailer, truck and van to the ICR Santee parking lot. We camped at ICR on Sunday night. Other ICR people from Ramona joined us at the Santee facility. The next three nights, as refugees, the Austin family stayed at the Carlton Oaks golf course lodging in Santee with our trailer.

The evacuation order was lifted Thursday night, so our family returned quickly. The town of Ramona is now being repopulated. The main problem in our city of Ramona is water. The city water system is almost entirely disabled. Our family well is supplying neighbors with water on our street. We have given out hoses.

At the Austin house everything is like normal, except for the odor of fire. The dogs did not like being displaced. They sensed the stress of the fire probably more than we did. Now, the dogs are supposed to be returning to their normal mid-day duty of scaring off rabbits, but are spending most of the time doing other activity—sleeping.

God provides.

 

The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Dr. Timothy Clarey | How Faith Shaped His Scientific Journey...
ICR’s science staff have spent more than 50 years researching scientific evidence that refutes evolutionary philosophy...

NEWS
Ant Super Smell: A Masterclass in God's Genetic Engineering
To an ant, the world is written in scent—and they read it with uncanny precision. A single colony can recognize thousands of chemical cues that...

NEWS
Subsurface Oceans on Two Uranian Moons?
A team of researchers led by University of North Dakota planetary scientist Dr. Caleb Strom concluded that the two Uranian moons Ariel and Miranda (directly...

NEWS
Slowing Plates Support High Flood Boundary
Flood geologists have predicted that plate motion slowed at the end of the Flood year, and now conventional scientists are finding it to be true. A...

NEWS
Microscopic Ingenuity: Stentor and the Case for Intelligent Design
What if the smallest creatures held the biggest clues to life’s design? A 2025 study in Nature Physics investigates the remarkable behaviors of...

CREATION PODCAST
Dr. Jeff Tomkins | A Scientist's Journey to Creationism | The...
ICR’s science staff have spent more than 50 years researching scientific evidence that refutes evolutionary philosophy...

NEWS
Early Fish Evolution?
The discovery of a new species of a plant or animal would probably not spark much excitement to the non-scientist. But in this case, the conditions...

NEWS
Make Plans to Attend Our Estate Planning Workshop at the Discovery...
Did you know that up to 75% of Americans over 18 have no retirement or estate plans? Don’t wait to prepare for the future. Join us on Saturday, October...

NEWS
Fossil Confusion in Ethiopia: Are Evolutionary Trees Built on...
A new study published in Nature describes the discovery of 13 fossilized teeth from the Ledi-Geraru site in Ethiopia. They have been dated to between...

NEWS
The Only Mesozoic Dragonfly in Canada—Is a Dragonfly
In 2023, an undergraduate student from McGill University discovered a new dragonfly species in Alberta, Canada. In fact, “This is the first ever...