I personally like Sign On San Diego for their less doomsday coverage

There is still cautious optimism in the San Diego area. While winds have died down and thousands have been allowed back to their homes to survey the damage, others are still in shelters and there are still some fires burning completely unchecked.

Since Sunday, the wildfires in San Diego County have forced about 560,000 people to flee their homes. The fires also have caused more than $1 billion in property damage, disaster-relief experts said yesterday.

As of early last night, fire officials reported that five blazes had burned more than 327,000 acres and destroyed at least 1,100 homes.

Although some critics (online bloggers are mentioned!) voiced concern over the original lack of help from the air, Governor Schwarzenegger refutes such claims saying that aircrafts could not fly because of high winds at the start of the week.

“Anyone complaining about the planes just wants to complain because that's a bunch of nonsense,” Schwarzenegger told ABC News during a morning interview.

The calmer conditions are a great help to firefighters trying to get blazes under control but they will not help improve air quality in and around San Diego.

President Bush is expected to speak in California later this afternoon.