On "Explanations" of the L.A. Wildfires

[Lukaris]

From 2009-2025, the White House was only GOP for 4 of those years. Demos have been governor of CA since 2010.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Thank goodness we have a proactive President that has common sense:

Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just opened up two California dams. A spokesperson says the flows are 'controlled' and being coordinated with local officials.

www.latimes.com

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abruptly increased the amount of water flowing from two California dams.
• The federal agency made the decision after President Trump signed an order calling for increased water deliveries.
• Local water managers, who were caught off-guard by the decision, said they convinced Army Corps officials to release less water than originally planned.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dramatically increased the amount of water flowing from two dams in Tulare County, sending massive flows down river channels toward farmlands in the San Joaquin Valley.
Federal records show that water releases from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success jumped early Friday morning.
The sudden increase occurred four days after President Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER.” Trump also vowed during a visit to Los Angeles last week to “open up the valves and pumps” in California to deliver more water.

 

[Fantine]

In a state with so little rain, sharing water with Nevada and Arizona, it is important to have sufficient reserves to meet needs. Lake Havasu has been dry at times for several years. Phoenix had to cancel building permits due to water shortages.
So my questions are: how are irrigated fields helping dry forests?
If the reservoirs are low, will there be drinking water, water for essential businesses, etc.

 

[prodromos]

I am happy to reaffirm the truth in an atmosphere of lies.

It isn't what you are doing, however. All you are doing is repeating the leftist mantra, "Orange man bad".

 

[prodromos]

In a state with so little rain, sharing water with Nevada and Arizona, it is important to have sufficient reserves to meet needs. Lake Havasu has been dry at times for several years. Phoenix had to cancel building permits due to water shortages.
So my questions are: how are irrigated fields helping dry forests?
If the reservoirs are low, will there be drinking water, water for essential businesses, etc.

With that long coastline and commitment to renewable energy, I'm surprised California hasn't built a number of solar and wind powered desalination plants to supply fresh water to the state.

 

[Fantine]

Desalinization is being used in Florida, California and Texas, but this shows that the cost is about 8 times that of using storm water from rain deposited into reservoirs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-largest-desalination-plants-us-154151386.html

 

[prodromos]

Desalinization is being used in Florida, California and Texas, but this shows that the cost is about 8 times that of using storm water from rain deposited into reservoirs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-largest-desalination-plants-us-154151386.html

So? My point was in response to your comment, "in a state with so little rain".
Cheaper pipelines aren't much use if there isn't any water to fill them.

 

[Fantine]

And this series of fires was unprecedented. California has battled wild fires , many times. And as their funds have been used to help people across the country recover from tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, because they know that that's what being part of a United States means, they now expect some help from an unprecedented disaster--without snide comments and threats from more than one Republican, whose identities I won't name but who have been seen and quoted on video.

What has happened to neighborliness, and paying back a state who pays more to the federal treasury each year than it gets back in federal benefits, ranking 42nd out of 50 states.

Does California give more than it gets from D.C.?

Does California send more money to Washington D.C. than it gets back in return? That question has been asked repeatedly

www.politifact.com

 

[Stephen3141]

LA wildfires highlight nation's insurance crisis as homeowners try to recover lost homes

The nation’s growing home insurance crisis is in the spotlight as California homeowners begin the long road to rebuilding after the deadly Eaton and Palisades wildfires

abcnews.go.com

Note that insurance companies, don't particularly care WHAT caused the disastrous fires
in L.A., or the disastrous destruction from hurricanes in southern Florida. Insurance companies
deal with statistics, and probabilities. AND, many of them are recognizing that the combination
of wild weather swings, and the lack of safe building codes, means that they cannot make
any profit on selling home insurance in high risk areas.

For those home owners who don't believe in "climate change", maybe the reality will
come home to roost, when they find that they can no longer find home insurance,
in their neighborhood.

 

[Stephen3141]

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/05/nx-s1-5286481/fireaid-concert-la-wildfire

Although music shows that raise $100 million dollars, may give some
people a furry warm emotional feeling, that's enough to rebuild (maybe)
100 homes.

These efforts do not address outmoded building codes.

These efforts do not address the real causes of entire neighborhoods, burnt
to the ground, in Los Angeles.

 

[Stephen3141]

NOTE:

All efforts to rebuild the burned Los Angeles neighborhoods, should be correlated
with insurance companies, and the California building code revisions.

California biulding codes, should be revised, to the point at which the home
insurance companies CAN AFFORD to insure the types of homes, and the
spacing of homes, that are being rebuilt.

Forget the strident "We're tough, and we're going to rebuild" BullSpeak.
Change the building codes, so that the rebuilt homes will survive the
new wild weather swings that we have seen, AND so that private insurance
companies can afford to insure these homes.

 

[Lukaris]

One wonders if property taxes were lower, would home insurance work better & be less expensive?

 

[Stephen3141]

L.A. fire captain who fought California wildfires to attend joint address to Congress

“The community faces a long road to recovery and we need a fully staffed and supported firefighting workforce and federal support without conditions," Sen. Alex Padilla said.

www.nbcnews.com

This is the first article I have seen, in which Californian fire managers admitted
that they were in a trend of being understaffed, and that 1,000 fire fighters were
sent home at the beginning of a couple of the recent fire outbreaks.

It is still unclear to me, whether this article is about WILDfires and wilderness
management, or fighting fires in inhabitted neighborhoods.

As previous articles have mentioned, the gale force winds made airborne water
carriers impossible to use, and without these, there was no hope to stop the
L.A. neighborhoods from burning.

 

[Lukaris]

From LA fire Union:



Crowley is “being made a scapegoat ... without the benefit of a full investigation into what actually happened,” United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, Local 112, said in a statement.

“The reality is our fire department has been understaffed and under-resourced for years — including during Mayor Bass’ time in office,” the union said.

“The LAFD did have operational budget cuts in this fiscal year, including cuts to overtime, brush clearance and civilian positions. In fact, we still have nearly 100 broken down fire engines, trucks and ambulances in the maintenance yard because of civilian mechanic job cuts. This is a city that has neglected its fire department,”

https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-fire-chief-146e4421e4bac52dadca6164040eff39

Note that the firefighters union mentioned lack of brush clearance as a factor for the fires.