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I don’t know about you, but if I were in the fire zone in SoCal and I heard that Governor Schwarzenegger had called FEMA for aid, I’d be like, “You know what actually, we’re good. No, it’s fine, seriously. No, we’ll just…dig a moat or something, really, don’t get up. Please.”
I hope Uncle Terminator is doing right by you guys out there. Stay safe.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Hey. I don’t know what we do now either. I DO know that we’ll need each other going forward, as we always have, for support, mutual aid, and information on where to get high-quality wide-calf …
I’ve had family members call me up and ask if I’m affected by the fires, can I see the fires, are the fires anywhere near me, will I have to move because of the fires, fires fires fires FIRES FIRES!!
I live in San Francisco…
I live in LA and I can say that these fires are pretty unnerving. I live in an area that is not threatened but we are surrounded by the infamous ‘ring of fire’ and the smoke is thick, low and dark on the horizon. Because of the winds and the fact that there are fires on all sides, people I’ve talked to feel rattled and edgy about the possibility of the fires sweeping thru LA proper. I don’t think that will happen but something about these fires makes the idea of that seem more of a reality to some. It’s so dry out here because we only got about 3″ of rain last year and it seems like every year these fires get worse. I grew up in California and like people everywhere, I’ve seen a definite change in the weather. And not for the better.
I live near the LA fires and work in Irvine, which is just next door to the Santiago Canyon fire in OC. Feel as if I am traveling from one disaster area to the next during my commute. The building in which I work was wreathed in smoke all day yesterday. Ash blowing everywhere. Incredibly creepy. Co-workers have been evacuated from their homes. If not immediately threatened by fire, my co-workers are dealing with shattered windows and downed fences due to the wind, which is insane. Our pets are freaking out, the wildlife is on the move in a big way. Saw a troop (pack? horde?) of coyotes wandering down the road yesterday morning, and it is rare to see even one out & about during daylight hours.
Everyone that I know had the same reaction upon hearing that FEMA was called in, which was very close in spirit to what Sars wrote.
Thanks for the good wishes. My daughter phoned me yesterday to say ‘The planet is dying’. Ish.
I had the exact same reaction when I heard Bush had declared a federal emergency. Um. That’s ok, dude. We’ve got it. No, no. I think you’ve still got your hands full in NOLA.
That said, as a Californian I am rather proud of my state’s ability to get people up and out of theirs homes right now. Good job, guys.
My reaction to the FEMA news was a little different. I hope that the folks in SoCal get the help they need, and I pray that no firefighters get killed trying to beat back the fires. I’m in San Francisco, and I was living in Berkeley in 1991 when the Oakland Hills fire killed more than 20 people and burned thousands of homes – fires like this tend to affect me on a visceral level, and I have to consciously limit the news coverage I let myself watch, because it’s upsetting.
However, what pissed me off about the FEMA news is that when the victims of a disaster are largely white and wealthy and Republican (a near given for OC and San Diego) – FEMA aid and other help couldn’t come fast enough. When the victims were black, poor and Democrats, eh, we’re coming as fast as we can. I know that logistically, fires and hurricanes are very different, but it seems as though emergency responders and assistance were available instantaneously for the fires, in a way that didn’t happen in New Orleans. Seeing coverage on the news of cargo planes of supplies flying out of the SF Bay area last night, made me furious again for the citizens of New Orleans, and how badly the rest of the country let them down.
Yeah, but see, there are more rich people in that area of S. California that are being affected, so you know FEMA will be a lot more competant this go around. Can’t let the rich people suffer, after all.
I dunno — I think if a hurricane hit SoCal, the relief effort would be vastly different than with this fire, regardless of the income level of the victims.
I mean, where does a cargo plane full of food land, exactly, if California is under water?
I live in Los Angeles, and a lot of people I know have been evacuated from Malibu. My friend’s parents had to move in with him and his wife in their tiny little bungalow in Hollywood. And they brought along their five giant dogs. Whew. And while the news certainly likes to remind us that Mel Gibson! and Courteney Cox! and Tom Hanks! are in danger, it’s worth noting that a lot of people in Malibu bought their homes decades ago when it was any other neighborhood (really – some people in Malibu live in double-wide trailers) and as home prices skyrocketed in the last ten years, the value of these homes became their retirement plans. It’s really sad to watch that money go up in smoke for a lot of regular, hardworking folks.
The fire departments in the area have been amazing (as they are every fire season). The coordination and organization is really top-notch, and you hear nothing but great stories about their courage and professionalism. I’m not sure what FEMA will add unless they have fire trucks and water-drop helicopters. Other than that? Um, no thanks. We’ve got a good system here. A distinction that can, unfortunately, be made from New Orleans is that the displaced people all have somewhere to go . . . they only have to drive 5-10 miles to a friend’s house. It’s not the same thing as evacuating an entire city. Additionally, the local response has been very efficient about opening shelters and providing solutions for people who have animals (including livestock and horses), which is usually one of the impediments to getting people to leave their homes.
To echo COLA’s comments from above, I am really proud and impressed with how the state and local authorities have handled everything. SoCal has a reputation for many things – efficiency, professionalism, and generosity are not usually on that list, but it’s nice that other people now get to see the kinder, gentler side of SoCal.
We’ve got nothing but love for the fire department here! (the police, of course, have a different reputation – but as they are only peripherally involved in this situation, I can leave that dicussion for another post)
I hope for the best for all those in SoCal, and although my cynical side tends to feel the resentment that Grace and Felis mentioned above as to the reasoning for the faster and better response, I try to believe that some of the party line about learning from their disasterous mistakes is true, if only for the benefits to those affected–if there’s something I do have faith in it’s this administration’s ability to try to cover it’s own ass and NOLA was and is a shameful embarrassment in aid that hopefully they’ll go above and beyond to counter.
I too am in SF, and was pleased to see the speed and orderliness of the evacuation and supplies thus far–I lived in the Oakland Hills and was evacuated during the 1991 fires and several of my friends lost homes and pets and every fall during fire season it’s a reminder and you can see the tension go up, even after 15 years you can make out the outline where the forest hasn’t grown back and the houses are all new. Hopefully the current fires will be contained before reaching densely populated areas.
I don’t want to discount the idea that rich folks are taken care of quicker and/or better than white folks, but I think we have to give at least some of the credit for the quicker response to learning from the New Orleans disaster. FEMA and Red Cross and a lot of other organizations took a lot of well-deserved heat for that debacle and it stands to reason that they would be a little quicker to hop-to in these kinds of situations now than they were then.
Not just rich but rich celebrities. God forbid Barbra Streisand lose one multi-million dollar home and have to move into another one while some people are still living in freaking trailers.
I know I’m probably in the minority in this opinion, but I see some other options here.
1) Maybe the people are actually _evacuating_ this time.
2) Maybe FEMA has _learned_ a thing or two since Katrina.
3) Maybe, just maybe, the scale of destruction is different by several orders of magnitude.
And also, enough with the “only poor black people in and around NO and/or affected by Katrina” already. I’ve been there (or very nearby) several times to help. White people do exist in and around NO. They were hit just as hard as the black people. Their homes are just as destroyed, and there were plenty of them who didn’t have the sense to walk out of the city when they heard that there was a Level 5 hurricane bearing down on them.
As a white republican, were I in either situation, I would not want FEMA’s help either, however. Not because I think poorly of them, but because I don’t think that the government should have to take care of me.
OK. Fire away. My email’s posted on my blog if you want to discuss more privately.
SD resident here. Given the unbelievable devastation and displacement caused by these fires, I have to tip my cap to the city and county governments for their quick response. They’ve evacuated over 300,000 people down here, all without mass panic, and the shelters are still not full. And the locals are awesome. I’m housing evacuees, as is everyone I know who hasn’t been evacuated. As messed up as this is, I am proud of the residents and local governments down here.
Maybe FEMA can make a pizza run or something. ‘Cause otherwise, we good.
I’m in the SF bay area, and have lots of family in San Diego and friends in LA. So far (at least, as of 8 AM when I talked to Mom) none of them have been evacuated, but there are fires raging within a few miles of every one of their houses, so I figure it’s only a matter of time. Way scray, y’all.
On the plus side, though, it sounds like everything is being managed in a very orderly fashion. I’m not seeing reports of riots, or mass casualties, or total panic/anarchy in the streets. People are preparing
“As a white republican, were I in either situation, I would not want FEMA’s help either, however. Not because I think poorly of them, but because I don’t think that the government should have to take care of me.”
So the people who have little or nothing to fall back on, the people who aren’t the multi-billionaire residents of Malibu and upscale neighborhoods, the ones who are hoping and praying that they have anything to come home to–they should be left to fend for themselves? The government should just back off and say, “Tough luck, kid. Sorry about that fire?”
As a someone who lives 45 mins from NOLA om the Miss. side of the coast and was here for Katrina, yeah, FEMA and the government could have responded a hell of a lot better than they did–I’m not even going to touch that issue. But at the same time, they provided some much-needed resources for people who had nothing left.
What I don’t understand is why the rest of the country doesn’t seem to be banding together to offer assistance to California. With the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have access to helicopters, planes, and other pieces of firefighting equipment, why are more volunteers not stepping up?
Kudos to the firefighters who are busting ass, though, and best wishes for those who are affected.
I think it is a knee-jerk and facile reaction to deem the all of people in these Southern California communities as “white, wealthy and Republican” – and even if they were, are they somehow less deserving of compassion and help in a natural disaster? Do I need details of the income level and house valuation to feel for someone who just lost their home, maybe the place they raised their family?
What I saw in NO was the non-actions of a criminally incompentent arm of the most corrupt and venal administration this county has ever known, exacerbated by the already existing problems of geography, weak local government and substandard housing of an underserved and poverty-stricken populace (of many colors). I don’t think the two situations are remotely comparable.
Thanks for letting me speak my piece!
“Fruitcake,” I appreciate your situation, especially since Nicholson, MS is the area that I was helping in (and that our church continues to help). It’s not that I think that the government should _refuse_ to help them, it’s that I don’t think the people should just _expect_ that the government will solve all of their problems.
I think that in situations like Katrina and the fires, communities, charitable organizations, and churches should step up to take care of people and get them back on their feet.
I’m with you though. If I had some air support to lend to the effort, I’d already be out there. One can only hope that others with more resources than I feel similarly.
I live in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, and while we are not on fire yet (I’m not in the hillside community where a fire is more likely, but it is a half mile away), we are surrounded by smoke from fires to the east, west, north and south. It’s hard to imagine being any closer because the air *here* is hard to breathe, and the sky is this sick yellowish-green color. Being in the midst of it would be truly frightening.
Let’s not compare tragedies. Katrina was horrific. This is horrific. Period. And you know, people in both situations did dumb things, like build where they shouldn’t and ignore warnings to leave. We do need help from FEMA, the National Guard and other states. Please don’t be incendiary and claim that “right, white Republicans” don’t need or deserve help. While I doubt that the entire southern CA region is going to burn, it *feels* like it is. Knowing how stretched our resources are and how much of a tinderbox we’re in and how hard the Santa Anas are blowing, this is a “perfect” storm situation. A grand confluence of tragic events, if you will.
And I just got word that a co-worker’s husband, who is an LA County fire fighter, is in Santa Clarita, where three fire fighters have just gotten third degree burns and one has died. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
What infuriates me about this situation is the media’s continuing coverage of the actors and Hollywood glitterati who have had to leave. Of course, it is horrible to lose one’s house, no matter who it is, but to keep discussing the actors and actresses who buy houses in Malibu who may or may not lose their homes and who have been evacuated when there are other people, normal people, who do not have 15 million in the bank to buy another house if they need to who get comparatively little of the coverage made me angry. It’s not worse for the millionaires of Hollywood to lose their homes vs. those in the ordinary public, but because they are in the public eye and gorgeous, they get the coverage and sympathy.
At this point, and according to the OC Register, about a half MILLION people have been evacuated in San Diego alone. That’s a lot of people who can’t go home tonight… and may not be going home ever.
Godspeed to anyone in the path of the destruction.
“What I don’t understand is why the rest of the country doesn’t seem to be banding together to offer assistance to California. With the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have access to helicopters, planes, and other pieces of firefighting equipment, why are more volunteers not stepping up?”
I actually had this question in mind, too, and shock of all shocks, my local news station answered it. Here in Texas, we’re apparently sending Red Cross volunteers but not forest rangers or firefighters because in the last few weeks it’s been dry enough that there is now a fire danger here, too. So I guess they aren’t sending anyone yet because they don’t want the state to be short handed in case anything happens here.
I wonder if many people or private companies who have access to equipment are sending them to California? I haven’t really heard anything so far, just lots of very scary pictures and news reports. God bless everyone out there.
I’m in San Diego and I was with my parents in Ramona when they were evacuated. Part of the reason San Diego has been handling the mass evacuations so well is because we went through this in 2003 and managed to learn some lessons. The state, county and city all got together and figured out how to get police and all of the different fire departments communicating effectively. I live close to the big evacuation site at Qualcomm stadium, they actually stopped accepting direct donations because of the overwhelming response.
For those comparing Katrina and these fires, they are very different. There are more people who can stay in their homes than people who have been evacuated. We have also done this before and although the fires have been moving rapidly, there has been time to evacuate ahead of the blazes. Also, the threat is so much more immediate and obvious.
Thanks to everyone who has been holding good thoughts for those of us affected.
I’m in Los Angeles and late this afternoon/early evening, the sky was mostly grey with the moon visble through haze and just a little bit of light far off on the horizon. The air smells smoky and just about everyone I know has been sneezing/had itchy eyes/etc. for most of the day. I’m just praying that it doesn’t get any worse and that the firefighters can make some progress overnight.
I live near downtown San Diego which is well out of the evacuation zone, but the house I grew up in and which my parents live(d) in is now two feet tall. Fortunately, the evacuation orders got out at 4:30 AM and my sister, asleep in the home at the time, was safely at my place by 7:30. The house was gone at 10:00. No firefighters responded because they were all in triage mode, and when the winds are blowing 50 mph with 5% relative humidity there isn’t anything anyone can do. Tankers can’t drop water or fire retardant because it disperses before it hits the ground. Ground crews can’t create breaks because the fire moves too fast, and the embers fly too high. My parent’s house was not in some woodsy backwater. It was in a fully developed suburban community, just like the one most of you probably grew up in. The losses are devastating, but tempered because the loss of life is actually minimal.
Comparing this to Katrina is a useless exercise, because the situations are completely different. First of all, most people’s houses are fine. Many of the evacuees are just waiting for the all clear at which point they can go back home. Not the case with Katrina. Second, Southern California is a car culture, and its a LOT easier to evacuate in the middle of the night when you have a car (and roads, for that matter). Third, as previously said, the Cedar fire in 2003 did NOT go smoothly at all, but the state and local officials got together and really worked out their differences and came up with a nice plan for how to do it better. The result of their efforts is that lives have been saved. Reverse 911 worked fantastically, and saved people’s lives.
That said, the argument that help arrived quickly because Southern California is white and republican is ridiculous and, frankly, offensive. First of all, help didn’t arrive all that quickly. No air assets were used until late in the day on Monday, well after all of Rancho Bernardo had burned up. George still hasn’t declared us a federal disaster area. The people responsible for fighting the fires and saving the homes that could be saved are local firemen, Cal-Fire crews who were here when it was just a wildfire, and San Diego Police and Sheriff’s. The only thing we’ve received from the federal government are “prayers and thoughts”.
Katrina evacuees faced a completely different set of challenges, and all levels of government failed to meet those challenges and live up to what we expect of them. As brutal as the reality of losing a house is, the neighborhood survives, my parent’s are insured, the roads and infrastructure still exist, everyone is going to move back in eventually, and rather than losing jobs this disaster will create a mini-boom in what was a flagging construction industry here. This is just the nature of the disaster and has nothing to do with the political affiliations of the residents.
Oh, and California is a blue state, with two democratic senators, and went to Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004, and was royally, ROYALLY, screwed by George’s Enron buddies, including those of us in “republican” San Diego county.
Anyway, good luck Susan. I hope your parent’s are luckier than mine. A friend of mine and his brother both lost their homes off Highland Valley Road Sunday night. It looks like most of Ramona was spared though.
What Atlantagirl and Princess Leia said. ABSOLUTELY. And in both cases (as in the case of pretty much ANY disaster) you will have people who obstinately refuse to evacuate up until the very last minute, and then suddenly expect rescue personnel to risk their own lives to save them. My dad used to be one of said rescue personnel, and even as a little kid it infuriated me to know that he wouldn’t have been called out to help disaster victims quite so often or under such risk, had the victims themselves used a little sense. Yes, it was his job–but that deserves respect, not exploitation.
Now, is EVERY disaster victim stupid? Of course not. That’s why I also agree with Alessandra that stereotyping doesn’t help.
I’m sorry to report my parents house is gone. We were “lucky” in getting that information as there are no reports yet on what has been destroyed in Ramona. A friend of my brothers was in the area for official animal rescue and was able to go up and take a look for us. My parents are insured and we got important paperwork and pictures and a few other things out of the house.
It is good to know what happened though. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to have been evacuated for days without knowing if you have a place to go home to.
I lived in LA for 10 years (just moved out this year) and…there are PLENTY of poor nonwhite people in Southern California.
One of the reasons overall response is good is that…SoCal has fires every year, just about. Obviously, most of them are not like this, but the firefighters have been on alert for a while. Everyone knew that SOMETHING would burn.
I read some of these responses yesterday and have been thinking about them…my first reaction to all the coverage, I must admit, was a kind of indignation on behalf of
Katrina victims still suffering…they were the first thing I thought of. But most of what
people have said here is measured, and I’m reconsidering my own views. I still recall the shock of seeing American citizens without food or water, finding out that people–children–had died because of the heat. There were many, as people say here, who never made the news, and are still struggling. And there are many people suffering because of these fires.
True compassion isn’t a limited commodity–having some for one person or group doesn’t eliminate someone else from the pool. As people say here, the two situations are very different. Remembering the disaster in New Orleans doesn’t mean I want people in California to suffer the same way; it means I hope everyone can have shelter, medical care, and kindness during a time of crisis and loss.
This…I mean…are you FUCKING kidding me?….I have…NO…words
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2007/10/24/brownie-to-the-rescue/?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Mike Brown was a fall guy for Kathleen Blanco’s screwup.
“Princess Leia,” I think I understand what you’re saying… to a point. Yes, people who are able-bodied with cars can pack up their own stuff and get out of of the way without relying on the local/state govt to do it for them. Yes, churches and schools and community centers can help coordinate donations of food, water, diapers, baby formula, medical supplies, etc. I hope people have at least one friend who will let them crash on a couch for a few nights.
However, if your house was on fire, I feel pretty confident that you would pick up the phone, dial 911, and expect the fire department to come help you. Same with power outages, gas leaks, and wild coyotes running around in your backyard. As communities, we put certain faith and trust in the government (that we pay) to provide certain resources that it doesn’t make any sense for us to be able to provide individually. That is what is happening in Southern California on a massive scale (wild coyotes and all). It has nothing to do with who “deserves” what or who “expects” what. I concede that a debate does begin after that point about whose responsibility it is to house displaced people for the long-term, etc… I fall on the left side of that conversation, and I believe that you fall on the right. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is when a system does exist (funded by our collective taxdollars and controlled by our mutual Congress) that does not function as it is supposed to. Whether you ever thought it should exist in the first place is not really what the ongoing controversy is about.
As for the speculation about why more resources are/are not coming in from out-of-state, I heard on NPR this morning that the way emergency response laws work – once an out-of-state fire dept comes into the area to help, they fall under the jurisdiction of the state of California. That means they cannot leave their new post until California says they can, even if a fire emergency breaks out in their home state. As “Jeny” mentioned above, some states – like Texas – who have their own fire seasons to worry about must weigh the risk of sending some of their own firefighters over here and then potentially not having them available if something happens in the home state. And while I’m happy to have the Red Cross and others sending help our way, it is fresh firefighters that we really need. These folks are working 24 hours a day in sweltering heat facing a Sisyphean task. And you don’t ever hear them complain. Wow.
I’ve seen the current situation described by the media as “nuclear winter” here. I know that it sounds wildly melodramatic, but frankly, it doesn’t feel that far off. I live in Hollywood, a good 25 miles from the smallest of the fires (Malibu) and at least 45 miles from anything else, and I’m having difficulty breathing, headaches, scratchy eyes and throat, in addition to the eerie ash flurries in the air that covered my car the last two mornings. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost their home, and I still have my fingers crossed for those who continue to be in harm’s way.
I snorted out loud and there went naptime for my 2-year-old. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, came out of Katrina looking good. Not Nagin, not Blanco, not the Feds, not Foghorn Leghorn, not Mark Twain, not Chow Yun-Fat. NOBODY. Let’s hope that if Brown didn’t learn at least to keep his faux-Tourette’s under control, everybody else learned something about disaster management, something they can apply to the current and future debacles. My. LORD.
The Capitol Steps short take on FEMA:
[Stage lights up. Office guy sitting.]
[Phone rings. And rings. Guy sits.]
[Phone continues ringing. For at least one minute.]
[Finally, guy picks up phone.]
“FEMA hotline.”
[Lights down.]
(At a live performance, that one minute is a realllly long time.) It was my favorite skit of the evening.
http://www.capsteps.com/
And also, enough with the “only poor black people in and around NO and/or affected by Katrina” already. I’ve been there (or very nearby) several times to help. White people do exist in and around NO. They were hit just as hard as the black people. Their homes are just as destroyed, and there were plenty of them who didn’t have the sense to walk out of the city when they heard that there was a Level 5 hurricane bearing down on them.
Word, Princess L. In an interview regarding “Katrina: A Requiem in Four Acts” Spike Lee was asked to name one of the surprising things he learned about the tragedy. His answer: The fact that poor whites in more rural areas surrounding NOLA were just as screwed as the inner-city blacks by the goverment, FEMA and pretty much everyone else; that it made him realize the whole fiasco was more about class than race.
Well, that’s the part he admitted. The part Spike didn’t cop to? The amazing revelation to him that all white people aren’t stinking rich with giant private-trust bank accounts. News flash, Spike: some of us honkies are the kids of poor immigrants (just like Hispanics) and some of us are the first in our family to graduate college (just like African Americans). What a concept.
My family moved to SD this past summer and I have been nothing but impressed with the response of the city, county and state governments in handling this whole situation. On Monday, when the evacuation order came for my neighborhood, we had the police drive through announcing it on loudspeakers and the reverse-911 call came about 5 minutes later. The evacuation was RIDICULOUSLY organized and efficient–to get to I-15 from our house usually takes 5 minutes, on Monday it was only about 15, and that was with a large section of town heading the same direction.
We were lucky enough to have distant relatives (my dad’s cousin and her family–whom I had met once previously) who were willing to take in me, hubby, two kids and two dogs. But, I talked to a neighbor who ended up at Qualcomm (we were allowed to return home last night) and she said it was amazingly organized. And, this is an evacuation center that was put together on the fly. So, Bravo to Mayor and the SD Co. Executive and to the Gov.
As for FEMA, we need to remember that the role they will serve in So Cal is not the immediate response, which was handled exceptionally at the local level, but long run relief. There are at least 1300 families in SD that have lost their homes and countless others who are underinsured and those are the people FEMA and other federal agencies are going to be helping and THAT is where I’m waiting to see if they have actually learned any lessons from Katrina.
The mayor, county supervisor Ron Roberts, and our news media all have done an incredible job of not only handling the situation, but effectively communicating at all times what was happening and what was expected to happen next. There were a handful of evacuees at our place last night, one who had watched his childhood home burn to the ground, and not one person had a single complaint about how the situation was handled. They were turning both supplies and volunteers away from the evacuation center at Qualcomm stadium today because there were too many. As someone said previously, this comes partially from the experience the city gained in 2003, but it also comes from the way San Diegans were able to adhere to the directions being given…
“What I don’t understand is why the rest of the country doesn’t seem to be banding together to offer assistance to California. With the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have access to helicopters, planes, and other pieces of firefighting equipment, why are more volunteers not stepping up?”
There may be hundreds of thousands of people with access to helicopters and planes, but most helicopters and planes are not equipped to carry the loads to dump water or chemicals on the fires. In my last job, I worked with half a dozen helicopter pilots, all ex-military except one. The civilian was the only one who was trained in piloting a helicopter for fire control purposes. It is incredibly dangerous flying a helicopter with sudden wind changes and up- or downdrafts caused by the fire, and not something that the average professional helo pilot can do, much less someone who flies as a hobby. My former colleague, with years of experience, was burned severely doing fire control flying; it’s just the kind of thing that needs to be done only be people who have been trained for it. If volunteers want to hand out water or food or other goods at the shelters, that’s great, but the flying part needs to be done by people who know what they’re getting into.
Now that the overall situation seems to be getting better, I’m also curious to see how FEMA does over the long haul. I’m still bitter over my parents’ experience after Katrina. They are in their late 70s and live 70 miles inland from the MS gulf coast, so evacuation was not an issue. But their town of around 75,000 people was without drinking water and power for almost 3 weeks after Katrina, and FEMA didn’t show up until 2 weeks post-Katrina. Had it not been for private groups who brought bottled water into the area, my parents and many others would likely have died. And yes, as a citizen of the U.S. I expect the federal government to take care of people in a catastrophe that is obviously too large in scope for local government to handle. As long as the federal government continues to collect taxes from us, I expect the feds to take care of citizens who need help during a disaster, regardless of class, race, or region.
My thoughts are with those of you whose families have lost their homes. Let’s hope the worst of the fire damage is over.
OH MY LORD THEY JUST DECLARED IT ARSON.
I know, the rest of y’all probably already knew that…but the Bronson in me wants the guilty party shot.
I can’t believe some dumb fuck DID THAT with all the other damn fires going on.
Plus, my best friend lives a mile from the arson fire right now. I don’t think they’ve been evacuated (at least, not so I have heard as of yesterday morning), but she said all they can do there is sit and wait. Ugh.