The California wildfires continue burning and threaten thousands of homes, a million people have been displaced, and the New York Times has an entire report on how this has affected Hollywood. Yes, that's the first thing that pops into my mind when you've got hundreds of thousands of acres burnt to a crisp up and down Southern California, multiple casualties, and many thousands of people who have lost homes. I want to know that the Hollywood elites Malibu mansions are okay.
Priorities. How about the tens of thousands of California residents whose life's work is tied up in homes and may not have the capability to rebuild because insurance might not cover the costs to rebuild?
The Times suggests that the wildfires might cost insurers over $1 billion. It will cost residents far more than that in lost memories and priceless possessions lost to the fires.
How about this? How about a report on the fact that illegal aliens were arrested for stealing food and water from an evacuation center in San Diego. Those centers provided food and water donated from around the region, and yet these illegal aliens sought to steal it? How low can they go?
We now know that at least one of the fires was intentionally set - arson. If there were injuries as a result of the arson, that person might be charged with attempted murder and other crimes as well, not to mention the property losses.
A map of where the fires have occurred and what the current situation is can be found here.
More victims have been discovered, including two people whose remains were found in a house that burned in the Witch Creek fire.
Meanwhile, there are Democrats who continue pushing a meme that makes no sense, and is not even based in fact- namely that the wildfires would not have occurred or have been as bad had the National Guard not been deployed to Iraq. The Left can't stop blaming President Bush for the wildfires.
That kind of statement is patently and demonstrably false. The California National Guard has 17,000 troops on standby to deal with any situation in California, and if these Democrats (like presidential candidate Bill Richardson) were honest, they'd note that California Democrat legislators have allowed the California National Guard shrink by 5,000 billets because they've refused to provide tuition incentives to entice people to join up - as many other states have done.
And even if the National Guard had all these personnel on hand, what exactly would they have done in the face of wildfires that whipped up 100 mph winds and a firestorm that incincerated everything in its path. Those winds grounded aircraft and it took a shift in the wind to enable firefighters to gain ground on the fires. Simply throwing men and material at the fires wont beat them back.
However, making those kinds of statements is far too easy to do, and talking points neatly sum up the position of those Democrats. Lots of talk and grousing, but little action.
The environuts also go on a Bush-bashing rant, as though he's responsible for the annual wildfire season. Wildfires happen every year (and Native Americans have known this for centuries), and yet it's somehow Bush's fault? Get a clue.
Of course, such rants are sure to be cash cows for these groups, who get coverage and donations flying in. Nice. Classy.
Even as the fires raged, the National Guard was sending much needed relief.
Then, there's the meme that global warming was behind the wildfires. That too is the nonsensical ravings of lunatic minds. CNN continues to report on the wildfires, but it hoped to tie them in with its report on global warming (just not too closely).
My thoughts and prayers continues to go out to those affected by the fires.
UPDATE:
This is classic - Arnold beating down a clueless ABC News correspondent who tries to make hay of some people grousing about the lack of firefighting aircraft with a cluebat.
I'd also comment that I dont think that people are happy with the situation of being chased from their homes by fires - only that they're happy with the gov't response. It's been competent, which is what we hope it should be in times like this.
UPDATE:
Blogger's Blog has a huge number of links and resources about the wildfires.
Meanwhile, there's a report from San Diego that notes how well a bunch of new developments fared. They managed to avoid the fate of thousands of other homes in the region because they were designed with fire defense in mind. The idea is to require fire sprinklers within the homes and fire retartant materials on the exterior, plus landscaping requirements that provide little opportunity for fires to set alight.
The fire protection concept is still being met with some skepticism, but this baptism by fire might spur other communities to adopt this not only for new homes, but as part of a retrofit on existing homes.
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