“It’s yo’ fault!” “No, it’s yo’ fault!”
Anytime there is a natural disaster, you can count on the fact that the finger pointing is just over the horizon.
Before I get to the article, it appears that our community has been spared because the fire never came over the mountain peak behind our homes. As you can see from the third picture I posted yesterday, it came pretty close.
Folks from the community began calling us because word was out that the community next to us was evacuating. One family had already packed and another family was getting ready to do the same. Seeing all of this, my neighbor, his friend from out of town and myself climbed into his truck to go straight to the horse’s mouth–the homeowners association of the community that supposedly was evacuating. Long story short, although the air was worst that it was in our neighborhood coupled with the fact that they are right against the Cleveland National Forest, there was no planned evacuation. We also went to the local fire department and they told us the same thing. Apparently the low winds coupled with the hard work of our firemen was able to keep it from coming over those mountains.
Another lesson getting your facts from the source learned!
Our area today looks much clearer with white smoke and the smell of it in the air.
Anyway, let’s go to the article.
Air Tankers, Helicopters Grounded as California Fires Burned
Friday, October 26, 2007
LOS ANGELES — As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.
How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California’s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.
It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.
The National Guard’s C-130 cargo planes, among the most powerful aerial firefighting weapons, never were slated to help. The reason: They’ve yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago.
“The weight of bureaucracy kept these planes from flying, not the heavy winds,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Associated Press. “When you look at what’s happened, it’s disgusting, inexcusable foot-dragging that’s put tens of thousands of people in danger.” (more…)
Slap ‘em all!
