SoCal Woolsey Fire

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by purr1n, Nov 9, 2018.

  1. Vansen

    Vansen Gear Master (retiring)

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    If you really want an answer, this podcast will give you an hour overview of how the West Coast of the US ended up where it is. It also describes why it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

    https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/americas-ring-of-fire/

    Particularly from 9:00 to 12:20 when playing from the website.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2018
  2. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    And here I thought you had finally found you inner redneck. The search goes on then.
     
  3. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Bloody hell, stay safe you lot. What a devastating year for fires. Most of the area we cycled around in the Sierra over the summer has since burned. Mother Nature is always in charge.
     
  4. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    I guess Radio Paradise won't be broadcasting again any time soon, bummer.

    When your kids lose their home, their toys AND their favourite playpark, that's a bad day.
     
  5. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    You back in your house? Still have a house?

    It's getting hard living with fingers and toes crossed!
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Not home. We're still in a hotel near the Schiitr (out of town). Really lucky we found a place to stay since 200k people have been evacuated already and we left on the later side.

    We get our reports from neighbors who chose to stay and ABC news reporters on the ground. The El Lay reporters are tenacious. It looks like the worst is over in my neighborhood. We've lost contact with people because the cell towers are down.

    There's JT. We know that dude
    IMG_20181109_160641.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Indeed. I was saddened to see so many of those houses on the hills overlooking Malibu burned down. I'm trying to get better data, but it would appear that Malibu took the brunt of the fire. The suburban areas in Calabasas, Agoura, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks made it out mostly unscathed - a few houses here and there.

    This did not occur to me before today: Malibu has burned down on a regular basis. There was a big fire in 1993 when governor Pete Wilson called a state of emergency and sent 90% of California's firefighting resources to put out that disaster. Then there was the 1978 Agoura-Malibu Firestorm (too young to know of that one, but older locals do), and I'm sure many fires before that.

    After each of the above incidents, people decided to rebuild. And add a few more houses. And more mansions.

    I thought the fire jumping over the 101 freeway and making it down to Malibu was a freak occurrence. Evidently it's not. This will happen again in 15-25 years with worse destruction because more people will have built more houses.

    This is how the mountains look from the highway toward Malibu. This was taken in the spring earlier this year when vegetation was still "green". I'd image this spot to be a tinderbox this time of the year.
    PANO_20180317_113358.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  8. BillOhio

    BillOhio Friend

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    There will be fires somewhere again next year (month?) and could be more difficult to deal with as The President threatens to cut Federal relief over 'mismanagement of the forests" which apparently includes things like rivers that flow to the ocean while ignoring his own administrations data concerning global warming.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Fire season will end when the first rain storms come. November and even December are still too early for that.

    It's possible to survive these Malibu fires. Specific kinds of housing construction and clearing of brush over a large radius. I believe a handful of places survived because the homeowners took these actions.

    I don't think it's the Federal or State government's responsibility to clear brush around properties, retrofit ember-proof roofs and windows, or clear-cut surrounding forests for people. The might be a local Malibu statute for homeowners to clear brush - I had to do this in my own backyard or be fined - but it is unclear how well this has been enforced in Malibu.

    It's just nuts. I don't think people realize the risk: that dry grass and brush (or dense forests of pine trees) are fuel. I mean, if you had mini gasoline cans all over your property, you would either consider not living there or at the least clear them out as far as the eye can see.

    The town of Paradise up north was just a firestorm waiting till happen. Forest fires are normal. They are part of the life and death cycle of nature. Small towns inside forests should not be, unless it's Endor or the Wookie planet.

    BTW, I have never been to Paradise before. It's the one town in California I have never been to. I've been in the odd spots up north that feel more like Oregon, the farming towns of the Central Valley, the small border towns near Arizona, but never to Paradise.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  10. Brad Tombaugh

    Brad Tombaugh Facebook Friend

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  11. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Here in the Western Cape the indigenous plants (fynbos) require periodic fires in order to propagate: http://www.fynboshub.co.za/fynbos-and-fire/. We need to have a sympathy toward fires for this reason - the Cape Floritistic Region is home to the greatest non-tropical concentration of higher plant species in the world.
     
  12. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    OK. Will keep a few fingers crossed still, hoping that you are back there soon and all is well.
    Was wondering if anyone had come up with the headline Paradise Lost. :(
     
  13. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    I have relatives in Paradise. No word. It was a beautiful little town. We used to go up there when I was a kid. My cousins live in a house that’s over 100 years old. I hope it survived but I’m very doubtful. Yesterday the news was reporting that they are trying to locate close to 600 people that haven’t been accounted for. Apparently the fire swept threw at increadible speed. About one football field per second. The elementary school burned to the ground. The kids literally got out with the clothes on their back. My school is running a clothes and toys drive to help out. Very dry conditions up there at 1800 feet. No rain since May. They are at 5% of normal, whatever the hell normal is anymore. Very sad. I have wonderful memories of hiking around Paradise. Hoping everyone got out safely.

    Take care of yourself and your family Marv. Hope your house made it though this.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  14. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Ahh... so sad.

    This does my head in: If I wish someone in that part of the word well, maybe I'm wishing the fire on someone else. If I wish that the cyclone approaching this coast stays away from me, I'm wishing it on someone else.

    :(:(:(

    (All the young weather freaks on the blog where I get up-to-the-minute information are all W'hey! Cyclone, Yeah!" You'd think they'd know better if they are really keen on studying weather, Especially as the ones in this city saw one only two years ago. But rain... sure, we so need rain, to have something to drink next summer)
     
  15. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    We made the front page, above the fold in the New York Times today. What a shiity way to get an article in The Times.
     
  16. scapeinator1

    scapeinator1 Once You Go Black You'll Never Go Back

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    A lot of people have been coming into the local clinic today with asthma flair ups and and/or trouble breathing. Make sure you guys are using breathing masks and limiting time outside if you're having trouble with the air quality.
     
  17. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    The smoke in Sacramento is visible. I went out to get my mail, and came back in coughing. Air quality is now in the unhealthy range here. Paradise fire has been declared the worst in California history. Air quality in Chico and Yuba City, both North of here is extremely unhealthy. 290 currently in Yuba City. Yesterday about 3:30 you could look at the sun. It looked like a red dwarf star or a dark red moon. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, I am in my 60’s. We have really screwed up in California. 100 years of suppressing natural fires is coming back to bite us in the ass. I won’t go back outside without a breathing mask.
     
  18. Bobcat

    Bobcat Friend

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    Back in 1979 I worked on a graphical simulation of California fires around Santa Barbara. The results of the simulation were eminently predictable. Get the burnable crap away from the house and put on some sort of fireproof roof and the number of destroyed structures during a fire became tiny compared to the as-was (is?) situation. Didn’t seem to convince people to do anything about it, though.

    Rob
     
  19. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    That is the sad thing about all this. A lot of this could have been avoided. I just read an article online. It appears Paradise CA is gone.
     
  20. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Yep, one of my wife's friends lives (lived?) in Paradise. House gone. Only one remains standing in their street. Nature wins, every time.
     

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