Los Angeles and the area around it have become a hell-scape. The flaming embers–see them blow, like snowflakes in a blizzard. How can the fire-fighters possibly contain it?
The mayor of L.A. is on a junket in Africa. She is having a nicer time than a lot of the people who voted for her.
Ah! Why do the people of California, and L.A. in particular, continue to bestow public office on persons whose public policies do the voters no end of harm? In this case, over-development and a kind of blind worship of “the environment” are major causative factors. Can’t provide the fire companies with enough water to fight the fire, because there’s baitfish in the water and we don’t want to bother ’em… You know the kind of crazy batsh*t nonsense I mean.
Keep electing far-left environmental crazies, folks, and you will continue to suffer for it. Every polity governed by leftists comes to the same bad end.
Yes, it is so sad to see where our once beautiful nation has fallen to.
Actor James Woods was evacuated from his Pacific Palisades home and does not yet know whether his home is still standing. He gave quality an interview on Fox, which is well worth watching. He calls out the very things you mention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBEpmzqKrU
I’ve driven through that area more than once, and these are homes far beyond the reach of most people. Millions of dollars for even the most modest of homes and some are into the tens of millions of dollars. That’s Pacific Palisades, Malibu, just up the road is even more expensive. By the time you get to Malibu, the residents may well be movers and shakers, and most are Left leaning.
Little, if anything, can be done to save these homes. Even with abundant water available, firefighting in the hills around LA is not a task that will always bear positive fruit. Brushfires in these areas are a natural phenomenon. The choice has been made to build in these locations, and I have to wonder if the people making these choices really understand just how much risk there is from wildfires.
This area, is stunningly beautiful. Malibu, especially is amazing, and having a home on top of the hills, with a view of the Pacific is desirable, to say the least, but carries with it the exceptional risk of what will happen if there’s a fire. I wish these people no ill, regardless of their political loyalties, but I fear for all the people in that area. The traffic jams that have been caused by evacuations have caused gridlock, and I see that alone as a recipe for disaster.
Pacific Palisades has a home density more like a typical neighborhood. Simply stated, one home, and a bit of wind could be enough to take out an entire neighborhood. Apparently, that is exactly what happened, for much of Pacific Palisades. On December 30, 2021, 991 structures were consumed by a wildfire in Boulder County, Colorado, due to very high winds. This is a very similar situation, but made worse by the fact that the topography of SoCal includes a lot of hilly terrain and brush, which helps fires to spread.
As of January 8, there appeared to be fires in the Hollywood Hills, being fanned downhill by the Santa Ana winds. The potential for a firestorm in a densely populated area, or a long established business area, such as the businesses on Sunset, strikes me as truly horrific. As of this writing, they are reporting 10 fatalities, which is exceptionally low for a disaster of this magnitude, but I’m certain that there will be more loss of life discovered once the authorities are able to fully access the affected areas. I’d certainly hate to think of even more loss of life caused by this fire making a beeline for Hollywood.
Who knows where this will end up.
“A disease of building”–that’s what Plutarch called over-development: it goes back that far. Show a square inch of ground, and someone wants to build condos on it. That’s New Jersey.. I suspect California is much worse.
Our earth is not the blessed place it was at the moment of creation. Sin and corruption have left us in a far less advantaged situation, and one effect of this has been to concentrate populations for economic and security considerations.
Los Angeles is a very interesting locale. It is a warm water port with access to the Far East. Ports, and especially warm water ports, have been economic magnets throughout the course of recorded history. Beyond that, Los Angeles’ relatively mild climate made for pleasant living, which attracted people seeking relief from the harsh climates further north and east.
One other effect is that the fact that skies were usually blue made this a great place to film movies, with reduced risk of having outdoor shots delayed by rain. This is actually a triggering factor to,the growth of LA, because the support services for moviemaking grew alongside the film studios, which means that sound recording studios, came to be located there so the music industry had a huge presence. When television came along, it was natural that the LA region was an advised location for that as well, with many required services in common with moviemaking. I have heard that 1 out of 8 Los Angelenos are employed in entertainment or entertainment related industries. Think of that; entertainment is a huge part of Los Angeles.
But there are negatives, as well. I accept plate tectonics as a very real possibility and it appears that the west coast was the leading edge of westward movement of the North American continent, and as you get closer to the coast, the terrain becomes uneven. Much like dirt piled up against the blade of a bulldozer, coastal California has a terrain which is somewhat chaotic. This has left the region seismically active, but it has also made for a lot of hills.
The hills are problematic, when it comes to development. Usually, uneven terrain is not developed, because it is economically unfeasible to level large areas. As a result, homes are frequently built on lots with steep grades, involving stilt-like supports and/or other means. This is one reason that we hear of homes being lost to mudslides. Sometimes the terrain is so steep that it’s all but impossible to clear brush from the vicinity of a home, meaning that eve a small brushfire can directly threaten a structure. Brushfires in SoCal are far from being a new phenomenon. In fact, they are a direct consequence of the terrain, climate and plant life of the region.
Santa Ana winds are a fact of life for SoCal and this last one was a dandy. I was on the eastern edge of the low pressure system that was in place over SoCal when these fires started, and our winds were significant, but much less intense than those experienced in LA, at the time. Dry conditions, hilly terrain, brush in proximity with homes and one spark are all that is needed for a disaster to be triggered.
Much like a Tale of Two Cities, Los Angeles is the best place for a large city to be built, yet simultaneously the worst. Were the region less densely populated, it would be much better, but that’s not how things work. California has attracted people like a magnet since the gold rush of 1849, but it became a haven during the Great Depression and then the defense industry took off during WW II. In the postwar era, SoCal burgeoned and small communities surrounding Los Angeles went from agricultural to dense development, very rapidly.
As I see it, the development of SoCal is more than out of control. It’s not just LA; if you drive from San Diego to Los Angeles, you will see many examples of overdevelopment all around. That area, used to be one of the most beautiful places imaginable, but now it’s hopelessly cluttered with development that appears to be completely unplanned.
Plutarch nailed it. Sadly, I don’t see much potential for improvement of SoCal’s situation. There is, however, a very open question regarding to what degree areas such as Pacific Palisades will be rebuilt. For one thing, some of these residents have lost their desire to live in California. Even prior to this event, there has been an insurance crisis in California, with insurance carriers refusing to renew homeowners policies in some areas. Remember, while this fire is unusually large, there have been numerous wildfires in SoCal and the insulting losses have been staggering.
Another factor is that the California Coastal Commission may choose to block reconstruction in many of these places. If you had a fat insurance settlement check in your hand today, getting the permits and materials to rebuild would take a long time, and in that meantime, you would have to either buy another home or rent, in which case you would not be building equity, so you could find yourself “priced out” from restoring yourself to the type of home you had previously owned. I won’t make any bold predictions, beyond stating that rebuilding will almost certainly be greatly complicated by regulation, environmental requirements, competition for materials and the human vultures whom flock to such situations seeking to exploit the victims.
In any case, this event is a true tragedy. While I’m not in love many things in California, the people I’ve met during my visits have, for the most part, come across as very down to earth folks, just seeking to make a living and live their lives. It’s not always easy to separate the rhetoric from the reality, but many thousands of our fellow Americans have lost their homes and possessions through no fault of their own.
*Sigh*
I just heard that there’s another fire which has broken out in the San Fernando Valley. I really feel for the people out that way.
So sad. It reminds me of the time when my older son was living and working near this area, and I once had an uncle and his family who lived near here. Horrible. I pray that this disaster will cause at least some of the people to begin to see the need to call upon God.
I don;’t know… sometimes it seems we never learn.