Raging California wildfires force 1M to flee

[Mrs Behavin]

SAN DIEGO - Faced with unrelenting winds whipping wildfires into a frenzy across Southern California, firefighters all but conceded defeat Tuesday to an unstoppable force that has chased an estimated 1 million people away.
Unless the shrieking Santa Ana winds subside, and that's not expected for at least another day, fire crews say they can do little more than try to wait it out and react — tamping out spot fires and chasing ribbons of airborne embers to keep new fires from flaring.
"If it's this big and blowing with as much wind as it's got, it'll go all the way to the ocean before it stops," said San Diego Fire Capt. Kirk Humphries. "We can save some stuff but we can't stop it."
Tentacles of unpredictable, shifting flame have burned across nearly 600 square miles, killing one person, destroying more than 1,300 homes and prompting one of the biggest evacuations in California history, from north of Los Angeles, through San Diego to the Mexican border.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes.
"We have had an unfortunate situation that we've had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind," Schwarzenegger said. "And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire."
In Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb north of San Diego, houses burned just yards from where fire crews fought to contain flames engulfing other properties. In the mountain community of Lake Arrowhead, cabins and vacation homes went up in flames with no fire crews in sight.
"These winds are so strong, we're not trying to fight this fire," said firefighter Jim Gelrud, an engineer from Vista, Calif. "We're just trying to save the buildings."
More than a dozen wildfires blowing across Southern California since Sunday have also injured more than 40 people, including 16 firefighters. The U.S. Forest Service earlier reported a fire death in Los Angeles County's Santa Clarita area, but officials said Tuesday that information was erroneous.

Raging Calif. wildfires force 1M to flee - Yahoo! News

Does anyone know if this is the part of California that Charmer lives in? I hope to God not!

 

[Breath]

Does anyone know if this is the part of California that Charmer lives in? I hope to God not!

He lives close to SF I think.

 

[Tim]

They were speculating on Fox news this morning that it's possible that Al-Qaeda might be behind this... :24: :24:

 

[dt3]

CNN's blaming it on Bush :24:

 

[All Else Failed]

Man, it sure would be great if we had more our national guard there to help out.

 

[sundvlfn88]

What a sad situation those people are in.

 

[dt3]

Man, it sure would be great if we had more our national guard there to help out.

abc7news.com:

CA apparently has a lot of trouble recruiting Guardsmen:

"California is the only state in the nation that does not provide any college tuition help for its guardsmen."

"This is a problem we've seen really over the past twenty years but most noticeably in the past ten years, even before the war started."

"Assemblyman DeVore thinks it has been difficult to get tuition benefits approved in this Democratic-led state Legislature in recent years because it could be viewed as support for the Iraq War."

 

[dt3]

Man, it sure would be great if we had more our national guard there to help out.

Also, 2000 are deployed (Politics - Governor signs nine bills for state's troops - sacbee.com) out of 23,000 (counting Air Guard, 18,000 without) (California Army National Guard).

I don't think that's a terribly high percentage.

 

[All Else Failed]

abc7news.com:

CA apparently has a lot of trouble recruiting Guardsmen:

"California is the only state in the nation that does not provide any college tuition help for its guardsmen."

"This is a problem we've seen really over the past twenty years but most noticeably in the past ten years, even before the war started."

"Assemblyman DeVore thinks it has been difficult to get tuition benefits approved in this Democratic-led state Legislature in recent years because it could be viewed as support for the Iraq War."

Ok.....but I'm not just talking about California guardsmen.

 

[dt3]

Ok.....but I'm not just talking about California guardsmen.

I do believe they'd be the quickest responders. I'll look up all the bordering states if you'd like, but I suspect it'd be along the same lines.

 

[All Else Failed]

The point is, is that even if all of the guardsmen for California were called up, it wouldn't be enough.

 

[dt3]

The point is, is that even if all of the guardsmen for California were called up, it wouldn't be enough.

This could be ground-breaking, allow me to ask a clarifying quesiton. Are you NOT blaming this on the President, even though the left-wing media is jumping all over it?

 

[All Else Failed]

This could be ground-breaking, allow me to ask a clarifying quesiton. Are you NOT blaming this on the President, even though the left-wing media is jumping all over it?

When did I ever blame everything on bush? I don't think everything is his fault.....its more of California's fault for not clearing the mass amounts of built up underbrush from the forest floor.

 

[dt3]

When did I ever blame everything on bush? I don't think everything is his fault.....its more of California's fault for not clearing the mass amounts of built up underbrush from the forest floor.

No offense, but I figured you'd be with the left-wing nut jobs on this one :cool

 

[All Else Failed]

Don't get me wrong, there's a whoooole lot that Bush has done to screw things up, but this isn't one of them.

I don't associate myself with democrats, anyways.

 

[Charmer]

Raging Calif. wildfires force 1M to flee - Yahoo! News

Does anyone know if this is the part of California that Charmer lives in? I hope to God not!

Thanks for thinking of me, Amy!

Breath is right, I'm nearer to San Francisco, (about a 45 minute-1 hour drive from my house), 100's of miles away from Southern California. I'm just watching it on the news like the rest of you guys. We have earthquakes around here and once in awhile there'll be fires in the hillsides, but I'm down in the valley, the Santa Clara Valley, (Silicon Valley), so except for some earthquakes, the last 44 years have been safe enough here.

 

[Ria]

They were speculating on Fox news this morning that it's possible that Al-Qaeda might be behind this... :24: :24:

That is so weird you posting this Tim, cos that is precisely what I said to my son just yesterday, that maybe it was the terrorists starting these fires, cos they have been doing what they do, for a number of years now and I wouldn't put it past them.

i actually do think that myself and a few other ppl here feel the same too, I ahve since found out.

 

[Tim]

That is so weird you posting this Tim, cos that is precisely what I said to my son just yesterday, that maybe it was the terrorists starting these fires, cos they have been doing what they do, for a number of years now and I wouldn't put it past them.

i actually do think that myself and a few other ppl here feel the same too, I ahve since found out.

This is why I have a problem with the government playing the fear card every time it wants something. They make us fearful of travel, tell us to be on the look out for poison pens, our livestock are at risk, crops can be targeted, nuclear facilities will be attacked with small planes, remote controlled model airplanes with explosives, dirty bombs, anthrax, poisoning or water reservoirs, and the list goes on and on....

It doesn't do any good...

What if it was Al-Qaeda? What then? Do we round up all Muslims and take away their lighters? Do we modify the Patriot Act to include the banning of all matches that are handed out in convenience stores? Who do we send the military after then? Or would we handle this with law enforcement like we should have the first time?
Also, if this was Al-Qaeda like some would have you believe, then I guess the wire tapping and the war in Iraq did not make us any safer like Bush would have you believe. I guess the Republican presidential candidates won't be able to use that in their campaign... "We have not been hit since 9/11, elect a Democrat and we will be hit again."

Garbage, all garbage.....

 

[dt3]

This is why I have a problem with the government playing the fear card every time it wants something. They make us fearful of travel, tell us to be on the look out for poison pens, our livestock are at risk, crops can be targeted, nuclear facilities will be attacked with small planes, remote controlled model airplanes with explosives, dirty bombs, anthrax, poisoning or water reservoirs, and the list goes on and on....

It doesn't do any good...

What if it was Al-Qaeda? What then? Do we round up all Muslims and take away their lighters? Do we modify the Patriot Act to include the banning of all matches that are handed out in convenience stores? Who do we send the military after then? Or would we handle this with law enforcement like we should have the first time?
Also, if this was Al-Qaeda like some would have you believe, then I guess the wire tapping and the war in Iraq did not make us any safer like Bush would have you believe. I guess the Republican presidential candidates won't be able to use that in their campaign... "We have not been hit since 9/11, elect a Democrat and we will be hit again."

Garbage, all garbage.....

I think you're overreacting over idle speculation. I haven't heard any seriously presented evidence that suggests this. I agree that it's bullshit, but I think it's messed up to blame the government when you said you saw it on Fox News. Now if Bush stood up and said this, I'd agree with you, but I haven't seen any report of any official stating all this.

 

[Ria]

This is why I have a problem with the government playing the fear card every time it wants something. They make us fearful of travel, tell us to be on the look out for poison pens, our livestock are at risk, crops can be targeted, nuclear facilities will be attacked with small planes, remote controlled model airplanes with explosives, dirty bombs, anthrax, poisoning or water reservoirs, and the list goes on and on....

It doesn't do any good...

What if it was Al-Qaeda? What then? Do we round up all Muslims and take away their lighters? Do we modify the Patriot Act to include the banning of all matches that are handed out in convenience stores? Who do we send the military after then? Or would we handle this with law enforcement like we should have the first time?
Also, if this was Al-Qaeda like some would have you believe, then I guess the wire tapping and the war in Iraq did not make us any safer like Bush would have you believe. I guess the Republican presidential candidates won't be able to use that in their campaign... "We have not been hit since 9/11, elect a Democrat and we will be hit again."

Garbage, all garbage.....

Oh, didn't realize yr government was telling it's public all that - we only get to hear the main headlines of things gone wrong over there, not all the inbetween bits such as you have listed.

No, you are right - a pathetic approach to all this that the government there has on this and a 'get out clause' for them too maybe, even if Bush is putting in the money (as we have heard on our news) and the resources into the damage caused by the fires.

You have a point there based on what you have said - as I said, we don't get to hear all the ins and outs like you do there, so it does enlighten somewhat, hearing what's what from you all over there.