I'm surrounded by flames... California fires

[Lancer]

Geeez! I had no idea. Hey, just finished rereading 'The Alien Years', anyone see anything unusual in LA? Hmm, that's kind of an open question...any space aliens starting fires with space ship exaust?

[Arrian]

Originally posted by CrONoS
NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/1...oct22_full.jpg

Good shot of the Salton Sea...

Good luck to all in CA right now.

-Arrian

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
...any space aliens starting fires with space ship exaust?

I can tell you're from the sticks. Everyone here in the big city knows there's no exhaust from space alien ships because they have magnetic-drive engines.

Things here are getting better. The winds continue to stay moderate (although the humidity remains in single digits ). Temperatures are starting to decline.

[Zkribbler]

1 arson suspect in custody.
1 arson suspect shot really dead.

[Lancer]

When do they shoot the other one?

Is the person who shot the theoretical arsonist dead guilty of murder or considered a fire prevention specialist?

[Zkribbler]

"Are the persons who shot...." (Fixed )

He rammed a police car while he was trying to get away. Not the best idea he ever had.

[Lancer]

Not the worst either.

[Barnabas]

Is it true that over 1 million people have left the place?

I hope it will rain

[Zkribbler]

BBCWorld and CCN are reporting:

$1 billion in damage.
1 million people displaced.
1 thousand homes lost.

So:
Sell your stock in insurance companies;
Buy stocks in home repair and hotels

[Aeson]

The local news this evening was reporting 880k evacuated, but there are still new evacuations taking place, which others are being allowed to return to their homes.

[Zkribbler]

President Bush flew into California today. I wonder if he'll be able to find a hotel vacancy.

[Dis]

time for Dis' insensitive post of the day.

while I lament the loss of life, these are all rich people's homes or upper middle class. Insurance companies will flip the bill (mostly). Driving rates up for everyone.

I'm more concerned about the environmental damage. It's a double whammy. People want to live 60 + miles out from the city and drive that every day to work (huge environmental damage already), and now all the smoke released into the air from this burning. If you live amongst trees, expect to be burned.

It's so hard to sympathize with people who have so much money they can live in these nice homes in the beautiful trees and hills/mountains.

And yes I have seen the traffic between San Diego and LA. These people do these unbelievable drives to get to the city to work every day! They want their cake and eat it too. They want a high paying city job, but don't want to live in the city.

Now I'm sure in some cases some of these people worked locally or are retired, and I have more sympathy for that.

But I hate people destroying the environment driving 60+ miles to work every day.

This is bound to happen with the area so overpopulated. I know it's not their fault (though they choose to live in such a high populated area).

[Aeson]

Actually a lot of the homes burned weren't rich peoples'. (Malibu excluded.)

People live out away from the coast because it's much less expensive most of the time. One of the first places that burned was a trailer park. Some may want their cake and eat it too, but a lot of people live out there because they can't afford to live in the cities with anywhere near the same standard of living.

It seems like a big disaster... but we spent more in Iraq during those 4-5 days than we will rebuilding. (And we spend more than $1 billion per day on our military overall.)

[Dis]

anyways I feel bad about being insensitive before. I'm a hypocrite as I am not carbon neutral. I live in an area not designed for this many humans. Food has to travel hundreds of miles to get to me.

Point is property can be replaced, lives cannot. And I see little reason for loss of life as they had plenty of warning. I don't know the details of the deaths, however. Perhaps they were not preventable.

[Berzerker]

The basic problem isn't environmental, it's human. Too many people expanding further and further into fire-hazardous terrain, in an area with desert climates and frequent droughts. Stuff's gonna burn.

Bill O'Reilly called George Carlin a pinhead for saying that, for "blaming the victims", and then blamed environmentalists.

We lived in a canyon (La Habra Hts) with a steep hill full of dry grass below us stretching maybe a 1/4 mile down to a road any careless smoker could ignite. To make it worse, we had a wood shingle roof...

They dont do enough landscaping, we had about 30 yds of iceplant protecting us from the dry grass. Thankfully we never needed it... But I did spend a few hours on the roof with a hose keeping the roof wet. Alot of those places burned because of lousy roofs, when you see images of houses next to burned out ruins it was probably the roof that made the difference.

I sure hope y'all dont get too much rain this year