Fortunately I'm not looking out my window and seeing what those poor folks in San Diego County are seeing. Hang in there, Poolie, we're all keeping our fingers crossed for you and everyone else in the area.I've had Fox News on for the last several days following the developments of the fires, and I've heard some extremely interesting comments from some of the reporters. One, who was reporting from the Malibu area where all the movie stars and famous people live, stated that he hoped that many of the stars who are such strong environmentalists, would rethink their philosophies now on clearing out the brush, etc. to prevent these fires in the future. Isn't it just a tad more important to save people's lives and homes than to preserve the homes of the little creatures that frequent the woods surrounding their homes. After all, they've got the entire remainder of the state of California to live in.
One reporter, who was reporting on how the state and local governments are stepping up to the plate stated that it's amazing how many positive things can be accomplished when the governor and the mayors of the cities/towns cooperate - referring of course to Mayor Nagan of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana. Their most important issue was to blame someone else and not take any responsibility for anything. Where in California, in my opinion, it's not who is at fault, but what can we do to improve the situation and accomplish what we need to do. What a difference.
We've had the occasional grass fire in our area, usually started by a cigarette being thrown out the window or a spark flying from a train. And with the wind that we get here in the open prairies of Minnesota, the fire can move pretty fast. All ditches in the area are kept mowed pretty short though, so even if the grass does catch on fire the flames don't leap hundreds of feet into the air like they do when trees are burning. Up in our area the only natural catastrophes we deal with are floods, blizzards and tornadoes.
Maybe you all remember hearing about the Flood of '97, when the Red River of the North was 60 miles wide in spots, inundated many cities, and the City of Grand Forks, ND nearly burned to the ground when it was under water. Our property runs along the Buffalo River, which is a tributary of the Red, and we were flooded quite badly that year. This took place the last week of March, and when the water level was at its peak we had a blizzard that dropped 7" of snow on top of all the frozen water. We were so fortunate that the water didn't get into our house, but it was several feet deep both in our storage building and in Ole's shop. Believe me, that was a mess to clean out. But at least we had something to clean - not like the folks who have had everything they own end up in a pile of rubble on the ground.
We're thankful.
7 comments:
from purple chai/oldewoman:
Although I'm not a Fox news watcher, I agree that a big difference between California and New Orleans is that the governor here really does seem to be on the ball, and not just this week when it's happening, but I think he and his administration were really prepared for this kind of thing to happen. As the for fires themselves, at least according to my nephew who is there, man is not so much responsible for the spread of these fires. It has to do with the desert, the dryness, and the winds. Of course, houses in the fire's path burn, but the spread of the fires is very much due to nature, and not people.
Fox News is so biased and opinionated, i dont even bother with them, i see them akin to the national enquirer, et al; and another thing too between the differences in tragedy help, in california, the first responders dont have the wild animals shooting at them when they came to help, and theres no rampant looting and police corruption like you have in new orleans.
I'm not so sure that CNN or MSNBC are any more unbiased than Fox News, but that's not the point here. I totally agree that the fires are caused by nature, not by man (other than the arsonist that was caught this morning.) BUT if people were allowed to clear out the underbrush and dead fall the fires wouldn't be as devastating as they are and more homes may have not burned if there were more of a firebreak around them.
Be aware of how much information you're sharing on the internet. Naming the river we live on? Not a good idea. FYI. :)
The people in San Diego have been truly amazing. The National Guard had absolutely nothing to do when they got to the stadium yesterday to "secure" the evacuation site. Volunteers had everything under control. There are major differences between what is happening here and what happened in New Orleans. A big difference that gets everybody riled up is that the people evacuating here are, for the most part, people of means. They are not inner city poor people without cars. They are arriving at evacuation centers in their RV's with their horse trailers. There is no way those people would be abandoned to live in their own shit for 10 days.
I lived in Fargo when the Red flooded in 97, we had just moved from Mountain View CA to there. It was quite a rude awakening. I had never before seen so much snow and I grew up back east. I think it topped 120 inches of snow that year. If we hadn't gotten that last freeze when we did it would have been alot worse for Fargo anyways.
I feel so bad for people having to deal with any tragedy. While it is horrible it can also bring out the best in people.
Lets hope that it continues to do so for the people in California, It can so easily go the other way.
I agree with you Lena. We all want to save the environment and we all love the little woodland creatures but we must protect ourselves where we can.
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