Towering Inferno
Southern California is an inferno. Fires, driven by the incredibly powerful Santa Ana winds, are blowing out of the mountains, through the canyons, and into the suburbs of romantic cities: Los Angeles (Beach Boys), Santa Monica (Everclear), Malibu (Miley Cyrus), Pasadena (Jan and Dean), and now, Ventura (America). There’s a California rock song about each of those places, because that’s where the “rockers” were and are.
Sure, there’s lots of “blame” to place – but the reality is that the Santa Ana winds are stronger than ever. And they’re fueled by climate change – period. Without the warming oceans, the winds don’t blow at tornadic force, and the embers from typical brush fires don’t travel miles to set new blazes. It’s really that simple. In the end, it’s hard to place blame on politicians for not “thinking the unthinkable”. This kind of disaster was more the genre of the Hollywood studios, not Southern California politicians.
Action Hero
Speaking of Hollywood, there are Hollywood-like heroics going on daily. As we watch the inferno clear neighborhood after neighborhood, with more than 12,000 homes, schools and businesses destroyed; we also are amazed by the efforts of the firefighters. They are Heroes all: the crews with fire on all sides, desperately trying to save a single structure; and the amazing Canadian Scooper Planes, skimming the water at 70 miles an hour like pelicans to scoop up thousands of gallons to snuff out the closest blaze. Flying a helicopter is always a difficult task; “…like balancing a metal ball on a plate while on a unicycle”. Now add the “gentle” winds (30 to 40 miles per hour) and the huge updrafts caused by blazing fires at the bottom of canyons, and it’s amazing they stay in the air, much less dump their water loads on target.
And there are the individual heroics of neighbor helping neighbor; fighting the fires, and aiding the elderly, sick and overwhelmed to evacuate before it’s too late. Over 100,000 are out of their homes, and the greater community is taking care of them. It is remarkable that the death toll (today 24) is so low. It will be higher, but the videos look like there should be hundreds if not thousands gone.
Closer to Home
These fires are now striking close to home. Our son lives in Ventura, a beach town up the coast from Malibu. Last night, the “Auto Fire”, broke out on the east side of town, along a golf course. It’s not far away. He and his girlfriend and their two dogs (surprised?) are safe so far.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the was a lot of concern about the Federal response to the crisis. Some of us remember “old Brownie”, the head of FEMA, getting atta-boys from President Bush, even as the crisis grew worse. But, in the end, the Nation stepped up to rebuild. When Hurricane Sandy flooded vast parts of New Jersey and New York, Democratic President Obama and Republican Governor Christie hugged, and went to work to help their citizens recover.
The fires in Southern California aren’t under control. The winds will whip back up tonight, and we simply don’t know where the next ember will land, and where it will ignite another conflagration. It’s safe to say the cost for recovery is in the tens of billions of dollars, if not more. And, just like the neighbors helping neighbors in Pacific Palisades, the Nation needs to “have the backs” of Southern Californians.
American Fiction
It’s already a political mess. Disinformation (thanks to Joe Rogan and Alex Jones) from how the fire started to why there wasn’t enough water, is distracting from the very real crisis. And now our Republican “leaders” in Congress, the “neighbors” who were more than happy to give aid to Florida and North Carolina just a few months ago, are demanding “strings attached” to help California recover.
It doesn’t help that California’s Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, is a leading candidate for the 2028 Presidential election, and that the state is home to Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Kamala Harris. So the MAGA campaign will begin, almost four years early, to “knock them off” before the election even gets started.
But that’s not how Americans are. Here in Ohio, we help our neighbors when tornadoes ravage small towns, or when fire burns down a local home. That’s what we do, without concern about political viewpoint or racial or gender identity. We help folks in need.
California is going to need a lot of America’s help — no strings attached. And we need to get to it.
