Comments on: Local Officials: California Was Unprepared

County Fire Chief Says "It Is An Absolute Fact" That Aircraft Could Have Controlled Fires

[mcvett]

I guarantee you the very same liberals who criticized Bush
for not going to New Orleans quick enough,
will now be the same ones who will criticize Bush for
going to California too soon!!!!

hypocrits

It should be also be interesting to see how many ignorant liberals
will claim that Bush started this fire the same way he created hurricane Katrina

LOL

[papabc]

Without help from Mother Nature how can a Firefighter really beat Wildfires. Tell me what wildfire was put out without natures help (weather change) or fuel just running out.

Prepare all you want but somethings do not really go according to plan and IF you could put a plan in place how many $$$$$ are you willing to pour into a just in case wildfire plan that is not even 60% a sure thing. All it takes to screw up the plan is a little dry weather/wind and fuel not cleared properly. For the feul not being cleared properly you can thank the Environmentalist for blocking the effort as usual.

[xzavierbrown]

hummm it seems like non-california liberals WOULD LET THIER california liberal brethrens burn to death to get back at bush..

do they even know that california is PREDOMINANTLY LIBERAL...AND ITS ON FIRE? too busy to find anything to throw back at bush, i guess

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by briannorwood at 09:45 AM : Oct 25, 2007
+ report abuse

****

you forgot: the arson

[briannorwood]

An area loaded with dry kindling, 100 mph Santa Ana winds, a long history of wildfire... Who could have predicted a disaster like this could happen?

[a8151947]

Bush, Scwartzneggar, it must be nice to have someone to blame every thing you don''t like on. No wonder no one that is worth a *** will run for office, people like you. Always blaming you lot in life on someone. Look at yous sele, What you don''t like what you see

[cathaleen]

The rest of the country should take an example from the way the people in california handled their evacuations. They didn''t sit around and wait for someone to help them, they helped each other. There was no whining and complaining.

[gkc99]

"The people in California love their forests to death. They cry "Keep it natural!!!", then when fire strikes, there''''s so much dead wood, and the trees are so close together, everything is lost. Thinning and logging when done properly mimic small, low-grade fires that should naturally be buring through California''''s wooded areas every year. The environmentalists should be taking their vacation time from Starbucks to go help fight the fires they''''ve caused"--Posted by downtowner97


Uhh--I don''t think the chaparral has much "forest"--clearly you''re from a Midwest or East coast city. The forests under debate about logging are in the north and in the Sierras. Coastal California is largely brush, loaded with flammable hydrocarbons, and some highly flammable imported eucalyptus trees.

If you strip the steep canyon lands of this vegetation, the soil quickly slides as in La Jolla just a couple of weeks earlier. And SoCal is already short of water, so replacing the chap with golf course greens won''t work either.

So gather information before activating mouth, neocon!

[condumism]

Vote for Republicon administrations (Bush, Scwartzneggar) and you get what you vote for, INCOMPETENCE ALWAYS UNPREPARED to deal with terrorosist attacks, and natural disasters. Thank the Gods that Republicons now only make up 37% or the voting electorate, down from its high of 46% in 2004. And thank the Gods for Terry Schiavo, who continues to haunt the GOP in ways that truth and circumstance never could to the dumbed down American.

[oleander8]

What a bunch of arm-chair, morning-after, judgemental critics - who don''t have enough data to even be opening their mouths.

[mcvett]

I guarantee you the very same liberals who criticized Bush
for not going to New Orleans quick enough,
will now be the same ones who will criticize Bush for
going to California too soon!!!!

hypocrits

It should be also be interesting to see how many ignorant liberals
will claim that Bush started this fire the same way he created hurricane Katrina

LOL

[keithle1]

If you''re Governor of California, wouldn''t you have a worst case "wildfire" scenario plan already set up?
Why wouldn''t you? Wildfires are to California as hurricanes are to Louisiana as snow is to Maine.

They have lots of experience with wildfires in California. And the West. Not something that''s unusual. Fact of life.

[lvslotdoc]

Everyone in CA KNOWS that fires or earthquakes can strike at any time. NO ONE can say that Californians are not reminded of EVERY DAY that they live in a dry, drought-stricken tinderbox of an earthquake-proned region of the world, but this seems to be everyone''s favorite place to live. This article should be more appropriately entitled, "California Refused To Believe They Needed To Be Prepared."

Most of those who were fully aware of the risks of living in CA have moved to Las Vegas. This is why our population has quadrupled in the last 20 years, and housing costs have skyrocketed. I''m sure that many people who lost everything in these fires will be moving here soon, as well.

[downtowner97]

The people in California love their forests to death. They cry "Keep it natural!!!", then when fire strikes, there''s so much dead wood, and the trees are so close together, everything is lost. Thinning and logging when done properly mimic small, low-grade fires that should naturally be buring through California''s wooded areas every year. The environmentalists should be taking their vacation time from Starbucks to go help fight the fires they''ve caused.

[downtowner97]

I''m no Bush fan, but the Katrina fiasco wasn''t Bush''s fault. FEMA has not allowed new homes to be built in flood plains for some time. That''s because building your house in a flood plain is stupid, and people whose houses are built on high ground keep ending up paying to replace flooded houses.

Before Katrina, the feds, the state of Louisiana, the counties and cities, the Weather Channel, CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, the newspapers and the nearly 100 mph winds outside said "GET OUT", but the people of New Orleans wouldn''t go. Buses sat on the streets waiting for people, the incoming lanes on the roads were opened to facilitate escape, cops were sent to the streets to direct traffic, and thousands of people made a decision to stay. Those people ended up under water. That''s what happens.

Stand in front of a flood and get mad at the government when you get wet. That''s the mentality of the welfare class in this country. The sad byproduct of free will is that stupid people have it too.

[iceman_1960]

"It should be also be interesting to see how many ignorant liberals will claim that Bush started this fire the same way he created hurricane Katrina"
- Posted by MCVett at 09:10 PM : Oct 24, 2007

Neither Bush nor state and local government responded to Katrina as they should have.

Bush has acknowledged that publicly.

Bush, Blanco and Nagin should all have resigned or been impeached for that fiasco.

[rudy654-2009]

It''s so nice to see how some people can''t comment without repeating the Limbagg and Shamety sound bites that they seem to have time to listen to all day long. How nice, not to have to go to work. However, I don''t know who there is to blame, nor at this point do I care. I''m sure that with hindsight, people will be able to pick out what went wrong and what went right. I think it is important that people are safe as can be. When I was a kid I remember experiencing a wild fire that was all around, and it was extremely frightening. Do I think this was exacerbated by global warming? Well, each one will decide for themselves, but I would say the evidence shows that it is. For years now, scientist working on the subject have predicted that such things were going to be more frequent and intense. But what do they know compared to the great scientific brains of Limbagg and Shamety?

[iceman_1960]

It"s time to recall Gray Davis.

[edward1975-2009]

How exactly do you prepare for something this massive. But ya gotta love how quick folks can point a finger. Had a wise person when I was younger tell me," If your going to criticize, better have a better way to do it". Kinda stuck with me through the years. Far too many with 20/20 hindsight, not enough with on the spot thinking. We can always find fault, few can find solutions.

[perimogi]

If anyone thinks you can stop something like this and has the stupidity to say "California was unprepared" and still keep your job, give me a break. This guy, if he had one ounce of brains, would be able to show you the plan, complete in every detail, he had worked up to prevent and stop this, completed last year. 15 minutes of fame.