California Wildfires from Space
The then-actively burning fires are indicated in red in this image, taken at 7 p.m. Eastern yesterday, October 22. It is the most recent satellite photo of the fires currently on NASA’s page.
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response
The L.A. Times is reporting over 1100 homes destroyed.
Good photo. Sad situation. Made worse by federal disaster assistance. It will happen again worse than now and in the exact same region. Guaranteed.
It’s inevitable. At least the affected homeowners should have to buy their own insurance and/or not be bailed out by the government.
Lifesaving emergency services, yes. Funds from other Californians and Americans to rebuild in high-risk fire areas, no.
Christoph (92b8f7) — 10/23/2007 @ 9:43 pmI wonder whether we couldn’t leave the moralizing until the fires are out? That comment isn’t directed at Christoph only; I’ve seen a lot of that over the past few days.
Patterico (bad89b) — 10/23/2007 @ 9:47 pmThat’s smoke from the fires, right? What an incredible picture.
DRJ (fb1a22) — 10/23/2007 @ 10:02 pmThose must be some of the most powerfull outflow winds ever. You can see the smoke and dust plumes all the way down the Baja Penisula. As a professional wildland fire fighter, I can assure you that the fires occurring in Southern California right now are under the worst possible weather conditions. Kudos to the state and the Californians for their orderly evacuations and minimal loss of life.
bobonthebellbuoy (d27fd9) — 10/23/2007 @ 10:24 pmUnbelievable.
It looks like there are some smaller fires in Baja as well.
I agree with bb#4, kudos to the fire fighters and emergency services folks.
itsme (811939) — 10/23/2007 @ 11:12 pmHear, hear.
Christoph (92b8f7) — 10/23/2007 @ 11:43 pmDamn. Rough situation, here’s hoping everyone makes it out alive. I’m in Portland; too bad I can’t ship some of this endless rain down there.
Russell (cf89ed) — 10/23/2007 @ 11:52 pmSome people are complain now about President Bush coming out to visit the scene (damned if you do and damned if you don’t)
Well lets see what Hillary is doing.hillary fiddles while California burns
daytrader (ea6549) — 10/23/2007 @ 11:55 pmLatest figures per LA Times:
420,424 acres burned
1,155 homes destroyed
881,500 people evacuated
Unbelievable.
itsme (811939) — 10/24/2007 @ 12:34 amWay to lay off the moralizing, day.
No doubt if she had visited a fire line, she would have been “playing politics.”
PV = nRT is science, not politics.
Not much you can say about nature’s law.
alphie (99bc18) — 10/24/2007 @ 12:50 amI don’t see why it’s necessary to hold back “moralizing” until after some undefined period of time. The current situation is one where the federal government steals my money to help rich Californians rebuild their homes however many times as necessary because they decide to build them or move to areas where you really shouldn’t have such a high concentration of homes thanks to the risk of wildfires. Why should I be forced to subsidize their stupid choice of a place to live?
Is that moralizing? Yes, because my money is getting stolen from me for the benefit of these people. Theft is wrong… except, I guess, when the fires “aren’t even out yet.”
chaos (2a6b46) — 10/24/2007 @ 5:35 amI am glad we’re getting visits from the governor, the president, whoever is in a position to help. There should be no partisanship in dealing with disaster, and there is none among San Diegans. It is one of the few good things in this tragedy. Praise be to Patterico for setting the correct tone.
Just over a mile from where I live, 20,000 evacuees are staying at Qualcomm Stadium. Hard to believe, except when you look up at the sky and see (and smell) the smoke.
This Washington Post story captures the spirit of San Diego well.
Bradley J. Fikes (1c6fc4) — 10/24/2007 @ 5:38 amChaos, would this same argument apply to those who wish (and complain) to re-build below sea level in N.O.?
Meanwhile Harry Reid’s blaming the whole thing on global warming, and Boxer thinks the fires would be out with our national guard returned from Iraq. I would submit the Boxer has had pleanty of warnings about these impending disasters.This is our democratic leadership?
excerpted and linked here:
http://rovinsworld.blogspot.com/2007/10/returning-to-cinders-taming-beast-thats.html
Rovin (7f64b8) — 10/24/2007 @ 7:02 amYesterday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the EPA to allow Brown to outlaw cars which emit too much global warming CO2 gas.
The amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere from these wildfires can be offset by how much time living under Jerry Brown’s new rules?
A) one hour
B) one day
C) one month
D) one year
E) ten years
I’ll have the answer tomorrow.
Wesson (fd354d) — 10/24/2007 @ 7:02 amPatterico’s house has many rooms, chaos. Just go to this thread.
nk (da3e6b) — 10/24/2007 @ 7:10 amIf they can do it solely with state and local taxes, no. Same thing in California. If Californians and Louisianans don’t mind being fleeced in that manner, as a Pennsylvanian, it’s not my business. They can waste their taxes on whatever damn fool thing they please.
Federal tax money is a different issue. They can’t, or shouldn’t, be able to waste my taxes on whatever damn fool thing they please.
chaos (9c54c6) — 10/24/2007 @ 9:05 amThe question of where to build safely in southern California is not easily answered.
As far as taxes go, California is a net exporter of federal taxes — it gets back less than what it puts in.
Steverino (e00589) — 10/24/2007 @ 12:40 pmShows what happens when enviromentalists wackos are allowed to use their rediclous lawsuits to halt good land management lets put them on these fires like start with all those tree huggers and hollywood eco-wackos
krazy kagu (a6e311) — 10/24/2007 @ 12:58 pmPoor ALF his heroes are bailing out of sanity
Harry Reid is blaming Global Warming
Randi Rhodes is blaming BlackWater
Mike Malloy is blaming The Bush Crime Family
daytrader (ea6549) — 10/24/2007 @ 5:01 pmchaos #16:
Well, I see that PA has had its share of federally-declared disasters.
FEMA
In fact, it looks like over $90 million in federal money went to the state during last year’s flooding:
Oct. 2006 PA
I hope I’m not subsidizing any stupid choices made by Pennsylvanians.
Itsme (b1ce9f) — 10/24/2007 @ 5:59 pmSteverino’s comment on 10/24 hits the nail on the head and Im surprised no one else has thought of commenting on it. California, along with other states like New York, are net exporters of federal taxes. This has been true for years. State like Texas are net importers. No wonder the Texas economy is doing better than California !! We’re helping to pay for it. So if California sub prime real estate gets some kind of bailout, great. Its our money anyway finally coming back to us.
peter wolf (a943ed) — 1/31/2008 @ 5:52 pm