Still seem to be raging, although it appears from the CNN coverage that they are calming down. Some stats to date on the carnage:
Fire crews found two bodies Thursday inside a home in Poway, California, one of the San Diego communities hit hardest by this week’s fierce wildfires, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.
If the deaths are confirmed to be from the Witch fire, the largest to hit Southern California this week, they would be the third in the 23 fires that have charred more than 460,00 acres. More than 1,400 homes have been destroyed.
One person was killed in the Harris fire in southern San Diego County earlier this week.
Seven other deaths are labeled as fire-related: Three people died during evacuations, and four others died after being evacuated. Seventy-eight people, including at least 36 firefighters, have been injured.
Winds that fanned the wildfires calmed to single-digit speeds Thursday, while the lifting of evacuation orders allowed thousands of Californians to return to check on their homes.
Hopefully, Glenn Beck is running the numbers and we will know shortly how many of those 1,400 homes deserved to burn.
Zifnab
Why do you have to hate on Beck, John? As his producer pointed out, Glenn used the word “Unfortunately”, so he’s actually very torn up inside over this.
I also continue to find it amusing that Glenn Beck thinks the folks in Orange County are all giant liberals. Just think, they kicked Dan Rather off the air for investigating Bush’s war record. But this guy gets to keep his job.
Rudi
This is the story at this moment with Anderson Cooper and Geraldo having to breath dirty air and blond bimbo reporters having bad hair and makeup because of all the soot. Some context:
As compared to this:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2005-10-05-katrina-housing-usat_x.htm
I sure hope Suzanne Sommers doesn’t lose her home again. Imagine if she spent some time homeless at a five star Beverly Hills Hotel or at the NO Convention Center.
TR
I’m convinced Glenn Beck is an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style prank being pulled on the American public.
He has rock-bottom low ratings, makes his network look like an even bigger joke than it already is, and spews the kind of insane ramblings you’d expect from a five-year-old with Tourette’s and ADHD.
It’s either brilliant comedy, or a sign that “Idiocracy” was a documentary.
Jimmmmm
Beck deserves to be raped by trained dogs and then stranded on an ice floe.
Which is a shame, since I really, really liked the album, “Odelay.”
Dreggas
Rudi,
While I can appreciate the fact that a lot more homes were lost due to Katrina, and while I sympathize with those people I can also tell you to have a nice big cup of Shut The Fuck Up. Not every home lost here was by Suzanne summers so you can just stuff it. There were a lot of homes threatened that didn’t belong to the so called rich that everyone, for some reason, seems to think live here.
So yeah while Katrina was tragic, so is this and for you to sit there and try to make it sound like this was nothing but a bunch of rich elite losing their homes is complete and total bullshit and is just as bad as Beck saying the ones who lost their homes somehow are the America Haters.
Dreggas
Oh and an update from where I am. The wind is pretty much gone, the air was somewhat damp this morning and it was a lot cooler. Of course there was still smoke in the air and from my vantage point it looked like the trabuco/silverado/(insert other canyons here) fire had made it to my side of the hills, at least last night.
This AM couldn’t see a thing because the smoke had “laid down” so will have to see what is what tonight. Still a bitch to breathe and if the wind shifts to coming from the west then there is the possibility the nearby fires will just change direction and go inland. Not a good thing because that means straight into Cleveland Nat’l forest etc.
Perry Como
Isn’t that in Scooter Libby’s upcoming book?
Focality
Wow, Rudi. I hope you’re joking.
Having lived in CA for several years (San Francisco, LA, San Diego) back in the 80s and early 90s, I can say with certainty that most people in CA aren’t like those depicted in film and TV. Those are done for entertainment, not documentaries. Just as we can’t dismiss all southerners as backwards, inbred, uneducated assholes, we can’t assume all CA residents are elitist, leftist, and filthy rich. And if that’s your thing, you’re a complete dumbfuck.
Step away from the Limbaugh/Beck/Coulter needles and get a dose of reality.
Dreggas
O/T but just saw this (and it’s kinda creepy):
Google ha s implemented a new feature which enables you to type a telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and you will be given the person’s name and address. If you then hit MapQuest, you will get a map to the person’s house. Everyone should be aware of this! It’s a nationwide reverse telephone book.
If a child gives out his/her phone number, someone can now look it up to find out where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious, and alarming.
Note that you can have your phone number removed or blocked. I tried my number and it came up along with the mapquest and directions straight to our house. I did fill out the removal form for myself, and encourage all of you to do the same. Quite scary.
Please look up your own number.
In order to test whether your phone number is mapped, go to: google (http:// http://www.google.com/) Type your phone number in the search bar (i.e. 555-555-1212) and hit enter. If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging your private information, simply click on your telephone number and then click on the Removal Form. Removal takes 48-hours.
Check your own number and although this may not apply to you if you have an unlisted number or cell phone as primary contact, but you may know someone who needs to know this.
Please share this information with friends and family.
neil
Take your email forward spam elsewhere, Dreggas. They’ve had this feature for at least a year.
Cinderella Ferret
How is it that creatures like Beck can call themselves conservative? I don’t believe that for a second. He’s a loud mouth punk. He can’t even conserve a little dignity for himself. Jesus! His act must be self-parody, otherwise he’s a sad, sad inadequate punk who will say anything to grab some attention. Pathetic.
Dreggas
well aren’t you just special then, I haven’t heard of this before so I passed it on.
Zifnab
In Rudi’s defense, I think part of the problem is that in NO the Government Flunkies and slack-jawed Senators ran around claiming Louisiana residents were just too stupid and/or pathetic to get out of the way of a massive Hurricane, and that the Big Easy deserved to get sunk. They did next to nothing while laying the blame on LA residents.
In the California case, Perino and company are lauding themselves and their Republican comrades with praise for doing such an excellent job in disaster management, when the fact of the matter is that the California fires pailed in comparison to the Katrina floods, and the feds have been getting off easy in terms of disaster management. The Qualcomm Stadium is secure from the blaze and only needs to accommodate the 1400 families displaced, not the 350,000. The residents are, on average, richer and have the option of sleeping in a hotel rather than on the street.
This isn’t to say that the fires aren’t one epic pile of suck, but that when the White House starts applauding itself and lauding Governor Schwarzenegger’s party affiliation for “saving California” – as they assuredly will – we should take such claims of competency with a giant chunk of salt.
capelza
Zinfab..not to mention that the Feds will do everything in their power to avoid another NOLA. They don’t want to be bit in the ass again.
guyermo
local media is apparently reporting that bush’s visit is grounding all firefighting aircraft in 10 mile radius…
i can’t verify, just what i saw on the great, orange satan.
Punchy
How does this happen? Are they attributing car wrecks as “deaths during evacs”? Otherwise, how does stepping out of your house and starting you car cause a fatality?
Anyone understand this?
Face
Dreggas, I’d buy you a beer if I could. Really sounds like you could use one. Hang in there, man.
capelza
This would not suprise me in the least. He also refused a request from the Governor to visit the people in the stadium..
Bush doesn’t like Americans…he likes his Potemkin village Americans (and Albanians apparantly), but he will not mix with his own subjects..er I mean employers.
Plus the lack of bravery involved…his security is so much more important than the troubles of the plebes.
Dennis-SGMM
Some who were old or infirm suffered heart attacks during evac.
Dreggas
There are people who would need it more than me. I just happen to be lucky enough not to live in the path that the winds tend to take. Of course it was disconcerting last night to see the smoke maybe 10 miles away, tops.
With the weather change it will help things that’s for sure. Of course I do wish I had bought some of those damn masks, just trying to take a walk winds you from the smoke and I have to catch a bus each day.
Dreggas
Oh and to be clear the gov’t response ain’t been as great as they’d like to believe it was. Anyone who’s local knows that, at least here in OC, the local state reps are pissed about the LACK of support the county has received. The local FD’s have done the best they can but with little to no air support and not nearly enough Nat’l guard able to help this is a clusterfuck here.
Faux News
Oh John, Glenn Beck is so old history. The newest thing around Faux News and the Right Wing blogs is that these7 fires were started by…TERRA-ISTS!!!! (of the islamofascist kind of course). Faux News is reporting that hundreds of their viewers are calling in to say they heard rumors it was islamofascist. Just in time for islamofascist awareness week!
Sadly there have always been sicko firebugs/arsonists who indeed could easily be considered domestic terrorists. But this is different, and our course is clear. Now it’s time to bomb Iran.
Dreggas
Faux News,
Yep, every time the santa ana’s kick up many of us take bets on when the next pyro will strike. Especially here.
The Other Steve
Did you guys catch the Governator comparing the fires to Katrina? He was walking around with Chertoff, and pointing out how wonderful everything was. Everybody was happy, he said. There had been no complaints with response and so on.
Rudi
Lighten up, I was just being a little snarky. But I stand by the numbers, less than a dozen dead and 1,400 homes destroyed compared to Katrina. I don’t see pictures of bodies floating in California.
The majority of my snark is not directed at the victims, it’s at the Internets and MSM which makes this a HUGE story. One fire is responsible for over 1000 homes lost, the other fires and resulting damage are minor in comparison. But you have to admit, isn’t anyone cynical about reporters flocking to this story and telling us the “end of the world is near”.
I just picture the NBC bimbo, in New Jersey I believe, in a canoe in ankle deep water as workers walk by in boots near by. The tornadoes in the midwest last week killed nearly as many, yet where was the bimbos and Geraldo for this event. Once again, the snark was for pompous reporters struggling without a full makeup team reporting in San Diego, then going back to plush hotels, high speed Internets and lattes at Strabucks. I doubt if any are repeating the discomforts of New Orleans, where all utilities were down due to a hurricane which left 1500 dead and 300,000 without homes.
Major fires burn California every couple of years. Hurricanes like Katrina and Camille happen only every couple of decades. Stricter building codes would lessen the damage in California. I just hope the Army Corp of Engineers and politicians don’t fix the problems in California like they fixed the levies.
HyperIon
not to worry…Don Surber is on the story..via TBogg
Al-Queda fire in California?
in case you’re wondering about the question, the answer is no.
The Other Steve
Arnold assured me that there was no air support because planes can’t fly.
The Other Steve
Wow. I think everybody knew that there was arson involved in a lot of these fires. Mainly because they sprang up around the same time in 3 different locations.
But to try to connect this to islamofascist awareness week. Wow, that’s just spoofy.
capelza
Oh jeezuz….AQ? Because we never had arsonists and firebugs before 9/11.
Rudi
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8D824KO4&show_article=1
Michelle Kosinski isn’t a Jill Carroll or the many reporters killed while reporting in Iraq. The snark was for the Kosinski’s and Geraldo’s of the press. By the way, I’m a registered moonbat, not a Cheetos stained 101st keyboardist.
scarshapedstar
In other news, George Bush deliberately grounds the firefighters’ air support* so that he can give another drooling, incoherent speech. I could not be more disgusted even if his verbal diarrhea was accompanied by actual, liquid feces dripping down his chin while he “spoke”.
*Includes picture of his “Hey, I mighta just burned down a Democrat house! Heh-heh!” smirk.
Rudi
The Decider did the same thing in NO during his photo-ops. When AF1 is in an area, all flights are grounded while the POTUS is there. At least Clenis only grounded flights for a haircut in SF.
Dreggas
Actually, there are stricter building codes which is why most houses here have stucco walls and fire retardent tile roofs. Seriously. The new housing developments that go in are designed to be somehow “fireproof” especially since they are so close to one another. They were interviewing evacuee’s the other day and one was saying that all this time they had been told their house would withstand fires like this.
Ned Raggett
All of what he said, since I’m just a few miles south of Dreggas. I have it comparatively better but that’s not by much. (I’m just glad I was out of the area until Tuesday night.)
caustics
I can’t wait to see how this Bush visit is choreographed. His handlers have to consider the potential threat to his delicate Boy In The Bubble political immune system, and at the same time devise media-ops that give the impression of being concerned and caring…but not overly so.
They certainly don’t want anything like this to happen again.
Ned Raggett
The president strikes a bold figure, or something.
Ned Raggett
Whoops, the photo done got et. Just go here:
http://www.latimes.com/media/alternatethumbnails/photo/2007-10/33471073.jpg
The Other Steve
Did they also remember to not plant trees or shrubs within 30 feet of the building? And to thin trees and shrubs out to 100 feet?
D-Chance.
Plus, the Republicans are trying to change the Electoral College rules in Cali… a little good press wouldn’t hurt.
jenniebee
Anybody else hear Rush yesterday? I turned it on just long enough to hear a caller tell him that she still had food and water and hay for her horses and that they don’t need any FEMA or government assistance, everybody’s fine and taking care of themselves, thank you very much, and only two looters around there, who will be punished severely. This was all because they’re conservatives around there, so unlike those lazy liberals from the lower wards, they don’t wait for the government to come to the aid of their horses. No siree bob. They put the horses up in their club’s stables and charge it to their insurance because that’s what self-sufficient people do.
Then Rush commiserated with her about “illegals” running the place down.
I am not making this shit up.
Hang in there Dreggas.
Otto Man
The “Santa Ana Winds”? Come on, people, it’s obvious the Mexicommiefascists are to blame for all this.
Svensker
The local FD’s have done the best they can but with little to no air support and not nearly enough Nat’l guard able to help this is a clusterfuck here.
I wuz with ya until you got to this liberal hate speech. Seriously. Can’t you remember Sandy Berger stuffed some papers down his pants?
(I used to live in So.Cal. and narrowly missed getting burned up in a fire in the 80s. Lots of family still out there. Take care!)
Dreggas
That’s become near mandatory. The problem you run into is a pine tree exploding 100 feet away will still send burning chunks through your windows.
ThymeZone
Well, as anyone knows who has ever tried to walk into chapparal, when you see the smoke and flames, the only rational response is to run like hell and assume that anything you leave behind is gone. And if you aren’t willing to live under that threat, then you don’t belong in Southern California. The fires have been burning there long before man showed up and will be doing so after he leaves. Fire is part of the chapparal life cycle. We’re talking about dense growth that you couldnt penetrate with a tank. Dry, oily, waxy, it burns hot enough to melt the wheels off your car.
This isn’t the worse fire around there. It’s only a bad fire in places where people have built houses, where houses hadn’t been built 20 years ago.
The attempts of modern pundits and blowhards to make this into something it isn’t, notwithstanding.
JWeidner
Hey Ned, where you at? I’m in San Clemente and I know Dreggas is in the Santa Ana area. Two nights ago we watched flames from Camp Pendleton crest a ridge maybe 5 – 7 miles from us. Posed no real danger, but it’s darn eerie to see the skyline glowing orange and flames leaping into the air.
Delia
The lower wards, huh? They don’t have wards anywhere in SoCal. She was calling from Chicago or somewhere and making stuff up. Or maybe she was on Oxycontin.
Dreggas
Delia,
No joke, Every news show I saw showed horses and hay being evacuated in the fire affected areas. If you look at craigslist, specifically in the California area, they have a board setup for discussing the fires and coordinating help. Bottom line is if anything that caller was calling a LONG way from the areas affected by the fires.
RSA
Stay well, Dreggas and other posters in southern California. (I hope that the smoke doesn’t cause public health problems down the line–not that you need something else to worry about.)
George B.
Apparently, it’s all the homosexuals’ fault anyway.
jenniebee
To clarify, the Rush caller was referring to New Orleans… basically saying that those non-caucasians and their liberal friends in LA just didn’t bother to take care of themselves. Or, by implication, their horses.
BIRDZILLA
How about going after that various eco-wacko groups who have been holding up proper land managment with their stupid lawsuits