14 replies to this topic

[klahanie]

Thoughts and prayers to our cousins in California affected by the wildfires.

 

I'm guilty of not having been paying too much attention to what's been happening until recently even tho we do get coverage of US news. But wow ! this is an incredible situation. 

 

Trying times for so many people. Stay safe folks and Bless those helping in the service of others.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I live about 100 miles south of the fires but we do get a lot of the smoke.

Here on the Monterey Bay area we have been lucky so far about fires and blackouts.

The Napa/Sonoma area has been hit for several years now with bad fires.

It just doesn't end.

Frank

[klahanie]

The Napa/Sonoma area has been hit for several years now with bad fires.

It just doesn't end.

 

 

That's just it - or part of it. Seem to me there's often some disastrous natural event reported from CA, slides, fires etc. that a person outside can get inured to the news if they're not directly involved.

 

But now there are these power and communications black outs affecting how many people ? and the scale and distribution of the fires ? and, as you say, the continuity ? It's like what is going on.

 

I've been holding onto this notion, hoping really, prob like others my age and older that I might just get thru the rest of my days quietly - I've see enough change thank you. But this stuff is sobering.

 

Fortunately California has a lot going for it and a ton of resources, including it's people. If any country can meet change, CA should be it.

 

Praying things get better for you guys soon ...

Edited by klahanie, 01 November 2019 - 12:09 AM.

[craig333]

I can understand not keeping up. Here in Sac we've had no power outages and little smoke this year. Its a tough issue. Some people say "just bury the wires" without a clue at what that would entail. Others say "controlled burns are the answer" without realizing just how difficult those are to do. I'd like to see housing in critical areas curtailed but politically I know that won't ever happen. All I can really say is if you live in fire prone areas you better have defensible space.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Klahanie thank you for your great thoughts.

Also Craig great views.

There really isn't one or two silver bullets.

Just be as prepared as possible especially if you live in a fire prone area.

We had a nice cabin in Dorrington but sold it after 30 years in 2014.

One of the reasons was the fire issue.and the maintenance of the space.

Only miss the area but we can camp along the 4 corridor.

Stay safe.

Frank

[craig333]

Just finished watching the netflix documentary Fire in Paradise https://www.netflix.com/title/81050375.

Most of the footage I've seen already but this time with interviews with survivors, cops, firefighters etc. 

Not an easy watch.

 

[ntsqd]

After the scary days of watching the Thomas Fire march past us ~1/2 mile to the North, the Easy Fire was only an irritant. Maria Fire is too close for comfort, came home early when they moved the mandatory evac boundary closer to us.

 

Nothing like getting home to assess the danger and seeing this out the back door:

 

Fortunately it looks like it's run out of fuel and now the wind has shifted and is blowing it back on itself.

[knoxswift]

SoCal resident...I live in the mountains and the last 5 years there hasn't been a year without fires. A small 2% of them are power related. The majority of fires here used to be dry lightning but that trend has changed to illegal campfires. A 65 square mile fire 2 years ago made it to within 1 mile of my town burned 100yr+ old forest and was the result of a illegal campfire...
There's a simple solution for the small % that are electrical but PSE&G refuse to do because it's money well spent...
My local electric company has been converting all lines with insulated lines but we still have our power turned off because our local company is fed from pseg....
It's a crazy mess going on here but I don't think the actual story is making it to the news....

[ntsqd]

I suspect that if you were to research the start of all of the power company's 'deferred maintenance' programs that you would find that starting time to coincide with the de-regulation. There were good reasons for power companies being gov't regulated monopolies. True, we pay less for power now, but look at what it has cost us.

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Yup. Dereg forced SCE to sell off most of its generating assets bought up by companies like Reliant Energy...one of several companies accused of manipulating the Cal energy crisis early this century. I agree, some industries need to be regulated due to public necessity and safety. I’m always suspicious of utility companies that worry about their stock price. I have more questions than answers, though.