Pray that people are not hurt by the fires? (LA and SD)

Right on, Godiva! (For the most part.)

The main reason people do stupid things is because of money. That's it. Why aren't all the utilities underground, because it costs money in the short term. When I lived in Florida we NEVER lost power (even during 4 hurricanes) because our utilities were buried, yet everyone else lost power because their power companies were only doing short term thinking when they decided to string power cords on toothpicks. Same thing with the CA water shortages. Florida has used desalinization plants along the coast for a while, but it seems to be a "new" idea in San Diego. The city just avoids it because it's cheaper in the short term to buy water from a dwindling source.

Going back to the topic. People will continue to make stupid decisions and then pray when they finally realize what they've done. I have no problem with people praying when there's little to no hope, just make sure you did everything you could do to prevent a bad situation before you ask God to do all the work for you.

 

The stupidity continues.

Right now we're looking at a crumbling sewer/stormdrain system. Why? Because instead of investing a LOT of money in replacing it right, they city took the fast and cheap route of just temporary fixes and repairs. Those bad rains we had last year or the year before? Major road collapses due to the big sewer/drainage pipes or whatever they were under the roads washing out. Big sinkholes under people's houses. So it cost multiple times as much to fix it than it would have cost to do it right the first time.

This scenario repeats itself in other infrastructure decisions over and over.

The People of this state have voted for all sorts of things, like taxes or bonds to fix infrastructure. And that money gets diverted by government officials. We don't hear about it until something happens, like sinkholes from failed sewer systems. We vote money to fix the freeways. The money gets diverted and it doesn't get done. Then there's another ballot initiative for money to fix the freeways. And I go....hey...didn't I already vote for this? Didn't this already pass? What happened to *that* money? It got used for something else and they're back begging for more with the promise that this time the money will be spent on fixing the freeways.

I don't know half of the people to blame so I can vote them out of office. I probably can't even vote them out of office because they're appointees.

Is it any wonder I don't vote for incumbants anymore

And the current excrement that's still hitting the air circulation device in San Diego can be traced back as far as Mayor Susan Golding. Subsequent mayors get a fair share of the blame as well. And I'm not talking about the Pension Debacle. Right before the fires there was this landslide in La Jolla's very upscale neighborhood on Mt. Soledad. Blame? Well, there was a water leak under the roadway the city denies. But it's documented weeks before the slide. Something to do with a layer of clay in the soil. But...it goes all the way back to Golding and a carte blanche for developers to build on land that had a history of landslides. It should never have been permitted. Reorganization of city offices after Golding got elected resulted in city offices for development and permits merging; that basically allowed developers to do what they wanted. They contributed a fair amount to her election campaign, then helped her reorganize the city offices to their benefit. Big surprise.

I didn't vote for her. I haven't voted for any mayor that has been elected. Majority of them Republican. And all in the pockets of developers. Try to keep density down. Try to stifle development on hillsides and canyons.

Whoever I vote for or whatever I vote for is inevitably defeated. All I can do is watch the impending trainwreck.

And say "Told you so."

 

Some simple things to do in bushfire prone areas. Most are not that expensive.
Basic Safety Design Principles in Bushfire Prone Areas include:

Build on flat ground on a concrete slab. If you build on a slope fit the house into the slope rather than have it supported on poles

Make sure you build in a location where there is a fuel break around the home. Keep grass cut short close to the home and remove fallen limbs, and branches that would provide fire fuel

Plant trees and shrubs away from the home

Keep the exterior design of the house simple and avoid crevices or cracks where burning material can lodge

Fit vents in walls, under floor and eaves with spark proof metal plates that can be easily fixed in place during a bushfire emergency

Fit vents in walls, under floor and eaves with spark proof metal plates that can be easily fixed in place during a bushfire emergency

Consider installing firescreens to go over windows to prevent the glass from cracking in radiant heat

Avoid decorative timberwork such as trellis, and latticework on exposed areas of the building. Remember timber balconies and decks are also high danger areas for trapping burning debris and should be kept to a minimum

Make sure you have any chimneys screened off to stop embers blowing down the chimney during the fire and entering the home

In designing the home ensure the use of leafless guttering or if allowed by council install ground level rubble drain collectors.

This is a pretty good read, too long to copy here.
http://www.csiro.au/files/files/p9zd.rtf
and this one
http://www.bushfireinfo.com/housebuild2.html#

 

Might I add.

Plant Iceplant around the perimeter of your property in as wide a swath as possible. It doesn't burn.

If you own a pool, have a pump that you can throw in there to pump water to use for fire fighting.

Inside your home, have detectors and a sprinkler system. When you build from the ground up this is much cheaper than a retrofit.

Make sure the building materials for your house are as fire resistant as possible. Especially your roofing material. If you're building from the ground up, you can build to resist fire. Studs, insulation, drywall can all be had with fire resistant properties. At least more so than the standard building materials.

Here in So. Cal. Eucalyptus trees were burning and falling on property and setting it on fire, or exploding and taking the fire hundreds of yards. So when you plant trees or other vegetation, take this into consideration. It's not enough to plant away from the house. You also need to consider what is less likely to burn, and if it burns it's less likely to start other fires.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Oct 25 2007, 05:24 PM) [snapback]530522[/snapback]</div>

It is coming. Hopefully in our lifetimes. Then we will compete as regions for the best, brightest and most responsible futures we can muster our regional citizens to be. It will truly be "morning in america". Till then we get to participate in an empire on the down slide.

 

Explain the bioregions concept, please, or provide a couple links. Thanks.

 

Godiva, when there is a disaster of the proportion the Southland has endured it is hard to imagine preventing it. Minimizing it perhaps. If a major fire started in some of the 85%or so of woodlands my county consists of, there would be a conflagration of terrible proportions similar to your experience. At least in the urban/wildland interface.

To compare the building regulations of San Diego and Marin counties is night and day. SD has had run away irresponsible building for a quarter century or more. Marin has upheld it's very restrictive building codes for that period, leading to much less run away placement of homes in wildlands. Our counties have been almost opposite in their development stances.

Still, there is that interface between the wilds and the houses on the edges of the wilds. That, along with steep terrain and flammable non-native ornamentals would lead to a costly wildfire here, even though development has been well thought out and regulated.

My point? Daily living quality benefits from firm regulation, but in the instance of an event of such magnitude and conditions, I doubt it would make much difference.

Still, I hope San Diego County steps back and analyzes it's options before rebuilding. Clustering living quarters near economic centers, preserving open spaces, and refusing building permits for neighborhoods of spread-out 'gentleman's ranches' will go far to keeping the urban/wildland interfaces more defensible.

For those not familiar with the large state of California, it is actually at least 2 or more states. The Inland Empire and Southland in general are more inclined to hold individual rights paramount. The North coast trends more in the direction of tempering individual rights for the good of the community. Politically, it's more difficult to regulate when individual rights trump the good of the whole. Whereas it is easier politically to regulate property rights when the citizens work together and recognize the imperative of the greater community. So, what works in my area of the state doesn't necessarily work politically in other areas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Oct 26 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]530759[/snapback]</div>

F8L can provide a more in depth definition, I'm sure, but here's a start:

A bioregion can be defined by a combination of similar societal attitudes, comparable climate, similar flora and fauna. That is, a region defined by attitudes and physical characteristics.

This is often in opposition to seemingly arbitrary boundaries drawn on a map defining counties and/or states.

In the west, bioregions are often defined by mountain ranges and valleys, by alpine country and deserts. That same desert can be bisected by a political boundary 'splitting' the desert into more than one county thus bisecting the bioregion. Societal comes in because in this example, the politically bisected desert may be half in a county where the people prefer to develop 'their' half of the desert into a theme park, and the other half of the desert may be in a community which prefers natural preservation. F8L?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Oct 26 2007, 04:18 PM) [snapback]530882[/snapback]</div>

Aha!

So California should lead the western states in seceding from the Union and establishing Ecotopia.

I knew it!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Oct 26 2007, 04:18 PM) [snapback]530882[/snapback]</div>

The example in your last paragraph is what went through my mind when reading the definition of your first paragraph. In other words, when man's attitude/opinion is involved, things naturally become politicized. If this concept is to work, it seems that there should be some underlying by laws under which residents must adhere or I could see the whole thing run amok.

I'm somewhat involved in this type of movement where we purchased our land. The town gets together for meetings and discusses any issues affecting the nature of our goals. We plan for the burn season and assist with eachother's land. We are all engaged with returning the land to it's native form. We've found that there truly is strength in numbers in this way and it truly provides a very nice community feel. In our case, there is a land conservancy that is very involved with our direction. Their main goal is to promote conservation easements, but they engage and assist with much more than that.