California Nightmares

The numerous wildfires in California that have threatened the Los Angles area, San Bernardino County, and parts of the Sierra Nevada - including acreage near the border with Oregon - probably couldn't have been prevented, but they could certainly have been foreseen. Much of the state is naturally dry, with most of its water supply brought in from the Sierra Nevada range or diverted from the Colorado River. The Los Angeles region is overpopulated after more than a hundred years of hyperdevelopment started by the first aqueduct built for the area.

When the Spaniards first settled the little pueblo of Los Angeles in the late eighteenth century, they found few if any native peoples in the region. That's because the Indians learned right away that the basin Los Angeles was settled in was dry and prone to fire. Before the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, Los Angeles was a dusty little farm town, relying on what little water was available in the semi-desert area and sustaining a population in the tens of thousands. Now the Greater Los Angeles population is in the millions, and the challenge has been to keep enough water flowing for everyone, and in the face of a statewide drought (and a regional three-year drought) that has made the brush so tinder-dry in the first place. Winter rains along the coast have helped supply water in the past, but they have caused periodic mudslides in the hills. Even if southern California has managed to pull that off, they now have to deal with wildfires, along with earthquakes and the aforementioned mudslides, as an ongoing fact of life in the region.

This comes at a time when California is struggling under a $42 million deficit while its economy is in the loo. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gets my vote of confidence for tacking the fires head-on by diverting resources to contain the blazes and putting public safety ahead of budgetary concerns, but he sure isn't going to go in an put the fires himself single-handedly. This isn't a movie!

A hurricane affecting Baja California in Mexico is not expected to bring any beneficial rains to the area, and it may even bring winds to fan the flames. In the meantime, temperatures have dropped and humidity has risen, allowing the fires to be put under greater control. But firefighters are keeping a close eye on Mount Wilson near Los Angeles, which is the site for an historic observatory as well as TV and radio antennas.

It never rains in Southern California. . . .

It pours.

Man, it pours!