New Wildfires in California

wisenior said:
My former neighborhood in Fort Myers Beach, FL
is still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

28, Sep, 2022.
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To date, federal support following Hurricane Ian for Florida totals $8.69 billion: FEMA provided $1.13 billion in grants to more than 386,000 households in 26 counties. The U.S. Small Business Administration approved $1.94 billion in disaster loans for homeowners, renters and businesses.
 

I saw a displaced lady on the news who said that rentals are hard to come by. She inquired about one and when she inquired about the same one a couple of hours later, the price had risen by $1,000! I forgot what she did in the interim, perhaps checked on more options. I hope the people who are price gouging get stiff fines...don't know if jail time would be added.
 
It wasn't like this in Florida after Hurricane Ian.
They were coming through with trucks and crews and hauling the debris out.
It was awesome.
 

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againstthegrain said:
I'm pretty sure debris left from hurricanes isn't immediately transformed into toxic material, which will quickly become airborne, like that left from the burning of the homes and their contents so much more care is going to be needed in it's removal and disposition.
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Close your eyes and imagine what is at the bottom of a canal, some dead critters, whatever was inside cars/stores/trash piles/septic plants and have not at 80-100 F in your house with your own stuff for a couple of days. Then volunteer to cleanup as SO and his folks did for weeks. Nice ripe whatever floats. Take a bite of air and you do not need Ozempic.

Remove to where with what?
 
wisenior said:
Think a little bit.

The flood water was up to the gutters on our homes

What do you think was in that water?
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Why is the process apparently so different if hurricane debris is so toxic? Was the hurricane debris just moved to a landfill w/out regard due regard for it's toxicity then?

Perhaps the other conclusion is that CA has tougher waste regulations and it's going to turn into a longer, more exacting process than just piling stuff up in a landfill.
 
LA County Fire heli ops article

My first helicopter ride in 1978 to an unknown ridgeline near the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho to fight fire, ignited (haha) a fascination with helicopters and firefighting. It continued till my last ride in 1988 in Yellowstone which was also my last fire. Even thought about joining the Army in an attempt to learn how to become a helicopter pilot, but I'm not cut out for government work.

Link is a free gifted article that gets you behind the NYT paywall.
 
againstthegrain said:
I'm pretty sure debris left from hurricanes isn't immediately transformed into toxic material, which will quickly become airborne, like that left from the burning of the homes and their contents so much more care is going to be needed in it's removal and disposition.
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So true.

Terrible lessons were learned from those who worked the debris pile at NY's Twin Towers, post 9-11. Better to wait until toxic debris can be safely removed than to have construction workers and homeowners suffer from cancers and lung ailments 10-20 years from now.

For that very reason, it took Maui over a year to remove and dispose of all the fires' debris fields after their fires 18 months ago. Home contents have all manner of petroleum-based, man-made contents these days. No longer are they primarily natural materials like wood, wool, cotton and stone.
 
againstthegrain said:
Why is the process apparently so different if hurricane debris is so toxic? Was the hurricane debris just moved to a landfill w/out regard due regard for it's toxicity then?

Perhaps the other conclusion is that CA has tougher waste regulations and it's going to turn into a longer, more exacting process than just piling stuff up in a landfill.
Click to expand...
The Florida county I was living in after a hurricane required everyone separate the man made trash like siding from organic like tree branches. That was years ago. They wouldn't pick up the debris on the curb unless it was in separated correctly.

I'd say the cheap furniture made of composites/particle board probably one the bigger issue if burned or breaks into many pieces. They plastic lawn furniture some of the nastiest material when burned.

The biggest landfill I've seen in Florida is near Orlando probably about 6-8 stories high every time I passed it.
 
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wisenior said:
Think a little bit.

The flood water was up to the gutters on our homes

What do you think was in that water?
Click to expand...
FAA took seats out of the airplane fleet, overrode pilot flight times and told them to haul a.. . And they did. My then employer brought in cable techs from across the US at their rates. SO took and left a generator as he did in LA.
againstthegrain said:
LA County Fire heli ops article

My first helicopter ride in 1978 to an unknown ridgeline near the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho to fight fire, ignited (haha) a fascination with helicopters and firefighting. It continued till my last ride in 1988 in Yellowstone which was also my last fire. Even thought about joining the Army in an attempt to learn how to become a helicopter pilot, but I'm not cut out for government work.

Link is a free gifted article that gets you behind the NYT paywall.
Click to expand...
It does not take joining the Army to get a rotary license. The keeping it can be a different kettle of fish.
 
againstthegrain said:
LA County Fire heli ops article

My first helicopter ride in 1978 to an unknown ridgeline near the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho to fight fire, ignited (haha) a fascination with helicopters and firefighting.
Click to expand...
My second was also to an unknown ridgeline near the MIddle fork of the Salmon to fight fire, but I think it was in 1972. I don't believe I was working for the Forest Service the summer of 78, so we must not have been on the same fire. Actually, we were up and down deployed here and there for a whole week on the Salmon Fire. The first ride was to the top of a mountain with a buddy for an overnight without a radio to put out a lightening struck Douglas Fir. There had been a lightening storm during the night that had set fires all over the place, and our crew of 25 was broken into small smoke chaser crews of two or three.

The next evening, they picked us up and pluncked our whole crew down on another ridge to work on a massive fire that had gotten out of control. Then we were the "Kootenai Crew" of 25 guys working along side of several Hot Shot crews from all over the Northwest. It was a most interesting week, with one demoralizing incident for our whole crew.

I watched one of the members on our crew get hit in the head by a rock. I watched him tumble down a steep slope unconscious like a rag doll. We created an emergency Heleport, and he was transported to the hospital. He was a bloody mess and still unconscious when they flew him off.
I ran into him the next summer and asked him how things turned out. He told me he now had a metal plate in his head. But the Forest Service rehired him in the same district that summer.
 
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^^^Love the single tree fires on top of a ridge, especially when delivered there in a helicopter. Typically it's a late afternoon when you get deployed, stay overnight, and out the next day. Fortunately I was never on a fire when a major injury occurred.

I floated the Middle Fork w my family about 10 years ago, and it has been totally burned over many times since the old days.
 
Inmate crew with made for tv news firefighting. This is a 6th grade level assignment for all on scene so bear in mind firefighting is NEVER this easy, except on TV.


 
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I've been watching Million Dollar House Hunters (via Disney/Hulu). Several of the house hunts are in the LA, Palisades & Malibu areas, in ritzy neighborhoods, of course. I saw one yesterday from a few years ago, in which a young man was moving from West Hollywood to Pacific Palisades. I'm thinking he probably lost his home. I wonder how many of the millionaires I saw on the show lost their homes.
 
A new fire broke out today. :(

The Hughes fire broke out late on Wednesday morning and quickly ripped through more than 9,400 acres (3,760ha), sending up an enormous plume of dark smoke near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64 km) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.

About 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders with more facing evacuation warnings, Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna told a press conference.
New California fire spurs evacuations as residents endure dangerous winds

fires.jpg
 

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