2fd6c2e81e1c…

It seems that the fire has grown some, but out into the forest and away from most homes.

Some schools have been closed all week, but my daughter’s school system (Capistrano Unified) closed all schools today for the first time. The stated reasons were (1) increased danger to some schools from the north (Santiago fire) and south (Camp Pendleton/ Ammo fire) and (2) 4th consecutive day of extremely poor air quality due to smoke.

I am on the east coast on business – tough on the family, even though we are not in immediate danger. The stress really builds. My heart goes out to those that have lost their homes, and to those in really immediate danger – the load is very heavy.

I live in Orange County just north of Camp Pendleton and am used to our annual wildfire season but there seem to be so many fires at the same time and same place that it feels like they may be coordinated and set by more than one individual.

It will be interesting to see who they apprehend and prosecute. We do get these guys from time to time.

I’ve edited this advice column for terrorists down to its essentials and repeated it here for convenience–my convenience in deriding it. If one objects that it’s harmless to think out loud, I respond that I think mosques and imams are flammable. If one objects that you’ve just stated the obvious, I respond that the Americans have Bics and kerosene.

Kralizec on October 24, 2007 at 10:22 PM

Actually, if it came down to me vs. the Islamists, I’d just employ the Israeli method. I’d steal a tractor and just start bulldozing mosques. Then I’d figure out where the Islamists lived and bulldoze their places as well. It’s much more surgical than setting fire to their places and makes much more of a point.

Yes, everything is going better than expected. I have been pretty sure for most of the day that the only reason that they have not allowed Ramona Resident to return yet is…the lack of water. As I posted to dingbat, the Ramona water district called and said they were recharging the water system. Moreover KUSI has been broadcasting for the last couple of hours that FEMA is setting up an office about 1 mile from my place that is scheduled to be open for business tomorrow.

doriangrey on October 24, 2007 at 10:29 PM

There’s a number of HA readers/posters we’ve haven’t heard from lately.

I hope, no, I wish them all well and back soon.

Kini on October 24, 2007 at 6:18 PM

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If I remember correctly doriangray lives in Ramona out to the NE of San Diego. The entire city of Ramona (36,000) was evacuated, converting it to a ghost town which has been subject to some localized looting.
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I can only assume that he was forced to leave home as well. This only a day or so after he was rear ended and had to have his head sutured shut with 5 staples.
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He is probably not having the best week of his life.
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If so he is one of the 1,000,000 people more or less who had to pack up an leave.
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In any case I hope he and all the others are OK.

It’s probably just run of the mill degenerates behind it, but what a terror weapon, huh? Relatively low body count but a cool $1 billion in damage for the cost of some kerosene and a Bic lighter. That would be some cost-effective jihad, yo.

posted at 5:17 pm on October 24, 2007 by Allahpundit

My friend was telling me that if you really wanted to cause problems in LA, just rent a plane, get a couple hundred flares, and just drop them out of the window at low altitude.

PRCalDude on October 24, 2007 at 5:53 PM

In order to make an effective terror weapon, you would have to follow up the arson with something like a dirty bomb in the city centers while the emergency response teams are distracted with the fires.

JackOfClubs on October 24, 2007 at 8:30 PM

I’ve edited this advice column for terrorists down to its essentials and repeated it here for convenience–my convenience in deriding it. If one objects that it’s harmless to think out loud, I respond that I think mosques and imams are flammable. If one objects that you’ve just stated the obvious, I respond that the Americans have Bics and kerosene.

what a terror weapon, huh? Relatively low body count but a cool $1 billion in damage for the cost of some kerosene and a Bic lighter. That would be some cost-effective jihad

Actually, no.

First of all, there is very little terror (i.e., endemic, uncontrollable fear) associated with these wildfires.

The $1 billion in damage is a lot to guys like you and me, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s less than one-ten-thousandth of the country’s GDP. Or to put it in a different perspective, we’ve spent $1 billion in Iraq so far this week. Doesn’t make you shudder, does it?

But most importantly, starting wildfires is poor terrorism because it doesn’t play well on Al-Jazeera. You see, these jihadis are largely playing to a domestic (pan-Arab) audience. They want to show that they are tough enough to sock it to the Americans. That requires the target to be well known back home. Destroying the WTC was great. Blowing up the Statue of Liberty or the White House or maybe the Sears Tower would be good PR. 200 dead in a bomb attack on a Six Flags in Maryland hardly competes with the latest run-of-the mill market bombing in Ramadi. Burning suburbs in California won’t even make the news.

What’s funny is the same people who blame the fires on Global Warming and drought also forget to mention that Southern California is a Mediterranean climate — it’s normally dry throughout the year with winter rains…

eanax on October 24, 2007 at 9:06 PM

Too true. We are formally a semi-arid climate, with about 10.6 inches of annual rainfall, most of which occurs from December to March.

Re: global warming. Well, we have been in drought conditions here on and off for more than a decade, which is what makes these fires so devastating. Some people blame the droughts on global warming, so Reid’s comments are about as credible as anything on that subject. I don’t buy it, especially since SoCal has been a desert for as long as there have been historical records of the region.

JackOfClubs on October 24, 2007 at 8:30 PM

What’s funny is the same people who blame the fires on Global Warming and drought also forget to mention that Southern California is a Mediterranean climate — it’s normally dry throughout the year with winter rains…

Doesnt it seem strange that the smoke is blowing not only westward but OUT to sea?

Labamigo on October 24, 2007 at 5:57 PM

Not strange at all. We have been experiencing Santa Ana winds since early Sunday morning. That is a condition in which hot, dry winds blow from the east, reversing the normal prevailing westerlies. We get them in Southern California every year about this time and, to a lesser degree, in the spring. It basically signals the change between our 2 major seasons (Winter and Summer). We really don’t have the equinoctial seasons that the rest of the country gets to any recognizable degree.

Re: terrorist arson. I have thought about that before now, but it never seems to play out that way. Whenever they catch arsonists they always turn out to be the typical personality-deficient types you would expect. I think the problem with using this kind of arson as a terrorist weapon is that the fires start in unihabited areas where there is a lot of dry brush and timber. They usually don’t make it into the urban population centers, most of the damage is done to housing in the peripheral suburbs. And the damage isn’t permanent. People will rebuild those housing tracts and the whole thing will start over, in the meantime increasing the property value for everyone who didn’t lose their homes. In order to make an effective terror weapon, you would have to follow up the arson with something like a dirty bomb in the city centers while the emergency response teams are distracted with the fires. Not that I want to give the bad guys any ideas, but my point is it requires more planning and coordination than Allah is suggesting.

Re: global warming. Well, we have been in drought conditions here on and off for more than a decade, which is what makes these fires so devastating. Some people blame the droughts on global warming, so Reid’s comments are about as credible as anything on that subject. I don’t buy it, especially since SoCal has been a desert for as long as there have been historical records of the region.

How is the San Diego Wild Animal Park faring? My wife and I loved that place when I was stationed in SoCal; it looked like it would be very vulnerable to fires on that scale.

Lancer on October 24, 2007 at 7:08 PM

I know it was within the burn area, but they did evacuate all endangered species as well as those involved in the shows. They also allowed the larger animals to roam in areas with little to no fuel for the fire. Hope that helps….

Geraldo is on FOX right now to tell you all about the fires. : )

abinitioadinfinitum on October 24, 2007 at 5:38 PM

Oh Lord…

How is the San Diego Wild Animal Park faring? My wife and I loved that place when I was stationed in SoCal; it looked like it would be very vulnerable to fires on that scale.

Lancer

I know the fire was near there in San pasqual but I don’t remember hearing it was hit or really in danger. It should be fine

That’s not what Harry Reid said, Harry said the California fires are because of Global Warming.

Yep. If you look real close you can see the flaming polar bears.

Just so you guys know, the Race Card is out in force and African American and Latino leaders are saying that the reason things are going ‘well’ in San Diego is because white people live here

Defector01 on October 24, 2007 at 5:46 PM

This is not going to fly.
Halle Berry is black (when she wants to be) and, as we now know, she has a jewish cousin. It’s common knowledge that the Jooooos own Southern CA. So this can’t be because Booooosh hates teh blacks.

I personally think they used the same warning system that was used to warn the Jooooos to stay away from the WTC on 911. Hence the timely evacuation.
As for the wind blowing westward, clearly they are reusing Rove’s hurricane machine! Hey, at least they recycle.

MJK
I was just by Children’s Hospital Today, its fine and running at full speed. Nothing to worry about

The reason San diego was successful in keeping death low was because after the Cedar Fires of 2003 the city (working with the state as well) created and put into use some new systems for disaster preparedness. This included the use of automated evacuation notices sent to both land lines, cell phones and emails to the target homes and some SET locations for evacuations that were initially well stocked with food/water/the like and were added to by people’s donations. Qualcomm has room for 60,000 people and enough food to feed them all plenty of times over, same goes with the Del Mar Fair. Not to mention the city began evacuating areas that were still a good 15-20miles away from the fire just to give the fighters more room to work with. And San Diegans didn’t play any of this “I’m staying to protect my land” BS; they got out and left when the call came.

That’s why we are working through this better, that’s why there’s few casualties and that’s why you don’t see a ‘SuperDome’ type situation. Good local preparation and coordination, strong attitude and work by the locals and great leadership from Mayor Sanders to Ron Roberts to the Governor and the Fire/Police/Sheriff Chiefs.

Defector01 on October 24, 2007 at 6:13 PM

Geraldo must be nashing his teeth.

I need to work on earthquake preparation.

I hope, no, I wish them all well and back soon.