One of the teeniest bright spots that will come out of the ghastliness in Los Angeles is the total and complete unmasking of the state's progressive politicians and their policies.
For years, rational minds outside the state and those lucky enough to escape have warned about the potential for catastrophe in the witch's brew of lunatic legislation and unbridled hubris that was bubbling away and only needed a spark to ignite an epic disaster.
It was only a question of what form the destructor would take.
When the destructor appeared as towering sheets of fire, racing down canyon walls, through city streets, through thousands of homes, businesses, and lives...the progressive politicians and officials in that city seemed as mesmerized as a chicken by a cobra.
And about as effective.
Their heroic fire crews and first responders threw themselves into battle against the inferno raging on all sides with everything they had.
And without so much they needed, water being the most obvious, critical component during a fire.
Before the first night was over, all of the hydrants serviced by three massive water tanks had run dry. The head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quiñones admitted all the hydrants went dry and then swooped right into "To your question of climate resiliency..." Almost as if sidestepping having to answer WHY the hydrants 'went dry.'
This woman makes $750K a year.
Los Angeles' water boss who makes $750,000 a year couldn't quite explain why fire hydrants have run dry during the disastrous wildfires in a bumbling video.
During a press conference Wednesday, Janisse Quiñones, the newly appointed chief executive officer and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said all water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades area 'went dry' as flames continue to rage on.
...'Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades, and because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it can get to the tanks - we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough,' she explained.
'So the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line,' she continued, adding that there is water in the truck line, but it 'cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough.'
It turns out there was another piece to the puzzle missing from her argle-bargle explanation, which former LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso helpfully filled in later.
...'My understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time, in a timely manner to keep the hydrants going... this is basic stuff, this isn't high science here.
'It's all about leadership and management that we're seeing a failure of, and all of these residents are paying the ultimate price for that.'
This is where the 'Wasn't me' starts to come in. With all the finger-pointing, even as these fires are still raging, people across the country are lambasting CA officials, oleaginous Governor Gavin Newsom in particular, for their criminally negligent attitude toward water storage.
The California Department of Water Resources thought it might be best if they got out ahead of all the boo-birds and showed everyone - diplomatically, of course, 'Yo, man, We have lots of water. Wasn't us.'
Across the state, many of our largest reservoirs are at or above their historic average storage for this time of year. That means adequate water supply for millions of Californians, businesses, agriculture, and the environment -- including water resources for local communities… pic.twitter.com/Sva2bCWTSG
— CA - DWR (@CA_DWR) January 9, 2025
They were correct. Many of the CA reservoirs, thanks to the past two years of record rainfall (Which might also have added to the brush problem on the hillsides...ya think?), are holding above historic pool levels. So what the heck was Caruso talking about?
Oh. THIS.
A reservoir in the Palisades that holds 117 million gallons of water was offline this month for previously scheduled maintenance. It was empty when the Palisades fire exploded. https://t.co/qLgNpFPwiu
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 10, 2025
It had a ripped cover, so they drained it.
A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of use when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby.
Officials told The Times that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades.
The revelation comes among growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water while battling the blaze. Numerous fire hydrants in higher-elevation streets of the Palisades went dry, leaving firefighters struggling with low water pressure as they combated the flames.
...Had the reservoir been operable, it would have extended water pressure in the Palisades on Tuesday night, said former DWP general manager Martin Adams, an expert on the city’s water system. But only for a time.
I think the people whose homes were lost would be satisfied with 'for a time.' Maybe time enough to save a couple more houses?
...Water pressure in the upper Palisades is sustained with three storage tanks, which hold 1 million gallons each. The tanks, part of a network of more than 100 across the city, are located at successively higher elevations in the coastal, hilly neighborhood, with water pumped up to the tanks, then flowing down by gravity to maintain pressure.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, all three tanks had gone dry.
DWP Chief Executive Officer Janisse Quiñones said the tanks could not be refilled fast enough and that demand at lower elevations hampered the ability to pump water to tanks at higher elevations. In one case, DWP crews attempting to reroute water to refill a tank had to be evacuated, officials said.
The water in the reservoir is potable. Had they filled it with a ripped cover, after the Santa Anas went through it would have had to be drained because, per water regulations, it's undrinkable.
So they took a calculated gamble and left it dry as a bone.
It must be the only time in recorded history an LA water district was squeamish about wasting water.
The Palisades Fire is enormous, with a perimeter of over 31.0 sq miles as of this morning, and is only 8% contained.
Interactive 3D map shows #PalisadesFire perimeter, evacuation zones https://t.co/diRlAIpj9G
— KTLA (@KTLA) January 10, 2025
It doesn't help that some moron crashed his drone into one of the two airplanes working to scoop water out of the Pacific and dump it on the hillsides, putting it out of commission.
JUST IN: Two Super Scooper planes were deployed to help fight the fires in Los Angeles. The planes scoop up water from the ocean and drop them over the fires.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 10, 2025
One of them was just grounded with wing damage after it was hit by an unauthorized civilian drone. pic.twitter.com/jee0hEvsz9
Bossman had an earlier piece on the shameful news this morning about LA Mayor Karen Bass's demand that the LA fire department part with $49M more out of their overly generous budget. She's going to have some 'splaining to do.
So is the governor. Part of the excuses for not being able to get this fire contained besides water issues is that it was so big and so fast. Fire crews were simply overwhelmed and undermanned for the speed at which it moved, driven by 80-90 mph Santa Anas and feeding on excessive amounts of dry brush.
Extra help would have been nice, but Newsom's been busy elsewhere. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) has been a frequent target for budget cuts when the governor needs to free up funds for other pet projects.
And in 2020 he issued an executive order that cut the CalFire budget by 40%. pic.twitter.com/1edEO8SvOz
— Elle (@Elle0govnr) January 10, 2025
Even liberal Newsweek, while trying to keep the blow as soft as possible by noting the overall CalFire budget has gone up while specific fire prevention items have taken repeated hits, is calling Newsom out on the numbers.
Gavin Newsom Cut $100M From Fire Prevention Budget Before California Fires
The 2024-25 California state budget, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in June 2024, slashed funding for wildfire and forest resilience by $101 million as part of a series of cutbacks according to an analysis by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office.
The finger-pointing, deflection, and projection are going to be off the charts, especially when these shell-shocked officials come out of their panicked induced stupors and go into survival mode.
The problem with what you know they're going to try to do is that all the proof of their incompetence, malfeasance, hubris, and disregard will have already been laid out in front of an outraged public.
They never take any responsibility for their actions, particularly their incompetence.
— BruceX 🇺🇸 (@realBruceBallou) January 10, 2025
..."There are hurricane force winds of mis- and disinformation. People want to divide this country…It breaks my heart...You wonder where this stuff comes from."
'Wasn't me' isn't going to fly when the flames mercifully die down.
