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@Sanguine Besides not getting the wind gusts in the flatlands that you get in the mountains,the terrain in Texas is MUCH easier for the fire crews to maneuver in to set back fires,dig fire lines,get pumper trucks to hot spots,etc,etc,etc.Even if you can see where you need to get in the mountains,that doesn't mean you can get there the same day.
I'm from North Dakota, where if the wind ever quit blowing, people would fall down from not knowing which way to lean. And a prairie fire can be every bit as devastating as a fire in a canyon. Entire towns have been wiped out by those, too. The land looks a lot flatter than it is, (partly because that's the easiest place to build the roads), and that is why the locals were able to sneak up on the pony soldiers with amazing regularity.I'm not saying this isn't a horrorshow, but it's still brought on by poor management of the land and fuel loads, human activity. While some of the obstacles to mitigation of the results are terrain and nature itself, many are imposed by edict, and those need to be addressed if people are going to continue living in these areas without results like these.
@Smokin Joe I don't think it is a problem that will ever be solved. Mother Nature and human stupidity is a hard combo to beat. I consider breaking even to be the same as a win.
Well the bottom line we constantly live with risk. Be it fire storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, flash floods or even asteroids.We try to minimize the risks but they are never zero.Shit happens besides our best efforts.
Right @DB ...But risk abatement is no longer practiced, at least not up here in the big timber.In the whole first half of my life, this valley filled up with smoke a handful of times. Now it happens every summer.There is a reason for that.
The Camp fire death toll is now at 56 with 130 people unaccounted for.10,321 structures burned and at least 52,000 people are still evacuated.https://ksby.com/news/fire-watch/2018/11/14/winds-slow-spread-of-northern-california-camp-fireThink about that for a moment...
I'm not arguing that environmentalist haven't been bad for the environment or peoples safety. They have. There's certainly room for a lot of improvement but it still isn't risk free and bad shit will still happen.All this will pale when the "big one" hits California, and it will. I think sooner than later. A lot has been done to mitigate earthquake damage - but it won't be enough with something pushing an 8 in heavily populated areas - and there are many where the San Andreas lies.
All this will pale when the "big one" hits California, and it will. I think sooner than later. A lot has been done to mitigate earthquake damage - but it won't be enough with something pushing an 8 in heavily populated areas - and there are many where the San Andreas lies.
Those numbers are something that is really hard to wrap your mind around. I don't even think the massive fire bombings of Europe and Japan during WW-2 racked up those numbers on any one raid.
@DB Those numbers are something that is really hard to wrap your mind around. I don't even think the massive fire bombings of Europe and Japan during WW-2 racked up those numbers on any one raid.
We hit Japan pretty freaking hard with those fire bombings. Some estimates put the death toll at close to a million before we even dropped the atom bombs.
