california wildfires

Devastation from California wildfires comes into focus as some blazes are contained

By Rafael Azul
WSWS
27 October 2007

Six days of massive wildfires have left a devastating human toll in Southern California. The blazes have charred close to 500,000 acres, or about three quarters the size of the state of Rhode Island. Wildfires also flared on the Mexican side of the border, as far south as the city of Ensenada.

FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA

By Al Kamen
Wasgington Post
Friday, October 26, 2007

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a "listen only" line, the notice said -- no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.

BURN BABY BURN
The California Celebrity Fires

By Greg Palast
October 26, 2007

The ‘Boo ain’t no N.O.
Plus: George Bush, Flame Retard
By Greg Palast

What color is your disaster? It makes a difference. A life and death difference.

Dig:

Population of San Diego fire evacuation zone: 500,000
Population of the New Orleans flood evacuation zone: 500,000

White folk as a % of evacuees, San Diego: 66%
Black folk as % of evacuees, New Orleans: 67%

Size counts, too. Size of your wallet, that is:

Evacuees in San Diego, in poverty: 9%
Evacuees in New Orleans, in poverty: 27%

The numbers would be even uglier, though more revealing, if I included evacuees of the celebrity fire in Malibu.

Fire on the Mountain
California Feels the Heat of Global Warming

By Daniel J. Weiss
October 24, 2007

Brave fire fighters - 20 dead
The horrific wildfires in southern California have already forced an estimated 500,000 people from their homes. More than 1,600 homes and buildings

have been destroyed by the wind whipped flames. Brave fire fighters valiantly battle the blaze against long odds to reduce the threat to relatively unscarred places. These fires, which range from northern Los Angeles County to the Mexican border, have produced so much smoke that they are visible in satellite pictures hundreds of miles from Earth. They are a terrible human tragedy.