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Photo by Glenn Beltz | CC by 2.0

Watching the first ten minutes of the “Public” (Petroleum and/or Pentagon?) Broadcasting System (“P”BS)’s NewsHour two nights ago, I was overcome by a sense of the surreal. The first news item was the Insane Clown President’s (ICP) idiotic (if base-pleasing) announcement that the U.S. embassy in Israel will at some point be moved from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. NewsHour host and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member Judy Woodruff announced a special segment on this story later in the broadcast.

The next story was the coming likely resignation of the centrist corporate-Democratic Party pain-in-the-ass Al Franken from the U.S. Senate in response to cascading allegations of sexual harassment and weirdness. That too was to receive a special segment, the CFR’s Woodruff assured viewers.

Then came a brief yet hair-raising report showing homes burning and enflamed mountains looming over motorists in southern California, just outside Los Angeles. The wildfire footage was breathtakingly dystopian.

There was no special segment scheduled for the pre-apocalyptic California wildfires, which were taking down mansions in opulent Bel Air and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.

How, I wondered, was this not the top story?

A correspondent writes me from Central California today (Thursday morning):

‘Climate apocalypse’ is accurate. I live on California’s central coast. Ojai and Ventura surrounded by fires. Carpenteria being evacuated. Lompoc and Santa Barbara covered in ash. White ash floating everywhere in central California.”

In The New York Times today:

Southern California is fighting a renewed onslaught from the wildfires menacing greater Los Angeles, with emergency crews contending with brisk winds, steep terrain and fatigue from days of relentless work.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hurricane-Force Winds Fan SoCal Wildfires As 200,000 Residents Flee Their Homes

December 7, 2017

Hurricane-Force Winds Fan SoCal Wildfires As 200,000 Residents Flee Their Homes

At least four devastating wildfires continued to ravage Southern California from Ventura County south to Los Angeles, as the stifling smoke and flames drove tens of thousands of people living in the Los Angeles area from their homes in an eerie replay of the fires that decimated Northern California’s wine country two months ago.

Officials in Southern California have warned that powerful winds (as high as 80 mph in some spots, the same speed as a low-level hurricane) would continue to fan the flames after returning overnight. So far, more than 200,000 people have evacuated their homes and many more are expected to flee. The Los Angeles Fire Department has ordered the evacuation of the 20.5 square miles including and surrounding the Creek Fire, which jumped the 210 Freeway and is threatening Santa Ana’s Sylmar and Lake View Terrace neighborhoods. The Rye Fire in Santa Clarita prompted the shutdown of Highway 5, according to Mashable.

“We are in the beginning of a protracted wind event,” said state fire chief Ken Pimlott.

“There will be no ability to fight fire in these kinds of winds,” Pimlott said. “At the end of the day, we need everyone in the public to listen and pay attention. This is not ‘watch the news and go about your day.’ This is pay attention minute-by-minute … keep your head on a swivel.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, communities both on the coast and inland were under threat. At 4 a.m., officials closed the 101 Freeway between Routes 126 and 150. According to the California Highway Patrol, that left no open routes between Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Fires were also burning on the north and east side of Highway 150 and on the west side of Highway 33.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

150,000 Flee Los Angeles As Wildfires Rage – “We’ll Be Fighting This All Week”

December 6, 2017

150,000 Flee Los Angeles As Wildfires Rage – “We’ll Be Fighting This All Week”

In what sounds like a replay of the devastating fires that killed dozens of people and torched a broad swath of California wine country this past summer, at least five discrete fires barreled across Southern California with extreme speed, torching more than 65,000 acres as firefighters struggled to contain the simultaneous infernos.

The first blaze started at about 6:25 p.m. Monday in the foothills near Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, a popular hiking destination. It grew quickly to more than 15 square miles in the hours that followed, consuming vegetation that hasn’t burned in decades, Ventura County Fire Sgt. Eric Buschow said, according to CNN.

Powerful Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions have fueled the wildfires, according to the Washington Post, adding hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars in damage to what has already been a devastating year for fires. The winds that caused the fires were part of the season’s longest and strongest wind event – driving down from the desert and mountains into the city of Los Angeles.

So far, the latest fires have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, burned down more than a hundred buildings and triggered power outages in the region.

According to CNN, on Tuesday, the city of Ventura declared a daily curfew, beginning 10 pm to 5 am. The curfew is to protect residents and prevent crime such as looting in the evacuation areas, the city said. The largest fire, called the Thomas Fire, was seen crossing the 101 Freeway north of the city of Ventura. That fire had been burning at nearly an acre per second Tuesday. At that speed, it would have covered Manhattan’s Central Park in about 14 minutes.

The Thomas Fire spanned 50,000 acres (about 78 square miles) in Ventura County alone, which sits just north of Los Angeles. The fire was 0% contained as of Tuesday night.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

There Have Been 698 Earthquakes In California Within The Past 30 Days

November 27, 2017

There Have Been 698 Earthquakes In California Within The Past 30 Days

Why is the west coast shaking so violently? According to the latest data from Earthquake Track, there have been 698 earthquakes in California within the past 30 days. By the time that you read this article, that number will undoubtedly have changed. In recent days I have felt such an urgency to write about the seismic activity on the west coast, and I am quite concerned that so few people seem to be paying attention to what is happening.

As I have covered previously, scientists tell us that when seismic activity begins to escalate the probability of having a major earthquake jumps significantly. Over the past month there have been more mainstream news articles about earthquake swarms in California than I have seen in years, and the magnitude 4.6 earthquake that rattled Monterey County earlier this month made headlines all over the world.

And it isn’t just the U.S. section of the “Ring of Fire” that seems to be awakening. I have written about Mt. Popocatepetl down in Mexico several times recently, and on Friday it erupted three more times…

Spectacular eruptions have been seen Southeast of Mexico City as Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano spewed smoke and ash high into the air.

The volcano had three eruptions Friday, one of which reached two and a half miles into the sky.

The first explosion occurred at about 5:00 p.m. local time.

Two more explosions overnight spread ash over the villages and fields south of the volcano.

I cannot stress enough how potentially dangerous this situation could become. In ancient times, Mt. Popocatepetl completely covered entire Aztec cities with massive amounts of super-heated mud. Scientists assure us that someday Mt. Popocatepetl will once again erupt in a similar fashion, and the devastation that this will cause will be off the charts.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The California Duck Curve isn’t confined to California

November 15, 2017

The California Duck Curve isn’t confined to California

The California Duck Curve is causing concern among California’s utilities, who wonder whether they will be able to ramp generation up quickly enough to meet evening peak demand when all the new solar capacity California plans to add over the next few years comes on line. As the title of this post notes, however, the California Duck Curve isn’t unique to California. It’s present everywhere to a greater or lesser extent regardless of the shape of the daily load curve, and in many places it’s a more serious problem than it is in California.

From the Institute for Energy Reasearch:

(The California Duck Curve) provides a scenario of a sunny day where distributed photovoltaic generation pulls down non-solar electricity demand to extremely low levels at midday when the sun is at its hottest and distributed photovoltaic generation is at a high. That is, the state’s non-solar generating capacities must reduce their production to inefficient lows when the energy supply at the “belly” of the duck from solar distributed generation is at its highest. Later in the day when solar generation is declining and California residents are coming home from work and turning on their appliances, electricity demand ramps up dramatically, which requires flexible generation capacity to come on-line very quickly to meet it. The California ISO is worried that the “neck” of the duck curve could overwhelm the state’s available generating capacity.

Figure 1 shows the duck curve. It clearly illustrates the problem California’s utilities face. Adding more solar generation increases ramp rates leading up to the evening demand peak that coincides with the setting Sun, and if enough is added California’s load-following capacity could find itself unable to ramp up quickly enough to keep the air conditioners running. Could this happen?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

San Andreas ‘Quake Swarm’ Has Cali Residents Fearing The ‘Big One’ Is Imminen

November 14, 2017

San Andreas ‘Quake Swarm’ Has Cali Residents Fearing The ‘Big One’ Is Imminent

Yesterday morning a series of 10 earthquakes struck Monterey County, California along the San Andreas fault line and has Cali residents increasingly concerned that the “Big One” could be next. The quakes, the biggest of which measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, hit near Salinas, California but were felt 90 miles away in San Francisco. Per SF Gate:

A 4.6-magnitude earthquake rattled Monterey County on Monday and was felt more than 90 miles away in San Francisco, officials said.

The quake hit at 11:31 a.m. about 13 miles northeast of Gonzales, near Salinas, and was followed by nine smaller aftershocks, with the largest measuring magnitude 2.8, said Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Baltay said the quake occurred on the San Andreas Fault, close to an area where the Calaveras Fault branches off. The quake happened at a depth of about 4 miles.

While a seismologist for the US Geological Survey, Annemarie Baltay, dismissed the recent quakes as part of ‘normal seismic activity’, the Director of the Southern California Earthquake Center offered a slightly different opinion to the LA Times last year:

“Any time there is significant seismic activity in the vicinity of the San Andreas fault, we seismologists get nervous,”said Thomas H. Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, “because we recognize that the probability of having a large earthquake goes up.”

As seismic activity drops, the probability of having a large earthquake also decreases.

Experts said it’s important to understand that the chance of the swarm triggering a big one, while small, was real.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

After Wildfires, Californians Warned: ‘You Will See Rapid Flooding, People TRAPPED’

October 30, 2017

After Wildfires, Californians Warned: ‘You Will See Rapid Flooding, People TRAPPED’

Maxwell, California flooded in 2017

Experts are warning that California’s state capital could be the next hot spot to experience massive flooding on catastrophe levels. Officials are admitting that one particular Sacramento neighborhood is in an area that never should have been settled, to begin with.

The neighborhood slopes downward from a levee that separates it from the American River, and even though officials said it should not have ever been settled, it is home to 100,000 residents. “I am just trying to imagine what three feet of water in my house would look like, and based on that, I moved things higher,” said Marion Townsend a 53-year-old resident. “And if the evacuation order comes, I want to know what I should grab.”

But models of the levee’s failure show not only a meager 3 feet of water inside homes. Some are predicting as much as 20 feet of water to flood Sacramento homes. As Northern Californians are recovering from wildfires and sifting through homes reduced to ash, officials in the state’s capital are struggling to prevent another type of natural disaster. If a levee were to break along the American River, which empties into the Sacramento River near downtown, water would start flowing into the city. Although floodgates could be quickly deployed to protect downtown Sacramento from a life-threatening deluge, the water would eventually seep in from other directions, covering much of the area in several feet of water, said Roger Ince, a Sacramento emergency coordinator.

“You are not going to see a wall of water coming into Sacramento, but you will see rapid flooding and people not able to get out of their homes, out of care facilities. They are trapped,” said Stephen Cantelme, chief of Sacramento County’s Emergency Services. “I am much more confident in our levees holding up than I was 10 years ago. . . . But I am concerned 200-year [flood protection] is not enough.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How Silicon Valley’s Dirty Tricks Helped Stall Broadband Privacy in California

October 25, 2017

How Silicon Valley’s Dirty Tricks Helped Stall Broadband Privacy in California

Tech, including Facebook and Google, lent their support to a host of misleading scare tactics.

Wolf here: After the US Congress repealed restrictions earlier this year, your broadband provider (ISPs such as Comcast, Verizon, or AT&T) can monetize your private data. ISPs know practically everything you do on the internet, and they know who you are and have your credit data from credit bureaus such as Equifax. California tried to pass legislation that would have reinstated some of those protections. So this is not just about a legislative defeat of internet privacy in California, but about how lobbyists for the tech industry in general operate.

As this succeeded in California — via falsehoods and national security scaremongering — the campaign is now heading to other state legislatures because the industry wants to monetize all your data in a world where you and your data are the product.

By Ernesto Falcon, Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Across the country, state lawmakers are fighting to restore the Internet privacy rights of their constituents that Congress and the President misguidedly repealed earlier this year. The facts and public opinion are on their side, but the recent battle to pass California’s broadband privacy bill, A.B. 375, suggests that they will face a massive misinformation campaign launched by the telecom lobby and, sadly, joined by major tech companies.

The tech industry lent their support to a host of misleading scare tactics.

Big Telco’s opposition was hardly surprising. It was, after all, their lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. that repealed the privacy obligations they had to their customers. But it’s disappointing that after mostly staying out of the debate, Google and Facebook joined in opposing the restoration of broadband privacy for Californians despite the bill doing nothing about their core business models (the bill was explicitly about restoring ISP privacy rules).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

California Wildfires Inflict More Devastation

October 24, 2017

California Wildfires Inflict More Devastation

Among recent natural disasters striking the U.S. are devastating wildfires that torched California’s wine country, destroyed thousands of homes and killed more than 40 people, report Dennis J Bernstein and Miguel Gavilan Molina.

The Tubbs neighborhood in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, one of the hardest hit by the recent fires in Northern California, looked like some of the worst bombed-out and scorched neighborhoods in Syria with little left standing other than a few red brick chimneys and the burnt-out shells of cars and heavy metal appliances.

A map of the 2017 Northern California wildfires from October 5 to October 12. (Wikipedia)

According to CalFire, the three largest fires in California’s Wine Country — the Tubbs, Atlas and Nuns — have burned more than 182,000 acres in Sonoma and Napa counties. The total number of houses and businesses destroyed is estimated at more than 5,700 buildings with a death count of more than 40 people. In the Tubbs Fire alone, 17 people died, making it among the deadliest fires in the state’s history.

Pacifica’s Flashpoints program broadcast live from the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa with interviews with Santa Rosa City Council Member Julie Combs and Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore.

Dennis Bernstein: Let me first begin with you, Councilwoman Julie Combs. … Let’s start on a personal note. We were talking before we went on air and I was thinking it must be horrifying to have a tree fall on your house. But then you said….

Julie Combs: I’d rather have a tree than a fire. I was very lucky. I am okay but my heart is with my whole city and my whole city is still recovering.

Dennis Bernstein: Tell us some of the stories you have heard.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

15 Videos Show What It’s Really Like Trying to Survive the California Wildfires

October 16, 2017

15 Videos Show What It’s Really Like Trying to Survive the California Wildfires

The Northern California wildfires are fast-moving, unpredictable, and for some, unsurvivable. The videos below will show you what it’s really like, trying to survive an ever-changing inferno…and why you shouldn’t wait for the official evacuation order.

A lot of folks have been critical, saying blithely, “They knew there was a fire. They should have evacuated.” It’s important to understand that it doesn’t always work like that with wildfires. Armchair quarterbacking is easy. Fleeing when the car your driving literally catches on fire and the smoke is blinding you is not.

First of all, fires move rapidly. You can be in no danger whatsoever and just see a fire on the distant horizon, and then minutes later, it’s at your back door. Secondly, they change courses. Many times, the fire gets ahold of some new fuel – like a home, tall grass, or trees, and the course veers in that direction. Finally, high winds have propelled these fires rapidly and fanned them to new heights. Every fall, California has something called the “Diablo Winds.” These are seasonal gusts that can reach as high as 80 mph and cause extremely high fire danger. When coupled with existing fires, it’s nothing less than the perfect storm.

October is often the worst month of the year for wildfires in California. Not only is it the time when the Diablo winds (or Santa Ana winds in Southern California) kick up, but it’s also the driest month. California has a long dry season. It isn’t unusual to go without a single drop of rain from May through the end of October. Because of this, all the lush grass that grows during the spring rainy season is dried, crisp, and tragically perfect fuel.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Wildfires Force More Evacuations As Death Toll Climbs To 40; Nearly 6,000 Buildings Destroyed

October 15, 2017

Wildfires Force More Evacuations As Death Toll Climbs To 40; Nearly 6,000 Buildings Destroyed

Hurricane force winds returned to Northern California on Saturday, revitalizing the massive Tubbs fire that’s destroyed much of Santa Rosa. With the fire headed toward the few neighborhoods in the city of 140,000 that haven’t already been destroyed, state authorities ordered thousands more residents to evacuate as residents in some of the hardest hit neighborhoods began venturing back into the city to see what, if anything remains of their homes.

An estimated 3,000 people in Santa Rosa and at least 250 people in Sonoma evacuated their homes before dawn, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, the death toll for what was the deadliest week for wildfires in California history has climbed to 40, while 5,700 homes and businesses have been destroyed.

Fortunately, the winds that have stoked the fires started to die down Saturday afternoon. And with temperatures dropping on Sunday, firefighters have finally been able to go on the office and make meaningful advances in their attempts to contain the flames.

Officials said Sunday they are making good progress on the Tubbs and Atlas fires, which have devastated much of Sonoma and Napa counties. Both were fires were more than 50% contained by mid-morning Sunday, the LA Times reported. Fifteen fires continue to burn across A 100-mile swath of the state. So far, they’ve ravaged more than 220,000 acres.

Meanwhile, the Nuns Fire, which continued to rage in Sonoma County, has burned 47,106 acres and is 25 percent contained. There were no reports of new evacuation orders early Sunday in the areas affected by the fires, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Nothing More Than Ash And Bone” – NorCal Wildfires Now Deadliest In State’s History

October 13, 2017

“Nothing More Than Ash And Bone” – NorCal Wildfires Now Deadliest In State’s History

Over five days, the cluster of wildfires that’ve broken out in California’s wine country have claimed at least 31 lives – making this the deadliest week for wildfires in the state’s history. And with the remains of many incinerated homes still too hot to enter, authorities say that number is likely to climb – perhaps significantly – as elderly residents of the afflicted communities were blindsided by the fires’ ferocity, and many were unable to flee in time.

The average age of the 10 victims whose names have been released is 75, state officials said. The youngest was 57.

Whole neighborhoods have been reduced to smoldering rubble. Meanwhile, an army of firefighters have had little success trying to suppress the flames; the largest conflagrations continue to burn virtually unimpeded. Local firefighters, many of whom have worked for days on end with little or no sleep despite their own homes having burned to the ground, are finally being relieved by reinforcements from out of state, CNN reported.

Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano described the grim reality of the body recovery efforts, which he said had only just begun.

“We’re moving into a recovery phase,” Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano said. “That is the reality part of it.”

Speaking late Thursday, Giordano said that two more bodies had been recovered as search teams moved into areas where people had been reported missing in the wake of the fires.

“We have found bodies almost completely intact, and we have found bodies that were nothing more than ash and bones,” Giordano said.

California’s iconic wine country – comprising Sonoma and Napa counties – has been particularly hard hit, as have Mendocino, Yuba, Nevada, Butte and Orange counties. As of late Thursday, 21 fires spanned 300 square miles – up from 8 on Tuesday. Most are still less than 10% contained. So far, more than 3,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed, as NPR reported.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Shocking Aerial Footage Shows Devastating Aftermath Of “California’s Deadliest Wildfire Disaster”

October 12, 2017

Shocking Aerial Footage Shows Devastating Aftermath Of “California’s Deadliest Wildfire Disaster”

With at least 29 dead, and over 3500 houses destroyed, the devastating series of fires that has ravaged Northern California’s Wine Country has to be seen to be believed. As smoke clogs the air up to 100 miles away and with schools and sports programs shut down across the entire NorCal region, this disaster is already being called states deadliest wildfire in history.

“These fires are a long way from being contained, so we’re doing the best we can for people that have been displaced and help them to hopefully rebuild their lives” said Barry Dugan, a Sonoma County spokesman.

Entire neighborhoods have been lost…

But the park survived…

But Kmart was not so lucky…

As the following shocking aerial footage shows, there is nothing left of some of the states (and country’s) most beautiful places to live…

NorCal Wildfires Death Toll Climbs To 23 As “Destructive” Winds Fan Flames

October 12, 2017

NorCal Wildfires Death Toll Climbs To 23 As “Destructive” Winds Fan Flames

After slackening earlier in the week, the dry, nearly hurricane-force winds that have been fanning the flames in Northern California picked up again overnight, revitalizing what some are already describing as the most devastating wildfires in the state’s modern history.

As of Thursday morning, 23 people have been confirmed dead in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Yuba counties. Another 200 are missing. Fires have swallowed more than 3,500 homes and businesses over more than 170,000 acres. And the state’s emergency shelters are rapidly approaching their limits as more than 25,000 people have fled with more than 4,000 staying in the shelters, according to the Washington Post.

The death toll is expected to rise significantly as officers reenter the “hot zones” that were totally destroyed by the fires.

“We can’t even get into most of the areas,” Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said. “When we start doing searches, I expect that number to go up.”

Destroyed residential neighborhood in Santa Rosa.

“The historic wind event that swept across PG&E’s service area late Sunday and early Monday packed hurricane-strength winds in excess of 75 mph in some cases,” said Ari Vanrenen, a PG&E spokeswoman, in a statement released after the San Jose Mercury News first revealed a possible link between the wildfires and downed power lines.

“These destructive winds, along with millions of trees weakened by years of drought and recent renewed vegetation growth from winter storms, all contributed to some trees, branches and debris impacting our electric lines across the North Bay,” she said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Power Grid Failures: CA Wildfires Are Now A Serious Critical Catastrophic Event

October 12, 2017

Power Grid Failures: CA Wildfires Are Now A Serious Critical Catastrophic Event

wildfiresca

The death toll continues to rise because of the California wildfires currently scorching across wine country. With 23 dead and hundreds missing, the fires are labeled as a “serious critical catastrophic event” complete with power grid failures.

The wind known as the Diablo is picking up again, the air is dry, there is no rain in sight and the killer wildfires that have scorched the wine country of Northern California remain almost completely uncontained. Officials warned Wednesday that some of the big fires could merge making them almost impossible to contain. While thousands have been told to evacuate or prepare to leave their homes, hundreds are missing and 23 are dead.

There’s now also a probable link between the wildfires and the power grid failure. The huge utility company PG&E acknowledged that the extreme winds late Sunday and early Monday had knocked trees into power lines in conditions conducive to wildfires. “The historic wind event that swept across PG&E’s service area late Sunday and early Monday packed hurricane-strength winds in excess of 75 mph in some cases,” said Ari Vanrenen, a PG&E spokeswoman, in a statement released after the San Jose Mercury News first reported on a possible link between the wildfires and the power grid. “These destructive winds, along with millions of trees weakened by years of drought and recent renewed vegetation growth from winter storms, all contributed to some trees, branches, and debris impacting our electric lines across the North Bay,” she said.

Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said they have yet to determine the cause of the fires, which have killed at least 23 people in Napa, Sonoma, Yuba and Mendocino counties.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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