
Catastrophic does not even come close to describing what’s happening in Southern California right now. Tens of thousands of people are living in shelters. Homes and businesses destroyed. Lives changed forever.
“I just left the hellscape formerly know as Pacific Palisades where I’ve lived for 26 years,” resident Wes Nichols wrote on X. “I’m mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us. Unprepared, unimaginative, understaffed, now overwhelmed. Heads must roll for this disaster.”
And there’s a very good chance much of the destruction could have been prevented. For decades the Democrats who controlled California have mismanaged the forests – leaving many of the wooded areas around Los Angeles overgrown and vulnerable to wildfires.
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To make matters even worse, all the fire hydrants ran out of water because government leaders refused to refill reservoirs. That’s because Gov. Gavin Newsom and the tree huggers wanted to protect a tiny fish.
That revelation enraged President-elect Trump who called on Newsom to resign.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump said.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now the ultimate price is being paid.”
“I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
And many are wondering whether the new fire chief – a diversity hire – has the capacity to deal with the crisis.
Kristin Crowley was appointed in 2022 – the first female and the first openly LGBT fire chief. Chief Crowley made her top priority adding more women and gays to the department – pushing diversity, inclusion and equity.
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Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, is also facing questions about her handling of the crisis. She recently slashed more than $17 million from the fire department’s budget. Fire officials warned the cuts would limit their ability to fight major fires.
Questions that Mayor Bass refused to answer. She was in Ghana partying at the new president’s inauguration. A Sky News reporter confronted the mayor at the airport and she refused to answer any questions. She also declined to apologize to the people of her city.
“There’s no water in the Palisades. There’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city. Not the firefighters’ fault, but the city’s,” said billionaire developer Rick Caruso.
He could’ve been the mayor of Los Angeles, but instead, voters chose a diversity hire for City Hall.
“We have got a mayor that is out of the country, and we have got a city that is burning, and there is no resources to put out fires,” Caruso told Fox LA. “It looks like we’re in a third-world country here.”
Elections have consequences and sometimes those consequences are deadly.
More than 100,000 people have evacuated, thousands of homes have been destroyed, many people have lost their lives, but at least we still have the smelt fish and a lesbian fire chief. Was it worth the price Los Angeles?