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LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

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Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#261

Post by rcpt »

nradov wrote: post #128
segasaturn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why the percentage matters? Whether it's 2% or 20%, it's still millions of dollars that could have been used here. More broadly, why are we cutting fire department budgets when wildfires are becoming more frequent, more intense and a year round phenomenon due to global warming? If you want to trim fat in the government there are much bigger targets to go after than an essential service like firefighting.

Which other fat targets should local governments cut? Please be specific and quantitative.

Police helicopters

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#263

Post by jazzyjackson »

earnestinger wrote: post #172
sbohacek wrote: post #163

The relative humidity is 0.33 [1]. The previous lowest recorded relative humidity was 0.36 in Needles CA and Iran [2] [1] https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries?site=KSMO [2] https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/world-record-low-humidity-...

Maximum being 1 or 100?

The graph and chart indicate it's 0 to 100%, so 0.33 is indeed one third of one percent.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#264

Post by culi »

bloudermilk wrote: post #170

We lost our house to the Eaton fire this morning. It’s difficult to describe the vastness of the destruction in our community. Everything within a couple square miles of us burned.

I'm sorry for your loss. Are you lucky enough to be in a place where insurers in California are still operating? Hopefully you can at least get financial situation taken off your mind

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#265

Post by rcpt »

defrost wrote: post #159
JKCalhoun wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime is rampant, cut the police budget. I hear ya'.

The question is whether quality of life can be improved in the city with a better allocation of the $2 billion dollars. Some should go to policing, yes, community policing should increase, working the stats should decrease, dedicated mental health professionals should be funded and replace a good number of police interactions, etc. This is a large and complex topic that deserves better than ankle deep engagement.

Red light and speed cameras would do 50x the work that cops are supposed to be doing here and cost substantially less

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#266

Post by culi »

darth_avocado wrote: post #197
sapphicsnail wrote: post #16

I was in Pacific Palisades when the fire started yesterday. I've never seen one spread so fast. It went from there being smoke way in the distance and people going about their lives normally, then 90 minutes later the fire was everywhere and people were panicking and evacuating en masse.

I was in a wildfire once. I was in a grocery store and I didn’t see anything burning. 2 minutes into the store, another person came in saying they saw smoke a few blocks away. I immediately left the store and went back to the car. Before I could leave the parking lot, everything around me was on fire, there was smoke so dense I couldn’t see anything beyond 10 feet and I genuinely thought I was going to die, if not in…

Especially in this wind. Some of the strongest Santa Ana winds in a century

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#267

Post by volkse »

sbohacek wrote: post #163

The relative humidity is 0.33 [1]. The previous lowest recorded relative humidity was 0.36 in Needles CA and Iran [2] [1] https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries?site=KSMO [2] https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/world-record-low-humidity-...

You have your units mixed up - Iran record is two orders if magnitude lower than in LA (30% vs 0.3%)

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#268

Post by culi »

segasaturn wrote: post #51

Los Angeles Fire Department funding was cut by over $23M only a few months ago. The fires are currently being fought by a skeleton crew of remaining fire fighters and volunteers. Can't say if that funding would have prevented it, but cutting it definitely has not helped. Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/los-angeles-fires-m... Edit: Changing a word, "gutted" -> "cut"

Interesting that at the same time the police department's budget increased by $126 million

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#269

Post by culi »

joe_the_user wrote: post #254
throwaway249281 wrote: post #115

There's a lot of fingerpointing but as Daniel Swain put it: 1. This was completely expected and forecasted both short and long term by regional climate and weather experts. Two very wet winters caused fuel buildup followed by an extremely hot and dry year. 2. There is very little that can be done in these situations. 100 mph gusts of embers can't be fought with hoses and air attack isn't possible in high winds. 3. Ha…

Two very wet winters caused fuel buildup followed by an extremely hot and dry year. References for the "hot and dry year" ('cause I hear it tossed around a lot). As far as I can tell, all of California had several relatively wet (but hot) years and nothing dry afterwards. I'm linking to NOAA's the California drought map, which shows "Abnormally Dry" (less than "moderate drought") for LA currently and I think showed "…

This was also to be expected in the sense that forecasters for a week now have been warning about century long record wind speeds and the fire dangers those bring along with them

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#270

Post by rayiner »

defrost wrote: post #66
segasaturn wrote: post #51

Los Angeles Fire Department funding was cut by over $23M only a few months ago. The fires are currently being fought by a skeleton crew of remaining fire fighters and volunteers. Can't say if that funding would have prevented it, but cutting it definitely has not helped. Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/los-angeles-fires-m... Edit: Changing a word, "gutted" -> "cut"

Someone tweeted $23 million .. your linked article (thank you for source) follows that with: City budget documents show the department’s more than $800 million budget decreased by around $17 million compared to the previous budget cycle. Which makes the cuts less than %2.12 "Gutted" as a descripter seems extreme and the details that matter are whether these reductions simply trimmed fat, or denied something essential…

That’s on top of about 3.4% inflation from 2023 to 2024. So over a 5% cut in real terms.
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