From: Lila Hayes
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 12:45 PM
To:
Subject: weekly update
December 25, 2004
With the first wave of 2003
wildfire victims just moving into rebuilt homes – and many, many others
still far from finished – these survivors are alarmed to see some merchants
ending discounts they offered after last year's wildfires.
---
Targeting disaster
cycle
Some leaders, public respond
to area's fire-flood danger
Saturday, December 25, 2004 - Here's the
recipe for epic disaster we're still paying for.
An arsonist's flame, howling Santa Ana winds, bone-dry chaparral,
brush-choked foothill neighborhoods lined with incendiary palm trees, and 50,000
mountain dwellers living in a drought-stricken, bug-infested forest.
Add 40 miles of charred mountain watersheds, their canyons aimed at densely
populated slopes below, and a rainstorm dumping up to an inch per hour on the
denuded steeps.
In a span of less than two months that ended a year ago, these factors left
22 dead, thousands homeless, neighborhoods in cities and mountains looking
bombed-out, and rounds of finger-pointing that continue today.
But changes are coming. [more here... http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208%257E12588%257E2618267,00.html?search=filter#]