Update: More links from Boing Boing, including satellite photos
Update 2: Karoli to MSM: Attention Mainstream Media: Quit Comparing SoCa Fires to Katrina!
There IS no comparison. Yes, the fires are terrible and my heart goes out to every person who has lost their property or worse yet, their life as a consequence. But you simply cannot continue this absurd comparison to Hurricane Katrina, nor should you allow the politicians to use this disaster as evidence that they’ve learned their lessons. Here’s why:
go read the post.
Update #3 Grace Davis has a pointer to her BlogHer post, which in she links to people liveblogging and photographing the fires.
Update #4: Karoli: Deconstructing the Fires
[FEMA's] goal was to use our California disaster to vindicate themselves of the Katrina disaster. It didn’t work.
Update #5: Joel Sax:
The Witch and Harris Fires repeated the cardinal mistakes of the previous fires in San Diego County and it all comes down to this: people in San Diego County don’t want to pay the costs of protecting themselves
The Los Angeles Times is listing 18 active fires (Google map here).
In many cases, crews were slowed fighting fires because they were too busy rescuing residents who refused to leave, fire officials said.
"They didn't evacuate at all, or delayed until it was too late," said Bill Metcalf, chief of the North County Fire Protection District. "And those folks who are making those decisions are actually stripping fire resources."
You can try here: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents, but it is currently overloaded. There's also the National Interagency Fire, here: http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm, which lists the number of current active fires in California as 11. NOAA's Fire Weather page, http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/cafw/index.php has most of Southern California, from the Pacific over to the Central Valley, on Red Flag Alert status. A blog, California Fire News, can be found at http://calfire.blogspot.com/
Below the fold: InciWeb for the fires, to date.
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