Why doesn’t anyone check the news on non-political topics? It seems there has been a lot of smokescreen lately when it comes to natural disasters. We are constantly told that such events are the “worst” in history. We recently saw Hurricane Harvey flood the Houston, TX area, we were told it was the worst damage ever done by a hurricane. Is not true. We were told that such flooding in that region was unprecedented, that’s not true either, Houston has major flood events at least twice a decade, yes, this was the worst in years, but hardly the worst in history, only now there’s more people flooded
The following week there was a large wildfire (nicknamed: La Tuna Fire) in Southern California in Los Angeles County near Burbank and Glendale CA. It burned about 7,000 more acres. He told us it was the largest fire in Los Angeles County history: he looked straight into the television cameras with a straight face and told a bald-faced lie. It was nowhere near the worst wildfire, wildfire, or most expensive or property damage for that matter. Not even close.
For example, from September 28 to October 6, 2005, the Topanga Fire burned 24,175 acres; o The Fire Station from August 26, 2009 to October 16, 2009 which burned 160,577 acres and we lost 209 structures and there were 2 fatalities. The Springs Fire that started in Ventura County on May 2, 2013, burned 24,000 acres, of which more than 8,000 acres were in Los Angeles County.
And, keep in mind these are fires not that long ago, in fact there are still bush burns on the trails – you can see when you hike, the burned bushes will still stain your legs with charcoal when you run against Trust me I’m an avid trail runner and come back often with black leg stripes from fires nearly a decade ago. In fact, at the La Tuna Fire, Firefighters received a rain storm that brought the fire down significantly and it was completely put out fairly quickly in a short time.
Why all the fake news? I think it’s so politicians can claim “devastation” to attract more federal and state money into the area from Emergency Disaster Relief Funds. So they can generate more support from the federal government to pay for aerial firefighting tanker support and make themselves bigger while running for governor or trying to get re-elected as mayor. Regardless of why, they know they are not telling the truth and think that “we” citizens are so stupid and have such short memories that we don’t know the difference or that we may be misled because the media keeps repeating the lie.
“Where are the fact checkers?” dare I ask? Why do the Fire Chiefs, Police Chiefs, Public Works Managers stand by these politicians and stay silent, they know the truth, it has taken decades for them to become department heads – it could be that they became department heads of department going with the flow and living the lie in the trade of well-paying jobs, pensions and benefits? Scary thought, especially considering this trend.