The Santa Ana winds are fanning the flames of the wildfires in Southern California, is there anything we can we do?

  California had one of the wettest winters in many years last year, levees, dams, and water storage facilities were all put under great stress. After many years (5 years of extreme drought), the waterways were filled with fallen trees, failed pier pylons and even docks, during the wet years the obstruction are carried as far as the rushing water allows, then settle on the bank awaiting the water levels to rise again which may be several years. In the meantime, dams such as the tallest dam in the U.S. Oroville relaxes under the lowered water levels, then when filled with water the immense stresses are realized. The compromised areas were not addressed until they were needed, so goes human nature. The infrastructure suffered immensely, it appears some of it was due to a lack of maintenance.

Some bridges and infrastructure need to be repaired, replaced or eliminated
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  Not so with other infrastructure failures, the washed out bridges, for example, present a situation of which is impossible to predict, bridges are on an inspection schedule mostly every two years. Depending on the condition of the bridge under question, it may be bumped up to a once a year cycle of inspections.
  The Anderson Dam in San Jose, for example, was previously scheduled for seismic upgrades, the reservoir was set at a lower level to allow access to the lower parts of the dam. The improvements are scheduled to begin in 2018 and to be completed sometime in 2020 after last winters rain the schedule may have changed. However the channel the overflow took has been cleaned and dredged, the levees raised and made stronger, so it does appear progress is being made.
  One not overlooked result of the heavy rains of 2016-2017 is the greenery, the growth explodes in the spring, then dry's out, earning the state its nickname "The Golden State", everything turns brown. This past drought was especially hard on the trees, there are many that have died and some very close to not being able to recover. The weeds and grasses that are native do very well, some, like tumbleweed (an invasive species mostly from Russia), blow in the wind and gather in huge piles. Palm trees, many are left untrimmed, the beards hang down sometimes as far as 20 feet from the top branches. When they ignite the beard flames up like a torch, if there are many in a row as is common in some areas of the state, it is like a string of attached firecrackers. (Link to unexpected consequences of the long drought)
When one tree ignites, especially in a wind, the rest follow suit exploding like cotton balls soaked in gasoline. The trees do need to be maintained, there are several on our levee in sight of where I sit to do my blogs and maintain the website, on nice days. I watched the guy trimming the trees, the dry palm branches ladened with dried leaves hung down every bit of 20 feet. He climbed those 40-50 foot tall trees in a matter of seconds, it took him about 15 minutes to cut the branches free from hanging. He was a real professional, he spoke to the owner longer than it took to trim the trees, although it was a Saturday, he may have been a relative.

Examples of Palm Trees being a fire hazard.

  Most places I have lived in California have laws and regulations governing the cleanup of empty lots as well as some qualifying open spaces. Being a Mediterranean climate, the state is covered in low lying bushes, scrub oak and coniferous forest, all very prone to huge wildfires. One of the strategies employed by the State of California and other western states is a process known by the name of "fuel breaks". A fuel break is exactly true to its name, a strip of land laid bare by scraping the top layers of undergrowth to expose the soil below. Placed in a strategic location, such as the top of a hill, or running along a fence outlining a housing development or other structures. It is an extremely effective tool in use since the 1950's, it has grown into a full-scale planning and engineering project which has saved the states billions of dollars in the form of firefighting and damage. (Link to an explanation of fuel breaks on your farm) The clearing is accomplished either by machine or hand methods, sometimes accomplished with the use of herbicides. Weed killer is used in those areas which are primarily not easily accessible, there are many remote areas of which may have free license to burn left unattended. Perennial plants are preferred over invasive species, Vegetation which grows close to the ground and being very woody is used in some locals. There do exist some places where the brush is extremely dry and the leaves along with other organic materials, lay on the ground building up a layer of a foot or more. In some of those circumstances, the underlying organic material is soaked with water, it will retain moisture for an extremely long time until it all decomposes. However another layer is added each year, becoming soaked again from the winter rains, that underlayment slows (does not stop) the fire. Fire management is the first line of defense in all of the Southwestern States.
  There are high winds in the Southwest, most of us have heard the phrase "Santa Ana Winds", (Link explaining what the Santa Ana's are) relentlessly blowing winds that appear in the fall of the year. The 50-80 mph winds in Southern California occurring now, fanning the historic wildfire we are battling now, is the Santa Ana's, 80 mph winds are the lowest velocity winds of which a Hurricane is classified by, a level 1, it shows how intense the winds can be. In Northern California during the summer we experience high winds as well, that is what caused the rapid spread of the wildfires of last summer (2017). When the Central Valley ambient temperatures reach 100+ degrees and the ambient of the San Francisco Bay is characteristically cool, (we refer to 50 degrees as cold) is when the winds blow. People in the valley refer to it as the "Delta Breeze", providing relief during the hot summer evenings as far south as Tulare. The winds cause a host of other problems as well such as vehicle pileups on I-5, the highway that extends from Canada to Mexico.
  Most wildfires are caused by "intentional arson", the perpetrators are extremely difficult to catch in the act, a prosecution is even rarer. The wildfires of Nothern California this past summer were suspected to be caused by electrical power lines that had fallen, transformers that failed and exploded as well as electrical substations experiencing catastrophic failures. It doesn't take much to initiate a shutdown to a substation, I was employed by a generating facility that had a typical substation on site to bring the produced power to supply line requirements. A person driving into work saw what he thought was a lightning strike in the switchyard, he was not 100% certain, he was "convinced" he saw it. He reported it to the operations supervisor, he in turn immediately shut the plant down, we inspected every nook and cranny of that plant, it took 24 hours until the plant was cleared to startup.

A switchyard fire is fairly common.

 "Unintentional arson" is another cause, in fact during the first days of the fires in the Santa Rosa area, a man (who was homeless) was camped in a remote area when he started a fire to warm by. He was arrested for arson, and immediately cleared when it was indeed determined it was unintentional. The Skirball fire in the Los Angelos area (the Bel-Air neighborhood in Northwest L.A.) is said to have been started in a homeless camp, it's not hard to imagine it starting a huge fire in 80 mph winds.
  How big of a problem is it that wildfires are started in a homeless camp? Right off hand, I would say even one is a major problem, especially when fire meets Santa Ana. This is actually one aspect of life in California that is discussed very often in our household, normally between me and my grandson's. Homelessness is at catastrophic levels here, that is what drives the conversation. Wildfires, warehouse fires, abandoned structure fires, how many are started by homeless people cooking or warming? 103 fires each year are started when warming, cooking and campfires are in use. Were they all started by homeless people? No, even when they are it is impossible to find the culprit unless someone comes forward as a witness or confesses to starting it. If even one of the fires started by either intentional arson or a homeless campfire is prevented, millions if not billions of dollars and several lives could be saved.
  This is where the homeless discussion comes into play, to single that out for a brief discussion let me ask a question I have been thinking about: "Would it be cheaper for the state and insurance companies to provide safe housing for homeless people?" I don't have an answer, in fact, the question sounds extremely socially liberal, I don't really see it so much liberal however as it is conservative, let me explain. It would satisfy some of our liberal beliefs, but more so conservatively in that insurance payouts may decrease saving them many millions of dollars, there would be fewer lives lost, less medical expenses that go unpaid, less expenditure related to fighting the fires, and relieve pressure on our National Catastrophic funding reserves. FEMA (Federal Emergency Managment Administration) is the agency responsible for all Federal relief, with all of the disasters we have faced this year the funding is taxed to the maximum.

One Oakland homeless camp, something needs to be done.

We need disaster relief, it needs to be funded well, perhaps there should be a national disaster insurance policy we all need to have that would cover losses from all disasters, not just flooding, I don't know if it would be affordable. In Oakland California exists a company that is supplying "Tough Sheds" for some homeless, there is a location problem with that idea, in a crowded city land is a premium.
  There are so many cries resembling "Oh that won't work." or "Who's going to pay for all of that?" Yes, it may not work, but as far as paying for it, we already are.
  Thank you for reading and sharing, what is your opinion? It's important to have one, tell me about it, I don't have any answers just ideas that fit into my "new years resolution" of: "How can I Help?"
jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com