Wildfires, wind and what we can do to prevent or reduce the threats, a wildfire just now started in sight of my house.

  As the fire disaster in Southern California continues, they are nowhere close to being under control, the winds are up again today. One of my grandsons is there helping with whatever needs to be done, it appears to be a truly terrible chain of events. I'm not ignoring it, I just simply have no words for it, except to hope and pray relief comes soon, it's supposed to rain in Northern Calfornia later in the week, maybe it will be in the South as well. 

  The wind was blowing about 25 mph this morning when I woke up, not quite on the howling end of the spectrum, but a good steady wind. I was thinking, and still kind of expect it, that an arsonist may start a wildfire, it seems to happen when the wind blows.

Although the last fires in Northern California were started with some sort of an electric utility incident, fallen wires, a failed transformer, or some other equipment failure. I'm not into that 100%, it seems like a real co-incidence for so many to start at one time from one source of failure. Some of them most likely were caused by the equipment failures, but I suspect some were arson as well, the hardest type of fire to prove. The utility that services Northern California from about Fresno north to the Oregon border, there is a lot of infrastructures involved. It's up to the agencies investigating the fires to determine the cause, lawyers are advertising like crazy for clients. The legal people all jumped on the bandwagon when PG&E was first mentioned as a cause, the lawsuits will take years to shake out. In the meantime and even afterward during the reconstruction of the areas affected the cause doesn't mean very much in so far as helping to recover. There is a lot of damage, a lot of structures destroyed, people killed and residents severely injured, so fault does have to be placed somewhere, if for no other reason than to help prevent further fires. I read an article in the newspaper, I apologize I forget the source, it stated PG&E is contemplating shutting down electrical service during periods of high winds. I am wondering today if that is what is the cause of our power outage today, I've been trying to find out but it's tough during the event. With the wind and so many compromised trees, it is probably more than not caused by at least one fallen tree. (Link to PG&E's wildfire and prevention efforts.)
  I was sitting in the garden earlier today watching the wind, I am always amazed at how strong the trees are. I don't think modern engineering with all of their knowledge could design and build a structure as strong as a tree. There is one outside the window I sit in front of writing blogs and working on the website that rock and rolls fiercely, I've been watching it for years, it's a Pecan Tree. Fruit and nut trees are notoriously strong, the wood is prized for furniture making, it doesn't stop me from watching and try to predict which branch will break off. The squirrels are inactive in the wind, they stick to the ground and I don't blame them, I watched one run across the road, skunkpuppy didn't bother to chase it. I figure the wind puts the kibosh on most living beings, she (my dog) laid in the grass shielded from the wind by two garden boxes. Normally if someone goes by, (we have like one or two walkers or bicyclist each day) she will come unglued, fur stands up, growling and barking. She did not bother this morning, she just laid there in the warm sun asleep, I guess being on guard has it's down days as well.

Another self-respecting watchdog.

  There is a long line of trees across the road, If a person were to cut two down every year for firewood as well to prevent one from falling across the utility lines, there would be an almost endless supply. That would work only if it was managed well, there is a lot of trees there acting as a windbreak for the farmer on the other side of the road. Several have fallen onto his ranch, none that I know of have caused any damage, however, he did move his chicken coop because an extremely large tree was blown down into the middle of it, dividing the coop into two. There is not much we can do to pro-actively prevent a tree from falling across utility lines unless they are on the property of the person who wants to trim it or cut it down. That's the story with the trees that line our road, there is a ditch on each side of the road that stays wet most of the year. I don't remember it ever being dry, the undergrowth is doing very well, vector control sprays for mosquito's every week during the summer. There are a few trees I have been watching through the years, to watch some of them in the wind is pretty entertaining. The damage comes when the wind changes directions, our prevailing wind is from the Northwest, the storm wind is from the Southeast, and like today the wind from the East is the one that can cause the most damage. The prevailing wind causes most of the trees to be blown in the direction opposite of the direction it is coming from, the tree builds strength all year long to withstand the prevailing. The soil at the base of the tree is soft and wet generally when the wind shifts the pressure is put on the soft side caused by the constant pressure of the wind attempting to lift up the root system. Sometimes that happens, last winter three huge Eucalyptus trees were uprooted in a wind just like the one we are experiencing today. I stopped on my scooter yesterday to look at a huge Eucalyptus tree on the side of the road, the trunk was every bit of 8 foot in diameter. I have been thinking of that tree this morning, it is so huge the fence next to it has been swallowed by the tree's growing around and into it. It doesn't appear to be in any danger of falling over, but neither did the three that did fall. I give the homeowner credit, it took him less than a year to clean those trees up, he is an old guy like me, he worked on it a little every day, now his place is up for sale.

It happens all of the time. 

  I was thinking about what I could do to help to prevent a tree from falling and causing a utility interruption. If I were to contract with a tree trimming outfit I would have to own the property, it's owned by the State, County or in our case the Unincorporated area. The liability for taking one of those trees down would be enormous, besides most likely being arrested for something like destroying public property. Not only that if I were to cut one of the trees down to prevent it from falling, if it were to fall across utility lines I'm sure there would be added expenses in paying for the repairs to that infrastructure. The county has tree trimmers on our island all of the time, they do a fairly good job taking care that branches do not obstruct the roads. I have never seen them take an entire tree out, however, and no major trimming as well. I suspect the policy is to not cut a tree down but to wait for it to fall then cut it up, that does seem like a reasonable approach. Predicting which tree will fall next is an impossible task to accomplish, I have seen some trees that appear to be perfectly healthy laying across the road, and found to be hollow inside or some other flaw that weakens them and is not visible while it is standing.
  The wind causes its share of problems, docks, pylons, floats and even boats come loose from their anchorages and float down the river. I was awake one morning about 2 am and looked out across the river, interrupting my view was a canoe, it was windy. The canoe was up against my dock and stuck, now I suspected thieves tied it off and were roaming the countryside. Most of the thefts that occur in our area come from the water side, very few from the roadside, people boat in, tie off and have a field day. So I went out there half expecting to scare people off, to my relief no one was there, I tied the canoe off and went back to bed. The custom here is if a person finds something like that, leave it on the dock or tied to it in a highly visible spot, which I did, someone will surely be looking for it. Sure enough 5 years later I was talking to a man down the way, I'd talked to him before so he was not a stranger. We started talking about theft and all things related when he told me "5 years ago some low life stole my canoe, I loved that thing) he told me. I replied, "was it green with a homemade motor mount on it?" He replied it was, I told him I've had it tied to my dock for 5 years and explained how it came to be, needless to say, he came and fetched it immediately. So it goes without saying some of the stuff that disappears is theft, and some of it is stolen by the wind, the wind blows here a lot, 6 months of the year.
  There are some things that can be done to eliminate damage and lose from the winds:
*  Secure items inside a shed, garage or some other protected spot.
*  Tie down items that are too big to move, but still able to be blown away, umbrellas with heavy stands are an example.
*  Tie down boats, use more lines than normal, they can and do break.
*  Keep our trees trimmed, it will prevent broken limbs and possibly from falling over.
*  Be alert while driving, especially after dark, it's possible to go around a curve and meet up with a tree across the road, or an animal that takes advantage of a fallen fence.
*  Keep a 72-hour kit available, we never know how long the event will last. (Link to purchase a 72-hour wildfire kit)

  The wind is good for some things, flying kites, keeping mosquitos away and sailing, I'm sure there is more. I'm generally not one to say there is nothing we can do to prevent damage from a common source, but the wind is close to it. The wild animals appear to stay out of the wind, big birds don't fly in it, small birds do but they struggle, it's a challenge and it will tire a person out quickly, apparently dogs as well.

  Just as I am finishing this blog I looked out the window to see a huge cloud of smoke generated by a fire, that's what I was worried about, with any luck it's on an island and will burn itself out. It was out by mid afternoon, the fire burned itself into the river.

  We do what we can with the wind, it's a hazard and a blessing, we can't control it but it can be predicted so it gives us a window to tie stuff down and put stuff away.
  Thank you for reading and sharing, go out in the wind and watch it, the trees, the water, and the people, it is pretty entertaining.
jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com