SHE'S A POWERFUL FORCE -- NATURAL DISASTERS

[username]

I may have a deal on the table to go to Puerto Rico for a month, $1k/day, sounds like a good deal. Got to find out what they are going to do about housing, I can put up with just about anything for a month for that kind of $. Security is a problem, hard to get a CCW permit.
Find out a little more tomorrow

You fucker, have you been doing this the entire time I'm gone? There are TWO POSTS. Trivial drivel and Random Thoughts...Unless you're planning self immolation out of concern for fire victims, get off your ass and find the right thread, lazy butt.

[Duchess]

You fucker, have you been doing this the entire time I'm gone? There are TWO POSTS. Trivial drivel and Random Thoughts...Unless you're planning self immolation out of concern for fire victims, get off your ass and find the right thread, lazy butt.

We had been talking about the hurricanes before the fires. That's probably why he's talking about going to PR to help.

[username]

Nice to see all the worry about me and mine being expressed. Fuckers. Out of sight and all that...

Ahahaha! User! Just this morning I asked where the hell are you and *poof* here you are. It's magic!

Yeah. I don't want to be outside in this smoke and I sure as shit don't want to clean so here I am.

I gave notice last week to my husband that I'm quitting my job so I hope to have a life again soon.

[Duchess]

HotD mentioned smelling the smoke at her house too. There's been such horrible devastation the past few months.

[sally]

I did think about you, but I can't picture your house burning down or anything terrible like that. The poor wild animals have nowhere to go now so I was hoping that one would bite a chunk out of your scrawny ass while taking out the trash.

[Midwest Spy]

I did think about you, but I can't picture your house burning down or anything terrible like that. The poor wild animals have nowhere to go now so I was hoping that one would bite a chunk out of your scrawny ass while taking out the trash.

I can picture her new cabin burning to the ground.

I believe that’s north of SF?

[sally]

Well I hope not, but I wouldn't mind if she got chased down by a small bear.

[Midwest Spy]

Well I hope not, but I wouldn't mind if she got chased down by a small bear.

I hope her cabin survives unscathed too.

[username]

The cabin is fine. Like I said, while I'm sure we've had some mountain fires somewhere, this batch is like having a fire in the middle of I don't know...Omaha, NE? Not THAT dramatic but several are in or are threatening highly populated areas (as highly populated as we get). I just googled Santa Rosa's population: 167,815. Subtract the current, what 200 people that burned when all is said and done? and it's still not that tiny.

It's EXACTLY like having a fire in my area which is a little disconcerting.

I'd want a good bear fuck before he bites me.

[Jimbone]

Now that's a party.

[HairOfTheDog]

I did think about you, but I can't picture your house burning down or anything terrible like that. The poor wild animals have nowhere to go now so I was hoping that one would bite a chunk out of your scrawny ass while taking out the trash.

I could totally see user taking in a homeless porcupine and training it to wheel the trash bins to the curb when her husband and son fall down on the job. Poor critter would have a right to bite or poke her in the bony ass.

[HairOfTheDog]

And therein lies the difference. The fire pictured above and (maybe others) devastated city areas. Suburbs. When the collective "we" think of wildfires, they're out in the hills, possibly dotted by small cities but this fire has taken homes...it's like my house burning down. Absurd (except from the inside)! I'm surrounded by other homes and streets; I feel very immune but that's a fallacy. I don't know how the Santa Rosa fire started but the truth is, I have a barren hill (except for the mountain lions) less than a ¹⁄₄ of a mile away.

In the area of Santa Rosa....IIRC, on the west side of our major thoroughfare (Hwy 101) there are some fields, pastures etc. Again, I don't know where any of the fires started specifically but I know one jumped Hwy 101; the east side of that same freeway is homes and neighborhoods. So many people affected in this one who probably thought "never'.

Yeah, it really does feel different; I've stopped thinking 'never'.

My neighbor's sister and brother-in-law bought a house in Santa Rosa 7 months ago. It's in a neighborhood that was burned down and the neighbor lady hasn't been able to reach them; cell service is nada there. She's losing it - really hope she gets a hold of them soon.

And, my wine-distributor friend is lodging a couple of people who had to immediately evacuate Sonoma county.

You're right, it's gotten so widespread in the last 48 hours that it seems like everyone around me knows at least one person who's been severely impacted. '(

Glad you're not in the immediate line of fire. It's a historically destructive one. Actually, I think the news guy said it's 23 separate fires all joining forces.

[HairOfTheDog]

I may have a deal on the table to go to Puerto Rico for a month, $1k/day, sounds like a good deal. Got to find out what they are going to do about housing, I can put up with just about anything for a month for that kind of $. Security is a problem, hard to get a CCW permit.
Find out a little more tomorrow

The people of Puerto Rico could sure use the help. 90% of the population is still without power and people in the most rural areas still don't have potable water, based on the last update I read.

Plus, "FEMA can't stay in Puerto Rico forever" you know.

What kind of work would you be doing there Six?

[Jimbone]

Anyone interested in current status of the Puerto Rico recovery can check here:

http://www.status.pr/?lng=en

It's updated regularly, info provided directly from the PR gov't.

[Maggot]

This Hurricane was the best thing that could have happened to P.R. they were bankrupt and ready to go under before it hit and now they have a chance to rebuild. As long as they don't spend more than they actually have. They will be a better colony of America.


.................I'm ready bitches.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I may have a deal on the table to go to Puerto Rico for a month, $1k/day, sounds like a good deal. Got to find out what they are going to do about housing, I can put up with just about anything for a month for that kind of $. Security is a problem, hard to get a CCW permit.
Find out a little more tomorrow

The people of Puerto Rico could sure use the help. 90% of the population is still without power and people in the most rural areas still don't have potable water, based on the last update I read.

Plus, "FEMA can't stay in Puerto Rico forever" you know.

What kind of work would you be doing there Six?

Cell Site work, dragging generators, checking on crews, checking on and inspecting cell sites, probably more than just a little actual work, helping antenna crews get set up. Could be a hundred things.
Yes they definitely need the help and if I can be part of that then Cool.
As to FEMA, No obviously they and the DOD cannot be there forever.
That stupid cow mayor and the US news are the only ones freaking out about that even though it is a perfectly logical and correct statement to make. May not have been all politically correct to tweet it out but last I looked Donald was not elected because he is all PC.
Bottom line is although this IS a Natural disaster, the degree of damage and its longevity are directly related to the corruption in PR, its Utilities and unions. You should hear the stories my guys here tell me. PR WILL of course spend more than they have and the loans set up may never be paid back. These folks ARE US Citizens and they are getting what they need, not as fast as they want it, but who ever did?

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, obviously I don't think a deadly hurricane and people without power, food and water is the best thing that could happen to any locale. However, I hope Puerto Rico is enabled to rebuild with a more solid foundation after the current emergency is under better control.

I think most people know that FEMA and the military's goal is to help save lives and move the people out of emergency/relief mode as quickly as possible and then move on (though FEMA is still in Katrina 12 years later and there are still serious infrastructure issues and spending in excess of the initial budget there). Still, the president making a public statement like that about Puerto Rico 3 weeks into a humanitarian crisis involving American citizens was ignorant and politically-motivated, in my opinion.

Trump tried to clean it up this morning though and said help would ALWAYS be there for Puerto Rico. So, hopefully, that calms the mayor down and reassures the governor. The governor has been very supportive of Trump but was taken aback by Trump's statement yesterday and asked for reassurance.

Florida and Texas got help very quickly with no public chastising after Irma and Harvey, despite infrastructure failures there (we really need infrastructure upgrades across the whole mainland U.S. too, in my opinion). By all accounts that I've read and heard so far, the U.S. government acted quickly enough for them and they're satisfied. But, I do think those in the worst peril there were much easier to reach than those in remote areas of Puerto Rico.

Anyway, sounds like hard but rewarding (not just financially) work you'd be doing in Puerto Rico Six.

[Jimbone]

I came across a pretty good letter to the editor about Puerto Rico. It's from 10/4/17, so it's a little dated now but the content is solid (in my opinion this guy nailed it):

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/marylan...story.html

Having spent time in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and traveled around the island, I can understand why the island has suffered terribly in the wake of hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico is the poster child for poor construction methods, lack building codes, shoddy workmanship, and corrupt government officials who did not enforce infrastructure improvements on the island for the last seventy years. In short, Puerto Rico was a disaster waiting to happen.

Since the majority of Puerto Rico’s island population lives on its coastline, they received the brunt of Maria’s 180 mph plus winds that literally blew off the flimsy roofs of homes, knocked down 16,000 miles of poorly anchored and supported power lines, flooded all the low lying areas, washed out dozens of bridges critical to road transportation, and crippled the airport and its air traffic control center making air plane operations next to impossible.

These calamities on top of no clean water, little food, no sanitation, no medical facility, and no basic human needs on an island far away from immediate outside support spells misery. Fortunately, so far, less than 20 people have died with this historic storm.

Help could only come from the U.S. mainland. The governor of the island has praised President Trump’s response and his quick reaction to send help to the island. San Juan’s liberal mayor, Carmen Cruz, made statements with an inappropriate position claiming help was not arriving fast enough or in insufficient amount to keep people from “dying.” She apparently was clueless to the actual facts of assistance.

Cruz has not attended the San Juan located FEMA coordinators meetings critical to understanding the logistical support and issues of distribution. She has apparently ignored the seven thousand U.S. FEMA and U.S. military already on the island bringing in initial supplies. She ignored the USS Kearsarge aircraft carrier bringing essential water and food by helicopter to areas unreachable by road. She ignored the Georgia Air National Guard flying dangerous landing missions to a blacked out airport bringing tons of essential supplies. She ignored the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers making every effort to restore power, water, roads and critical infrastructure to Puerto Rico. She ignored the fact that correcting decades of the island’s third world attitude toward infrastructure improvements reflects the government’s endemic corruption and six billion dollar debt the island cannot pay.

These things are not the fault of any U.S. President, they belong to Puerto Rico. Anyone trying to bring assistance to an island with Puerto Rico’s devastation will know the immense logistical issues. Puerto Rico is receiving enormous support from U.S. agencies, our military, public and private organizations and individual assistance.

Fixing Puerto Rico will take a long time, perhaps years. Mayor Cruz needs a reality check and stop making political theater while standing in front of tons of pallets loaded with can goods delivered by FEMA. The hurricane did enough damage without the Mayor doing more.

[HairOfTheDog]

I haven’t heard anyone blaming President Trump for Puerto Rico’s unstable infrastructure or economy. Not even Mayor Cruz.

What I have heard is Mayor Cruz criticizing the government’s response time and commitment, as well as criticizing Trump’s leadership ability and level of empathy.

Help save American lives and end the immediate humanitarian crisis as a matter of first priority — that’s what I wish both Trump and Cruz would hammer without the political and personal criticisms.

The disaster relief budget and financial assistance for the future will be worked out later, as it always is.

To me, the blame game by both sides is an unnecessary and unhelpful distraction.

[HairOfTheDog]

- As of this morning..............a total of 36 victims have been confirmed dead in the northern California wildfires; that number is sadly expected to grow as the fires continue to rage on.

- Twenty of the victims have been identified as of Friday evening, some of them are pictured below.



- Charles and Sara Rippey, 100 and 98, just celebrated 75 years of marriage; Kai Shepherd, 14, is the youngest of the victims who have been named; Carmen Berriz died in her husband, Armando's arms, as they escaped the fire by jumping in a swimming pool.

- As many as 256 people remain missing and 25,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area.

More here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...named.html