(Originally published at 9:01 a.m. PST November 10, 2018)
President Trump is in France but early Saturday morning he weighed in on Twitter with commentary about the wildfires in California that this week have killed nine people, destroyed over 6,000 residences, burned more than 190,000 acres, and 200,000 people have been forced from their homes.
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
Mr. Trump made a similar threat on October 17, 2018.
The Camp and Woolsey Fires both burned during very strong wind events — so extreme that air tankers and helicopters could not assist firefighters on the ground. Because of the immediate threat to the local populations, wildland firefighters had to abandon attempting to suppress the fires, and switched to saving lives.
As noted below by former firefighter James Sinko who is now with The Weather Channel, the area of the Camp Fire has had only 0.14 inch of precipitation since the first of June, and 0.88 since May 1.
Paradise, CA has only seen 0.88″ of rain since May 1st. The Average rainfall between May 1st & Oct 31st is 7.13″! This is the conditions that have lead to a absolutely horrific fire known as the #CampFire #CAwx #CalFire #CaliforniaFires pic.twitter.com/CcvsMeogNq
— James Sinko (@JamesSinko) November 9, 2018
And on a more lighthearted note, check out the contribution below of Mr. Duhnkrack. You’ll need to click on the photo once or maybe twice to see the entire image.
At one point in history, we had a Republican President who – through a little experience – vaguely understood protecting homes from wildfire. pic.twitter.com/jjK8tRyU7C
— Jesse Duhnkrack (@jduhnkrack) November 10, 2018
Mr. Nixon was wetting down his shake shingle roof as a wildfire burned near his San Clemente, California home.
