UA CARES

Our program at the UALC Thursday Bible study lunch [delicious, btw] was UA CARES, which stands for Community Assistance, Referrals and Education Services. A representative from the Fire Division of Upper Arlington explained many services they offer to make our homes safer ranging from home assessments, coordination with care providers and medical services, to grab bars to a handy little feature I'd never heard of called KNOX.

"Knox Box is a mini, lockable steel vault that provides firefighters and paramedics access to keys for entry to a residence or business in an emergency. Only the UA Fire Division can access boxes in Upper Arlington. The vault is installed by the resident or business owner on the structure’s exterior near the entry. In an emergency, the dispatcher tells first responders if a Knox-Box is onsite for easy building access, without forcing a door or damaging the building.’

Many communities have similar services.  The speaker said 80% of what the Fire Division does is NOT fighting fires.

Climate change caused by humans

Hurricanes, blizzards and fires—apparently the globe has never had them  before Europeans landed on the shores of North America, the land of a peaceful people who never did anything to disturb the fish, trees and buffalo. Not even when Ohio was buried under a glacier 8,000 years ago was there such weather according to the white man causes everything bad movement.  Now there’s an argument about whether environmental regulations are creating the hazards that cause this massive loss of life, homes and natural beauty.  I read yesterday that some students are finding safe spaces inside the Pepperdine University Library!  We can only pray for their safety since they weren’t evacuated in time.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pepperdine-shelter-20181113-story.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-storm-northeast-slammed-with-early-snow-latest-weather-forecast-live-updates-2018-11-15/

The natural environment and the built environment don’t always play well together.  We have more damage from hurricanes because people are building in areas that have always had storms, but not necessarily air conditioning or this much wealth to create massive estates “with a view.” We have terrible fires on wooded and scrub land because there are regulations  written by well meaning people  that encourage these tinderbox areas.  We have blizzards in the northeast that cause massive pile ups and traffic jams because when it happened 200 years ago there wasn’t a 24/7 news cycle and no one had long commutes to work attempting to funnel thousands of people into New York or DC.

https://www.breitbart.com/local/2018/11/15/winter-storm-avery-leaves-5-dead-as-snow-blankets-northeast/

Don’t blame President Trump just because he tweeted about the damage some regulations create.  He doesn’t hate ALL regulations and Executive Orders. It’s just that our media have the attention span of a gnat.   It has been well known for years what over-regulatory zeal has done to our country.  When we travelled in Arizona, California and Idaho in 2003 we certainly heard about it—and it was very apparent then.  Thousands of acres were dead or tinder dry, and no one was allowed to remove the dead wood or have controlled burns.  Glacier Park in Montana was on fire and we could hardly breathe.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/29738-california-fires-government-policies-not-global-warming

Here’s a list of the necessary laws, regulations, boards, ruling agencies etc. that were required for ONE development in California. The Twin Lakes Fuel Reduction Project is located on the Bridgeport Ranger District of the HumboldtToiyabe National Forest  in Mono County, California.

A roadless rule?  How helpful is that during a fire?

Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended – The selected action is in compliance with the Clean Air Act, 1977 as amended.  All required permits will be secured to ensure compliance with federal and state laws. Pollutant emissions will be within state and federal standards.

The Great Basin Air Quality Control Board enforces compliance with the Clean Air Act. Burning permits are issued and administered by the GBAQCB Smoke production and management, as analyzed in the EA. 
 
Clean Water Act of 1977, as amended - The Clean Water Act (CWA) is a federal statute that requires states and tribes to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters (33U.S.C. 466 et seq., Title I, Section 101). The project does not involve the filling, alteration, or modification of any waterway or riparian area

Consultation with Tribal Governments (E.O. 13175) – Consultation with the interested Tribes of California and Nevada and consultation has been ongoing during project analysis and will continue through implementation. Other laws requiring consultation include: 
 
American Indian Treaty Rights – The proposed hazardous fuels treatments will not conflict with any known treaty provisions. 
 
Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 Public Law 96-95 12USC 470 
 
Native American Graves & Repatriation Act of 1990 - Public Law 101-60125 USC 3001

  Endangered Species Act of 1973 - The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2011) identified the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (SNBS) as the only endangered species that may occur in the analysis area. The analysis area contains a portion of the Twin Lakes herd unit and is adjacent to the Green Creek herd unit (USDI 2007a.) No SNBS have been documented in the Twin Lakes herd unit and no SNBS have been documented in the analysis area. 
 
Environmental Justice (E.O. 12898) (59 Fed. Register 7629, 1994) directs federal agencies to identify and address, as appropriate, any disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations and low income populations. This action will not result in unequal impacts on minority populations and low income population and complies with E.O. 12898. 
 
Floodplain Management (Executive Order 11988) and Protection of Wetlands (Executive Order 11990) – This action will not result in significant adverse impacts on wetlands or floodplains as they relate to protection of human health, safety, and welfare; preventing the loss of property values, and; maintaining natural systems. The goals of Executive Orders 11988 and 11990 will be met. All wetlands will be protected through design features which conform to Executive Order 11990. 
 
Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Executive Order 13186 – This action will comply with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This project may result in an “unintentional take” of individuals during proposed activities; however, the project complies with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director’s Order #131 related to the applicability of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to federal agencies and requirements for permits for “take”. This project complies with Executive Order 13186 because the analysis meets agency obligations as defined under the January 16, 2001 Memorandum of Understanding between the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed to complement Executive Order 13186. 
 
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 - The Forest Service conducted an intensive cultural site survey of the project area. Results of the survey were documented in the Cultural Resource Report (see project record),. In a letter dated November 1, 2012, the California State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) concurred with the no adverse effect to Historic Properties and potentially eligible resources determination. This action will not have any direct or indirect effects on historically significant sites if the design features incorporated into the selected action are followed. 
 
2001 Roadless Rule - When developing the treatment proposal in the Inventoried Roadless Areas of the project, the Forest Service followed the direction outlined in the August 18, 2008, memorandum from the Chief of the Forest Service. The project was also reviewed for consistency by the Regional Forester as per the direction from the Chief dated June 8, 2012. Documentation of the Regional Forester’s review for consistency is available in the project file.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/72379_FSPLT3_1424480.pdf

Fourteen years later the OSU fire is still a cold case

I was looking through some old letters to my family and noticed this one, April 19, 2003, and I wondered what had happened with the investigation into this tragedy: 

 "I don't think our latest tragedy here would have made your news, but 5 students died in a house fire on the campus early last Sunday (13th) a.m. Actually, only 2 were OSU, the other 3 were Ohio University (Athens, OH). Many still hospitalized. An old house with 12 bedrooms that the kids just love to rent, close to campus. Celebrating one of the guys’ 21st birthday, so everyone had been drinking. Happened about 3 or 4 a.m. Now they've decided it was arson, so people are really upset. Will be a big murder investigation--maybe the biggest Columbus has had. All the bios in the paper indicated they were all really good kids, but if you combine the gases and smoke inhalation with the fact that they may have not been as alert as possible, it was lethal. One young OU girl was from Dublin, north of here, and 1200 people came to her funeral yesterday.  The smoke was so dense the firemen had trouble finding them.  One girl was rescued unconscious by the fireman lying on top of her to protect her and scooting her by looping his arms under her.  But he didn’t know there was another student also in the room--and had barely found her."

Then it was 5 years. http://www.10tv.com/article/victims-legacies-live

The Dispatch caught up with the survivors 10 years later. http://www.dispatch.com/article/20130413/NEWS/304139720

Now it's fourteen and it's a cold case.  Families of the deceased still stay in touch and try to make life good in memory of their loved ones.
http://nbc4i.com/2017/04/13/still-no-answers-14-years-after-ohio-state-university-fatal-fire/

Australian bush fires

Australia is a continent--it's huge. All of Europe would fit within its borders with room to spare, and it's about the size of the U.S. without Alaska. So it's hard to generalize what's happening, since parts of that country are flooding, others having fires. Our hearts go out to all who've lost family and property in the terrible fires. Americans and Australians share Ireland as, if not our mother, at least a motherly aunt. Possibly 300 have lost their lives and 7,000 have been displaced. But we all know global warming will be blamed for either extreme--fires or flood--because, well, there's never been temperature extremes before right? It's only humans that are the problem. The little greens will blame people for wanting to live away from the city in areas with lots of trees (only movie stars and politicians should be allowed to do this) and the big greens will blame lack of action in capitalist countries to shut down production and let their people all return to 19th century levels of poverty.

I'm guessing that the most fire prone areas of Australia have regulations like ours in the SW U.S., with the best intentions, but aggrevating the fire and loss of life problems. When we were in Arizona and southern California in 2006 our guides were able to show us huge stretches of ugly tender-box forests, where neither the state or private owners were allowed to remove diseased, dead and trash vegetation. Some of the regulations are not even well-intentioned. They are intended to keep people from living there because it would be too dangerous and the "greenies" don't want the habitat desturbed.

The fire in Grandview Heights

Yesterday a terrible fire raged through the business district of Grandview Heights, Ohio, for several hours as firefighters from several cities battled the freezing temperatures and aging buildings with nooks, crannies and shared attic and hallways where the flames could hide. One of the artists we've featured several times in our Visual Arts Ministry at UALC is local photographer Joe Wagenhals. Take a look at his slides of the fire.

Story in the Columbus Dispatch.

California fires

Today's WSJ included a story about a 1930s 2-bedroom home at 486 Conejo Road that had survived the Sycamore Canyon fire of 1977, the mudslide of 1984, the El Nino rain storm of 1998, the mudslides of 2005 and the fires last week. Or course, only one other house in the neighborhood was left standing. But the view of the ocean, they say, is worth it. I'm not sure where you could live in California where you'd be safe from disaster, but whether you've got an ocean view on the east coast, a forest setting in California, or you're enjoying the balmy breezes of Florida, and the gulf view in Texas, I suspect those of us in the plain vanilla midwest, fly-over country, are sharing the pain in our insurance bills and the government disaster insurance plans.

I think I can give the folks in Iowa a pass for those terrible floods last summer. Who would have expected all that heavy snow (isn't there global warming?) and then the spring rains on top of that. But they've been fiddling with those California fires since the late 1700s, and although it is known that fire is essential to the healthy growth of the local trees and plants, residents, builders, environmentalists, forestry officials, local and state administrations and academics just keep dabbling and getting it wrong. See The burning wind, Los Angles Magazine, Nov. 2008.

Atop the Santa Monica Mountains and in Orange County, Santa Ana winds have been clocked at speeds above 110 mph—the force of a Category 3 hurricane like Katrina when it made landfall in Louisiana. . .
Usually wind blows into L.A. from the Pacific, a daytime airflow generated as the sun warms the desert and coastal plains. When in early October the year’s premier Santa Ana stirs, it wakes at night. The sun is no longer dominant, the desert is cooling, and the Santa Ana can begin its flight to the sea. . . If you look at just three years—2007, 2003, and 1993—more than 6,000 homes were destroyed by Santa Ana fires, housing loss that surpasses that of the Northridge earthquake. Given the annihilating potential of the Santa Ana winds, you’d think by now we’d be able to define them.

This web site with Santa Barbara Outdoors has many interesting accounts of the fires over the years beginning around 1955.