The New York Times Warns SD not to Count Their Chickens

From The NYT:

As Californians recover from another season of devastating wildfires, one of the biggest obstacles is a painfully familiar one. As many as 40 percent of homeowners statewide lack enough insurance to cover their home-replacement costs, according to the California Department of Insurance, and most realize the problem only when it is too late.

After past disasters, California state officials tried to raise homeowners’ awareness of their coverage limits by requiring policies to be written clearly and with disclaimers about what is not covered. But several national studies suggest that many homeowners tend to underestimate risk and do not understand that their policies do not guarantee replacement of their homes.

I like how it says tried. They tried to require policies to be written clearly, because why would they be written clearly, it's not like they are required to explain complicated situations to a variety of people and to provide relief during some of the hardest times of people's lives by providing the basic function of SHELTER.

An analysis by The San Diego Union-Tribune of 2,137 houses that were destroyed in unincorporated areas of San Diego County in the last big wildfires, in 2003, found that only 46 percent had been rebuilt by late last year. In many cases, policyholders said they had not resolved their insurance claims or received enough money to replace their homes, The Union-Tribune reported.

Good luck fire victims, we all know what a good time you had at Qualcomm, but there's a long road ahead.

If you need tips, go here. He's a lawyer (so that means he knows everything).

The ACLU issues it's own report on the San Diego Fires

Politicians may be quick with the "how much better was this than Katrina" references but the San Diego fires still had their own issues. The ACLU released a report summarizing the problems in response for "vulnerable populations" during the San Diego firestorm. From ACLU.org :

The report, "Firestorm: Treatment of Vulnerable Populations During the San Diego Fires" recounts the positive and negative aspects of the fire response and documents the experiences of scores of people who suffered harassment, racial profiling and intimidation. The report recommends specific reforms to avoid such problems in future disasters. The full report can be found at: www.aclusandiego.org/news_item.php?article_id=000325

Some of the stirring facts found in the report:

• In a revealing omission, the reverse 911 calling system, which was widely heralded for its ability to quickly notify people of evacuation orders, delivered messages only in English, despite available technology that could have easily accommodated other languages. As a result, San Diego County's 30 percent Latino population was not adequately notified of the evacuation.
• San Diego Police, in violation of their own policy, detained and handed over to U.S. Border Patrol a family they accused of looting and intending to sell relief supplies when witness testimony from relief volunteers and the family strongly discount those allegations. The Border Patrol deported seven family members, including a 2-year-old U.S. citizen and children aged 8 and 13. The incident sparked fear in immigrant communities and preceded a rash of misguided, aggressive enforcement by police and Sheriff's deputies at evacuation centers. (p.5-6)
• The police conducted a sweep of the Qualcomm evacuation center late Tuesday night, checking for IDs and ejecting everyone without IDs showing they were from an affected area. On Wednesday morning, the police instituted problematic ID checks at the gate. (p.6)
• San Diego Police ordered a news cameraman to stop filming the aftermath of an arguably illegal detention that resulted in the deportation of a family trying to take relief supplies. The police officer threatened that if the cameraman continued to film, it would ruin the local CBS affiliate's relationship with the police department

The NFL shows that ultimately they care about... the NFL

The question for Sunday isn't, "Will San Diego recover quickly and start back to it's normal routine?" "Will the air quality clear up?" "Will the weekend after the wildfires be a time of healing?"

No, apparently the question for Sunday is "will The Chargers be able to play?" Reports are varying, Qualcomm is being closed and the evacuees will be moved to the Del Mar Fairgrounds but it seems that nobody is ready to commit to a game being played on Sunday. From the Houston Chronicle:

Texans owner Bob McNair said ideally the teams will play Sunday. However, there still are concerns about the air quality in San Diego because of the wildfires.

Of course with the craziness of this national disaster it is understandable that there would need to be room for flexibility. The Chargers have been training in Arizona, weather reports are still unsure of how the wind will blow for the rest of this week and there are still fires that are not contained. Perhaps we can look to the Texans to be a little flexible with their time.

There were reports Thursday the game would be played Monday night at Qualcomm, which would shorten the amount of time the Texans would have to prepare for their next game at Oakland the following weekend. "If this game were played Monday night, we wouldn't get back to Houston until early Tuesday morning," McNair said. "That would make it more difficult for our coaches to prepare for our next game."

Oh, sorry, we'd hate for you to be inconvenienced. Good thing we're moving all the evacuees to new location, cleaning up the stadium, and preparing for your arrival.

Read this article: because it's about time to start comparing San Diego to Katrina, wait we've already done that?

Okay, how about including stereotypical "this is how a Californian would approach disaster relief?" *Does anybody remember that scene in Clueless when Cher is walking out the front door with her ski equipment and her Dad says "Cher, what are you doing?" "I'm Captain of the Pismo Beach disaster relief." "I don't think they need your skis." "Daddy, some people lost everything, don't you think that includes sports equipment?" Yeah, me neither.*

The Time Online likes their California nice and California-y:

Massages, acupuncture and stress counselling are being offered to around 10,000 wildfire evacuees gathering at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego — along with Starbucks coffee, beef empanadas and fresh Caesar salads.

“The people are happy. They have everything here,” said the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, after touring the site. “Nobody does disasters better than California,” agreed David Paulison, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Of course this is an article about the biggest disaster since, oh, what was that one thing again, that thing in New Orleans, anybody... anybody?

It is all a long way from the scenes inside another stadium — the Superdome in New Orleans — two years ago when thousands sheltered from the floods of Hurricane Katrina for several days without proper food or water supplies, sanitation or government assistance.

Yeah, that Katrina thing. So anyway, that was a long time ago, you see, and now we have a chance to learn from our really big, huge, gigantor mistakes, when we totally messed up everything and acted like it wasn't such a big deal to be drowned out by water. I mean we're going to admit that we f'd up that one, right?

Mr Paulison appeared on a succession of morning television yesterday to emphasise there would be no repeat of the Katrina experience — when “things didn’t run so smoothly” — saying: “This is a new FEMA.”

Or we're going to go with "things didn't run so smoothly." Heh, heh, like days without food, water, electricity or help in sight. But whatever, we're willing to try and move forward, now that you've pledged so much help to those trying to rebuild. It's going to be great to get everything taken care of in the quickest and easiest way possible, like I'm sure you helped those poor people in New Orleans, right?

Thousands of people from New Orleans were still living in FEMA trailers and many more had been unable to obtain compensation for the loss of their homes. “I don’t think FEMA has learnt any lessons. If they had, New Orleans would not still be in the situation we find ourselves in now.”

Oh snap. Could be a LONG road ahead.

Reports from Qualcomm are trickling in

They've got massage, accomodations, food and drink. Hey, we are not Katrina! They've got crisis counseling, AA meetings, singing, dancing, music, tail gating, and entertainment. We are not Katrina! They've got long lines for coffee (so we're more like Starbucks), but they've got coffee! And they don't need any more donations! We are not KATRINA!

Nobody does disasters better than California. (We do it with bikinis on!)

The vast parking lot looked a lot like a premature tailgate party for the football Chargers' Sunday game, except for omnipresent gauze masks to filter out smoke particles and gun-toting California National Guardsmen on patrol. It was an example of lessons federal officials said they learned from Hurricane Katrina - to make resources available immediately rather than in phases. But for all the horrors at the mob-filled Super Dome that came to symbolize the Katrina response two years ago, images out of Qualcomm verged on the quirky and carefree. Fire refugees could take yoga lessons, get personal autographs from Padres baseball players and watch a giant screen showing of "Cars," the cartoon movie.

Oh yeah, and we're not Katrina.

National News Roundup: Newsweek says we shine

Newsweek:

It's a long way from over, and the toll is sure to be brutal, but if there is one image that has emerged aside from the horrific wall of fire across southern California, it is of government functioning briskly and effectively in the face of the nation's worst national disaster since Katrina.

Half a million residents have been evacuated from more than a dozen uncontrolled wildfires, 1,500 houses have been destroyed and tens of thousands more are in danger. The stakes couldn't be higher for the Bush administration, which wasted no time in mobilizing the military and sending top officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA director Ron Paulison to California. And Bush is scheduled to visit the fire-stricken region on Thursday.

Yep, response to these fires have been effective and quick. The city banded together to provide services, donations and shelter to all those evacuees who need help. Many props go out to those on Craigslist offering shelter for animals and people alike. Thank you Newsweek for the props, props back to you. Props to everyone (including those offering free massages to those at Qualcomm, props for that for sure.)

San Diego Fires claim 100+ homes, CNN reports.

Just watched a quick update on CNN. 100+ homes have been destroyed by the fires in San Diego County. Over a quarter of a million people have fleed their homes and over 100,000 acres have burned (so far). There is some concern (still) that the fire could (possibly) reach out to the coast. And it's the wind that's cause for concern.

Over on CNN.com I found this bit of info.

The fast-moving fires are threatening the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. The park was closed Monday and some of the animals, like endangered condors, are being moved to a safer location, according to zoo spokeswoman Yadira Galindo.

You can find live blogging coverage here.

Or if you go here there's some more information. Qualcomm is looking for donations. Belly up and Casbah are closed tonight. Help your neighbors, stay inside, stay off cell phones.