Arnold has had four years to get California ready to fight major fires. He’s been incompetent doing so, especially considering that he was elected in 2003, a year in which the state also suffered major fires.
Another story shows his negligence. AP reports:
LOS ANGELES – As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.
How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California‘s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.
It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.
The National Guard‘s C-130 cargo planes, among the most powerful aerial firefighting weapons, never were slated to help. The reason: They’ve yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago.
“The weight of bureaucracy kept these planes from flying, not the heavy winds,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Associated Press. “When you look at what’s happened, it’s disgusting, inexcusable foot-dragging that’s put tens of thousands of people in danger.”
Arnold retorted:
Anyone that is complaining about the planes just wants to complain,” Schwarzenegger replied angrily to a question Wednesday. “The fact is that we could have all the planes in the world here — we have 90 aircraft here and six that we got especially from the federal government — and they can’t fly because of the wind.
But the Orange County Register reported:
Top state officials Thursday clarified that the governor’s figures include contract aircraft that had been subsequently requested as well as planes owned by local agencies. As of Monday morning, when local officials say air support was most needed, 35 state and federal planes could fight fires in Southern California – not 90, officials said.
“This confirms the point that (Orange County Fire Authority) Chief (Chip) Prather and I were accurate when we stated that there were insufficient resources on Monday,” said state Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange.
The L.A. Times reported:
SAN DIEGO — Some elected officials here are accusing state fire officials of a bureaucratic bottleneck that prevented water-dropping aircraft from immediately being used as brush fires ravaged the county.
It remains unclear whether additional aircraft could have more quickly contained the fast-moving, wind-driven blazes, but that has not stopped criticism in a region still smarting over the response to its last disastrous fire.
“Four years after the Cedar fire, the bureaucracy still was locking out assets that should have been available,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista).
Remember when Arnold promised to “blow up the boxes” of state bureaucracy? He never did. Instead, he joined the bureaucracy and enlarged the bureaucracy, as with AB 32, which slows development to supposedly prevent global warming, and with his new socialized medicine scheme.
He was incompetent and the state burned more than it would have if he had gotten us as ready as possible — specifically, if he had “blown up the boxes” of state bureaucracy that would have allowed more planes to fight the fires.
Once again the call goes up: Recall Arnold.
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