[Fwd: Re: [pct-l] drought and its consequences along the PCT]

[jmertes at verizon.net (John Mertes)]

Somehow I got the wrong address when I tried to also post this to the web.

I've added a couple more points also.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [pct-l] drought and its consequences along the PCT
Date: 	Mon, 07 Feb 2005 18:35:17 -0800
From: 	John Mertes <jmertes@verizon.net>
To: 	Trekker4@aol.com, pct-l-owner@mailman.backcountry.net
References: 	<86.2138d8ee.2f3858b4@aol.com>



Ahh yes,

I lived in California for 35 years with all of its faults (pun 
intended)  :-)

    I've been shook up a few times too including the 1989 Loma Prieta 
Quake (otherwise known as the World Series Quake). I was still at work 
in an office a few blocks from where the Cypress Elevated Freeway 
collapsed. When the shaking continued I took shelter underneath a desk 
to protect me from stuff falling from the ceiling. Of course if the 
second floor had came down, being underneath the desk might not have 
made any difference.

    In 1991, I visisted a woman friend and we watched the Oakland Hills 
Fire come over the adjacent canyon wall  and then as we returned to her 
house the police came thru ordering everyone to evacuate NOW. Her house 
was one of many that was incinerated along with everything but what 
little we took with us when we left. When we got back to my apartment, 
ash was falling on my balcony. As the fire progressed I decided to 
evacuate my apartment before the order came as I realized it would be 
almost impossible if the fire came closer and my neighborhood was 
ordered evacuated.

    During July 2002, one of the fires which eventually merged into the 
Biscuit Fire (biggest fire that year) was only 20 or so miles from my 
house at the fire's closest. Smoke and ash I got, but no more.

    Now I live in Crescent City, CA. In 1964 it suffered major damage 
from a tsumnai resulting from the Alaska quake of that year. Later that 
year there was major flooding on several rivers including the Klamath. 
The floods wiped out the little town of Klamath built on the flood plain 
near the mouth. I read some of the historical accounts of the aftermath 
and there were many complaints that federal relief was too little and 
too slow. And still the same type people (including some of the same) 
constantly complain about the (federal & state) government being too big 
and spending too much on welfare.

    So maybe I'll get blown away when we again have a major storm, or 
washed away if we have a big tsunami. Others here will compalin about 
government restrictions against building in hazard zones; bitch about 
big government and welfare; and then turn around and complain that the 
government doesn't do enough for them and fast enough if they suffer 
from a natural "disaster".

    As for me, I'll take my chances and try to keep out of the way. But 
if disaster strikes me, it just does. All of life involves risk and loss.

    BTW, I'm not really a libertarian although sometimes I agree with them.




Trekker4@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 2/6/05 9:29:06 P.M. Central Standard Time, 
> jmertes@verizon.net writes:
>
>     IMHO: Biggest "problem" now is that people want to live in and
>     adjacent
>     to the forests. Yet these people don't accept the consequences of
>     their
>     decision -- being burned or having their property burned. In stead
>     they
>     expect the government (all of us) to put out the fires to protect
>     them
>     from the consequences of their decision. Also the government (us) to
>     bail them out when they get burned. Similar situation with people who
>     live on flood plains and ocean front.
>
> And in fault riddled CA? It's nice to see another libertarian on the list.
>  
> Bob
> Big Bend Desert Denizen
> (Naturalized Citizen, Republic of Texas)