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Hollywood thrives on depictions of desperate battles against overwhelming forces of destruction.
A real life version, the equal of any cinematic disaster film, is raging today. Wildfires, driven by fierce Santa Ana winds blowing off the desert, are sweeping through Los Angeles County neighborhoods, most prominently and destructively in Pacific Palisades, home to many film industry stars.
Thousands of residents have fled as thousands of acres of lavish, multimillion-dollar homes and lush foliage have been scorched, with at least five deaths reported so far.
As of noon, the fires were uncontrolled and firefighters were reporting that many water hydrants were unusable due to a shortage of water.
“We woke up to a dark cloud over all of Los Angeles, but it is darkest for those who are most intimately impacted by these fires,” said LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
No one knows how far the fires will reach before being controlled. Movies come to a climactic end, but the outcome of this catastrophe is as dark as the Southland skies.
Just a few days earlier, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a very upbeat video looking back at 2024 in California. But today he was on scene in Southern California, praising outgoing President Joe Biden for immediately offering aid with “no politics, no handwringing.”
However, Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, who will take office in less than a fortnight, didn’t sympathize with California. Instead, he issued another blast at Newsom, one of his fiercest critics and a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump posted on his Truth Social website, mentioning a declaration that apparently doesn’t exist. “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work), but didn’t care about the people of California.”