California Fire & Iraq

7:40 pm EST October 23rd, 2007 | News | 2 Comments

From May:

As state forestry officials predict an unusually harsh fire season this summer, the California National Guard says equipment shortages could hinder the guard’s response to a large-scale disaster.

A dearth of equipment such as trucks and radios — caused in part by the war in Iraq — has state military officials worried they would be slow in providing help in the event of a major fire, earthquake or terrorist attack.

The readiness of the Guard has been described as a national problem and has become a political liability for the Bush administration, which came under fire this week when the governor of Kansas complained that the National Guard response to a devastating tornado in her state was inadequate. National Guard readiness has become a growing concern as the Guard has taken on extra responsibilities caused by the Iraq war and the increased threat of terrorism.

In California, half of the equipment the National Guard needs is not in the state, either because it is deployed in Iraq or other parts of the world or because it hasn’t been funded, according to Lt. Col. John Siepmann. While the Guard is in good shape to handle small-scale incidents, “our concern is a catastrophic event,” he said.

“You would see a less effective response (to a major incident),” he said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also acknowledged the National Guard’s equipment woes and attributed them to the war. National Guard policy has required that much of the equipment that goes with units to Iraq stays there.

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2 Responses to “California Fire & Iraq”

  1. Svensker says:
    October 24, 2007 at 11:58 am

    Great info. I tried to do a trackback on our website, but got an error message. I ended up just using a link, but maybe you want to double check the TB URL.

    Thanks!

  2. Robster says:
    October 24, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    That’s all true. As someone who lives in East County (where the fire originated) but is lucky not to live in a rural area, I know everyone is doing the best they can under the circumstances.

    The Santa Ana winds in the higher elevations and/or rural areas were too strong for fixed wing aircraft to fly. Even when helicopters tried to do their water or retardant drops, they vaporized before they hit the ground. That’s why there were no C-130s or DC-10s in the air fighting this the first few days. When wind gusts are upwards of 80 miles an hour, all we can do is get out of the way while our county burns.

    BTW, Glenn Beck can go to hell for his comments the other day. No one here in San Diego County, Democrat or Republican, deserved to have their home destroyed.