So many Americans are operate in disaster under the assumption that the government will rescue them in a disaster. This is not true.Basically, you are on your own. Firefights choose what fires they will try to put out on their own. Sheriff's follow their superiors orders. The Federal Emergency Management Agency shows up weeks after the event.
Authorities Often Issue Contradictory Commands during a Disaster
In Chapter 9, Shelter in Place, Kerbeck explains how the fire chiefs and sheriff's were recommending that the students at Pepperdine University evacuate while the leadership of the school insisted the students shelter in place.
As you might imagine, these contradictory message resulted in many students driving away in their car fleeing the fire while others remained behind as the fire passed over them.
These contradictory messages happen in all natural disasters when the various layers of government (local, state, and federal) and agencies within each issue differing orders for what to do.
Firefighters Work for their Superiors, Not You
"The group laid out the hose and hooked it to the hydrant on the ocean side of the highway. The four-inch hose was heavy even without water, but once it was filled it required Ryder and six or seven others just to move it around. Simeon manned the nozzle and blasted the flames on the ocean side, putting most of them out. The men then focused on knocking down the fire on the land side. As they did, at least twenty engines drove past. Occasionally, they ran over the hoses in the middle of the highway but they never stopped. Finally, Ryder flagged one engine down. The captain in the passenger seat rolled down his window, flashed a thumbs up sign, and took off. The message was clear. the group of men - the Paradise Cove - were on their own." Page 123
Many other citizens of Malibu requested and begged firefighters to protect their homes from the spread of the fire. Kerbeck documents that in almost every case of this request, the firefighters refused to roll down a window and simply drove away.
As shocking as this behavior was for most citizens of Malibu, they do not understand that those firefighters follow the orders of their chiefs who told them not to engage in front line firefights but to avoid engaging until the fire passed.
Outside Emergency Workers do not Answer to You
"The LA County Sheriff's Department had set up roadblocks to prevent anyone from getting in or out of the city, but there were also roadblocks within the city. Ostensibly, they were resigned to keep looters out, but they also kept out resident who wanted to return to their neighborhood. The sheriff's didn't care if someone was a resident and had the ID to prove it. One elderly woman had heard a gas station was open in mid-Malibu. Anxious about being low on fuel, she went to fill up. On the way back she was stopped at a roadblock. She had to abandon her car and walk on foot past the checkpoint where she waited in the hopes that a neighbor could pick her up and drive her home. Fortunately, someone did."
"The sheriffs didn't seem to grasp that those who stayed behind had saved hundreds of homes, possibly even preventing the fir from moving into the eastern part of the city. They often acted like the locals were getting in their way, not appearing to appreciate the fact that most Malibuites had seen no first responders during the fire." Page 135
Some Citizens Rise to the Occasion
When the local and state politicians, fire fighters, law enforcement, and administrators provided no relief, the citizens in Malibu set up their own relief center with supplies for those left behind.
They called it the Point Dume Relief Center.
Relief supplies were brought in by boats from the ocean as the authorities had shut off all relief supplies by road.
"[Malibu City Manager Reva] Feldman seemed even to resent the presence of the volunteers at the Relief Center, Judy (Point Dume Relief Center Organizer) told me. With no help from the real government, community members had come together to create their own. The fire and its fallout quickly acquired a nickname. Locals called it the YOYO Fire, for You're on Your Own.
One week in, the city finally did send something.
Two Porta Potties." Page 138
The Citizens do not Rise to the Occasion
"My across-the-street neighbor lived in a forest of flammable trees, so it was no shock when his house burned to the ground. What surprised me was that afterwards he cut down every tree on his property, even the ones that hadn't burned. He learned his lesson, but many other homeowners stubbornly refuse to remove dangerous trees, claiming they create privacy and add value to their homes. But what's the value of a burned-down house?
By cleaning your brush, you give yourself, your neighbors, and the fire department a fighting chance. I wonder how many homeowners would remove their flammable trees if firefighters said they would no longer defend such properties." Page 225
Authorities do not Rise to the Occasion
"Experts I interviewed said the most important thing homeowners can do to mitigate the fire risk is to reduce the amount of available fuel. Yet more than six months after I begged members of the Malibu City Council to institute a flammable landscaping and materials ordinance, nothing has been done.
Living in California, for all its beauty and great weather, means being only a natural disaster away from living on the streets. Some people believe it was folly to build in Malibu in the first place, let alone to rebuild over and over...
To my knowledge, the city of Malibu hasn't instituted a single law to make Malibu more fire safe." Page 225
