G'morning, Glen,

Your rant does bring up a reason, in addition to those I listed in an earlier thread, for the Bush 43 Administration's targeted attack on the USGS. You reminded me of an article I read sometime back that concluded Bush et al's animosity toward Blue California's politics, its electoral rejection of him,and Left Coast culture generally (very displeasing to God . . .) explained the under-funding of, and even proposed elimination of, the USGS. Reasoning was, California has way more than its share of active geological processes (quakes, mudslides, landslides, hydrology issues, volcanos even,and etc.), and a correspondingly high proportion of the USGS budget.

That having been said, I am curious about where you think our elected representatives (federal, state, or ?) have let us down regarding California's earthquake threat. What is it that you think they should be doing that they are not?

And, as for California's fire-fighting resources and abilities, I've heard our fire protection system, in total, described as "the Cadillac of fire departments". I think it is fair to say that, due to California's historically flush fiscal situation, its constant training in and actual, frequent experience in large, multi-agency fire-fighting efforts, the emergence of the Incident Command System and its adoption by all fire and most law enforcement agencies, highly integrated and technically advanced communications system (repeaters on mountain tops all over the State, multiply redundant microwave backbones north-to-south and east-to-west), relatively recent exposure of thousands of command personnel to the response and recovery efforts after Loma Prieta and Northridge, as well as many other large-scale disasters, and etc. etc., that one area California is definitely not comparatively weak in is its fire- and disaster-response capabilities. I am quite sure that it ranks number 1 in the world. Again, what failure(s) are you referring to?

Michael Williams
Arroyo Grande, CA USA