Paradise Lost The Great California Fire Chronicles

Download or read book Paradise Lost written by Peter Schrag and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paradise Lost demonstrates the consequences to education, public services and political institutions in California of the increasing resort to the hyper-democracy of the ballot initiative process. WITH A NEW PREFACE.

Download or read book Paradise Lost The Great California Fire Chronicles written by James W Lee and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-20 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On October 8th, 2017 at about 10:30 pm, the winds outside my home were moving the large Redwood Trees back and forth, though no storm, or wind had been predicted. I went outside and saw several flashes of blue light pulse in the vortex winds forming above me.At 4:30 am, my neighbor was pounding on my door telling me that emergency evacuations were being conducted due to several fires on the ridges. Going outside I could see only orange skies to the North and East, but no flames and no trees ablaze.Thus began my journey into discovering and uncovering how and why 157 "abnormal" fires began in 9 different counties in Northern California. I toured some of the over 4,000 homes were destroyed to ash while trees adjacent were left untouched. I saw 3,000 pound cars flipped on their roofs. I saw a 100,000 sq. foot Kmart building, where the fire had to jump the six lane 101 freeway, cross a large parking lot and completely torch the inside, while the outside remained untouched.Thus began my journey into learning about what former Governor of California has deemed "The New Abnormal" for fires to occur in California over "The next 10, 15, 20 years time". Never before have firemen seen such fire activity and they have no context for understand the advanced weaponry used on not only these fires, but fires that have been set ablaze in over 15 separate areas of California over the past 1 1/2 years.The deadliest of all California fires was the Camp Fire that occurred in Butte County on November 8th, 2018. This fire began with an explosion, again no weather related forecast, where winds were said to travel at "80 football fields per minute" which means these fires traveled at a never before speed of 273 mile per hour.52,000 people were said to have safely evacuated Paradise, yet residents who were lucky to escape the fires, claim this is nowhere close to being true and many perished while fire departments stood down and military police locked down all of Paradise for a month, before allowing the victims that remained, to return to see if their homes still stood.There was no warning from public service officials. There were no winds the morning of the fire igntion, which has said to have been caused by 1) power poles falling, 2) bullet holes in transformers and recently, "fire igniting embers" that somehow entered into homes and turned them to ash.To a person I have interviewed said they received no help from any charitable organizations that has taken in millions of dollars donated to help the victims. They fled with the shirt on their backs, yet, just like in Santa Rosa after our fires, many become homeless or are sleeping in their cars with no one to turn to.This book is a result of some of my 80 You Tube videos I published while investigating the Paradise fires, as well as directly experiencing the 170 CA fires in October 2017. I also cover in this book the likely weaponry used to start the fires, the agenda behind the fires, and those who were directly benefit aka disaster capitalists. You can find my work also on You Tube at "Aplanetruth3", "WellHealed2" and websites; Tabublog.com, Avvi.info, Aplanetruth.info and Wellhealed.life. This book details like no other before, the new abnormal and the takeover of California's precious resources.

Download or read book California Burning written by Katherine Blunt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory, urgent narrative with national implications, exploring the decline of California’s largest utility company that led to countless wildfires — including the one that destroyed the town of Paradise – and the human cost of infrastructure failure Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure. As PG&E prioritized profits and politics, power lines went unchecked—until a rusted hook purchased for 56 cents in 1921 split in two, sparking the deadliest wildfire in California history. Beginning with PG&E’s public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&E’s shareholder base, from innovators who built some of California's first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces that shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas. California Burning is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative, the story of a disaster expanding into a much bigger exploration of accountability. It’s an American tragedy that serves as a cautionary tale for utilities across the nation—especially as climate change makes aging infrastructure more vulnerable, with potentially fatal consequences.

Download or read book Paradise written by Lizzie Johnson and published by Crown Publishing Group (NY). This book was released on 2021 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The definitive firsthand account of California's Camp Fire-the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century-and a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the climate crisis unfolds ... A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again"--

Download or read book California written by Kevin Starr and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-03-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco

Download or read book Paradise Plundered written by Steven P. Erie and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early 21st century has not been kind to California's reputation for good government. But the Golden State's governance flaws reflect worrisome national trends with origins in the 1970s and 1980s. Growing voter distrust with government, a demand for services but not taxes to pay for them, a sharp decline in enlightened leadership and effective civic watchdogs, and dysfunctional political institutions have all contributed to the current governance malaise. Until recently, San Diego, California—America's 8th largest city—seemed immune to such systematic governance disorders. This sunny beach town entered the 1990s proclaiming to be "America's Finest City," but in a few short years its reputation went from "Futureville" to "Enron-by-the-Sea." In this eye-opening and telling narrative, Steven P. Erie, Vladimir Kogan, and Scott A. MacKenzie mix policy analysis, political theory, and history to explore and explain the unintended but largely predictable failures of governance in San Diego. Using untapped primary sources—interviews with key decision makers and public documents—and benchmarking San Diego with other leading California cities, Paradise Plundered examines critical dimensions of San Diego's governance failure: a multi-billion dollar pension deficit; a chronic budget deficit; inadequate city services and infrastructure; grandiose planning initiatives divorced from dire fiscal realities; an insulated downtown redevelopment program plagued by poorly-crafted public-private partnerships; and, for the metropolitan region, inadequate airport and port facilities, a severe underinvestment in firefighting capacity despite destructive wildfires, and heightened Mexican border security concerns. Far from a sunny story of paradise and prosperity, this account takes stock of an important but understudied city, its failed civic leadership, and poorly performing institutions, policymaking, and planning. Though the extent of these failures may place San Diego in a league of its own, other cities are experiencing similar challenges and political changes. As such, this tale of civic woe offers valuable lessons for urban scholars, practitioners, and general readers concerned about the future of their own cities.

Download or read book Under a Flaming Sky written by Daniel Brown and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 1, 1894 two forest fires converged on the town of Hinckley, Minnesota, trapping over 2,000 people. Daniel J. Brown recounts the events surrounding the fire in the first and only book on to chronicle the dramatic story that unfolded. Whereas Oregon's famous "Biscuit" fire in 2002 burned 350,000 acres in one week, the Hinckley fire did the same damage in five hours. The fire created its own weather, including hurricane-strength winds, bubbles of plasma-like glowing gas, and 200-foot-tall flames. In some instances, "fire whirls," or tornadoes of fire, danced out from the main body of the fire to knock down buildings and carry flaming debris into the sky. Temperatures reached 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit--the melting point of steel. As the fire surrounded the town, two railroads became the only means of escape. Two trains ran the gauntlet of fire. One train caught on fire from one end to the other. The heroic young African-American porter ran up and down the length of the train, reassuring the passengers even as the flames tore at their clothes. On the other train, the engineer refused to back his locomotive out of town until the last possible minute of escape. In all, more than 400 people died, leading to a revolution in forestry management practices and federal agencies that monitor and fight wildfires today. Author Daniel Brown has woven together numerous survivors' stories, historical sources, and interviews with forest fire experts in a gripping narrative that tells the fascinating story of one of North America's most devastating fires and how it changed the nation.