Off Topic: Los Angeles Members Please Check In

[Exhibitman]

I agree, Dewey, and I am glad you are OK. We are too. We have family who evac'ed yesterday from the hills in Encino and we are all hoping that the winds reverse a bit and the fire doesn't crest the Santa Monica Mountains and burn down to the bottom.

I shake my head at the hubris of those who think there is any amount of spending that could have stopped these firestorms. We cannot control the winds or the rain. We have never had hurricane force Santa Ana winds (a category 1 is 75 mph; we topped out at 94 mph last week) during the middle of the driest 'rainy' season to date on record with single-digit humidity. I only know of one force that can intervene to stop that...and it ain't us puny mortals.

Mistakes were made but they had nothing to do with finance, and it is a control fantasy to think otherwise. They had to do with building in the middle of arroyos and box canyons. Those decisions date back a hundred years. I've been part of the construction defect litigation community for 30+ years and an open secret among us practitioners is that the hillsides of Los Angeles should never have been developed and are a disaster waiting to happen. The usual issues are landslides and slope failures, but fire is going to be the issue going forward.

Please keep a good thought for the people of this state the way we kept a good thought for the victims of the hurricanes a few months ago across the south and leave the feuding and political horseshit for some other time. It doesn't belong in this thread and is unseemly, peevish and cruel.