Wrest Greenland from Denmark?  Make Canada the 51st state?  Abrogate the Panama Canal Treaty?  Rattling sabers? Or another rise of the 1950s “Ugly American?”  One never knows with Donald Trump. Is he serious, or simply in search of more headlines?  It seems the more the media covers such flights of fancy, the more Trump interprets that coverage as validation of his focus. Just because “everyone” is talking about his comments doesn’t mean they approve of them.  Trump likes to launch these shiny objects and then watch the contortions as folks try to follow his latest elusive, often amorphous, ideas.     

Following last week’s apocalyptic destruction of urban communities in the Los Angeles wildfires, the new Trump Administration should focus on assisting American neighborhoods with recovery and resilience rather than casting its net to usurp other nations’ land and water.  The massive wildfires rival 2018’s Camp Fire that killed 85 people, destroyed more than 30,000 structures, and obliterated Paradise and other small mountain towns.  Placing blame wastes precious time and energy when the focus must be on aiding those who lost homes and livelihoods, cleaning up the damage, identifying resources, and rebuilding – lives, structures, community.  President Biden’s declaration of funding for firefighters, damage clean up and related costs is helpful, but the long-haul recovery will need much more, from federal, state, and local resources.

As I watched the television coverage of the wildfires, and the questions posed to local elected officials, I was reminded of losses sustained here during Hurricane Isabel, the derecho, Tropical Storm Lee, and the floods of July 2019 and 2020.  Fire was not an issue, but large swaths of Fairfax County were affected by torrential rains and sustained winds.  In one storm, water systems lost power and back-up procedures failed at the same time, leading to more than a million residents without water.  Telecommunications were affected when Verizon’s back-up batteries also failed in a storm, paralyzing 911 calls.  Police had to rely on old-fashioned whistle plans that harkened to pre-World War II times to communicate.  Property and economic losses from those storms were in the millions, not billions, but many questions centered on why and how emergency plans might have failed.

The honest truth is that, despite repeated disaster drills and exercises, no emergency plan could have predicted that five (or more) massive wildfires would erupt in rapid succession, exacerbated by hurricane force winds with no rain.  Most local government decisions are a matter of balancing needs with available resources (taxpayer dollars).  Engineers might be able to design redundant emergency systems and back-ups, but the costs would be enormous, and multiple staff would be needed to maintain the system even if it was not activated, waiting for that unspecified time that the system might be needed. 

Critics wondered if upstream reservoirs might have been available; fire authorities said that water supplies were plentiful but the pressure needed to make the water flow to the hydrants was the problem.  Too many straws in the glass is an apt metaphor for what happened.  Trump’s call to open up the water main (that doesn’t exist) in Northern California demonstrates an ignorance of hydrology.  The natural system of rivers, creeks, and reservoirs in any state provides drinking water to communities, irrigation to agriculture, and moisture to support forests, recreation, and the environment as a whole.  Reservoirs can’t be turned on like a faucet.  It can take hours or days for a water release from a reservoir to reach its goal.  Case in point: the water co-ops partnered decades ago to build a system of reservoirs on the Potomac, the chief source of drinking water for the region.  Little Seneca in Maryland and Jennings Randolph in West Virginia can be drawn down to alleviate drought, but it takes several hours for water from Little Seneca to reach the low-flow gauge at Little Falls, and more than a week for water from Jennings Randolph to reach the same point.  

The causes and outcomes of the Los Angeles County wildfires will be debated for many years, and the answers may never be acceptable or agreed upon.  What happened is tragic and horrific, with enormous loss of life and property.  What is not lost, however, is the community spirit. As fires continue to burn, World Central Kitchen is providing hot meals, volunteers are helping to house lost pets, and donated clothing and supplies are pouring in to assist those who lost everything.  The human spirit is resilient; just how resilient will be tested in the coming days, weeks, and months, in California and across America.