By Netter News- January 10, 2025
| Los Angeles smolders, and not just from the fires. |
| Today, the political fallout has engulfed city leadership, with Fire Chief Kristin Crowley torching Mayor Karen Bass in a parade of interviews. |
| Crowley, once a trusted lieutenant, took aim with a brutal truth bomb: “Yes, it was cut, and it did impact our ability to provide service.” With that, she blew the Mayor’s narrative out of the water that budget cuts didn’t impact the city’s response to the deadly wildfires. Tonight this is leaving Angelenos wondering who’s lying and who’s just trying to survive the fallout. |
| Don’t Get Distracted |
| The finger-pointing and political power plays are a distraction from the real tragedy. This disaster wasn’t just an act of nature—it was a failure to prepare, and that failure falls squarely on the leaders of Los Angeles. |
| A Closer Look |
| Let’s rewind to last weekend—before the mayor jetted off to Ghana. Local forecasters sounded the alarm days in advance: hurricane-force winds were bearing down on Southern California, with gusts predicted to hit 100 mph. The warnings couldn’t have been clearer. The fire danger was real across the region. Take a look at this social media post from the National Weather Service in Southern California. Forecasters were sounding the alarm. Yet, city leaders failed to plan for the worst-case scenario. |
| Failure of Leadership |
| Remember that old adage—plan for the worst, hope for the best? Apparently, Los Angeles leaders forgot. So, where were the preparations? |
| Were fire trucks and firefighters pre-deployed in vulnerable areas?Were strike teams sent out to populated canyons and hillside neighborhoods like in years past to check for brush clearance and to move cars blocking critical roadways?Were reservoirs and substations staffed and ready for emergencies? |
| The answers to these questions will likely reveal what Angelenos already suspected: a stunning failure of leadership. |
| Governor Newsom Points Fingers |
| And that’s where Governor Gavin Newsom has entered the fray, tossing both the LADWP and the Mayor under the bus and late this afternoon, demanding answers about how hydrants ran out of water. |
| In a letter to city officials, Newsom wrote: |
“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community.”
| The Palisades Tragedy |
Why didn’t the water flow in the Pacific Palisades? That’s the million-dollar question. |
| Quick Catch-Up |
Here’s what we’ve been told from LADWP officials: |
| Water pressure in the upper Palisades is sustained by three storage tanks, each holding 1 million gallons. These tanks are located at higher elevations in this hilly neighborhood, with water pumped up to the tanks and then flowing down by gravity to maintain pressure.By 3 a.m. Wednesday, all three tanks had run dry. Fire hydrants functioned at lower elevations, but in hillier areas like the Palisades Highlands— the hydrants ran dry. LA Dept of Water & Power CEO said it was challenging getting water up the hillside from the storage tanks.A fourth tank, the Santa Ynez Reservoir has been offline for months undergoing repairs. |
| The Altadena Tragedy |
High demand and lower water pressure also plagued firefighters in Altadena—another one of the LADWP’s service areas.
- Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin confirmed that the system temporarily lost power.
- Firefighters reported encountering at least four dry hydrants while battling flames in neighborhoods.
- Some teams were forced to drive to neighboring Pasadena to fill their trucks, losing critical time in their fight against fire.
| Critical Questions: |
| Officials have already admitted to power outages affecting at least one LADWP water system in Altadena during the firestorm. So it begs several critical questions: |
| Were generators on hand at these reservoirs to keep the systems and pumps operational to supply water to fire hydrants during the firestorm?If so, were workers on-site to ensure the generators were activated if the system lost power? Did the same failures occur in the three reservoirs that supplied the Palisades? |
| Hillside Challenges |
| Is pumping water uphill to areas like the Palisades Highlands that challenging as the LADWP CEO said it is? Let’s consider the bigger picture of where SoCal’s water comes from. |
| The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a key water source for Central and Southern California.Water is pumped into Southern California via the California Aqueduct, visible along the Grapevine. The aqueduct carries water more than 400 miles to serve over 25 million Californians. |
Carl Torgersen, former deputy director of the State Water Project, once explained it this way about pumping water up the Tejon Pass:
“It goes fast, almost 7,000 cubic feet per second. A cubic foot is about the size of a basketball. So imagine 7,000 basketballs every second.”
Carl Torgersen, Former Deputy Director, CA State Water Project
And if you are wondering, the state says every part of this critical system is equipped with generators to ensure water services continue during power outages.
Final Thoughts
Suppose California can pump water hundreds of miles and over mountains using a system equipped with backup generators. Why couldn’t the LADWP ensure water was pumped up the hillside in Pacific Palisades or Altadena?
- Was this a failure of foresight, infrastructure, or leadership?
- Were emergency contingency plans simply not in place at the local level?
