First and foremost, I am not criticizing anyone on the fire line, anyone fighting the fire on the ground, flying aerial tankers, or out getting people to evacuate.  And for those of you that say I am writing from my basement and don't know what it's like fighting a fire, you are correct.  But I have spent much of my adult life preparing contingency plans for some of the most high end operations our nation might have been involved in and post 9/11, post Katrina, the response I am seeing from California and San Diego is not acceptable.  There is NO EXCUSE for not having a consolidated picture of the fire, what we would call in the military a common operational picture.  A 20 year old with Google Earth, with some inputs, could have this picture built and maintained with no problems, in a couple of hours.

Civil servants at all levels have to stop worrying about their jobs and start worrying about the lives and property they are entrusted to help secure.  The information being passed to the residents is WAY TOO LITTLE.  You have to start thinking about how to help the people instead of being concerned for your jobs.  And if you think I am being too harsh, BRING IT ON!  Sow me how you have been proactive, show me how you have done your best to inform the public, show me your successes and I will not only apologize, I will make a $5,000 donation to the San Diego charity of your choice.  What I am saying is that as of this point, the command and control structures of San Diego County have not performed up to par.

Check out the SD County website for their latest here: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dmpr/emer/index.html

And now check out Bruce Henderson’s website here:   

http://and-still-i-persist.com/?cat=50

Now, tell me who has their act together? Why isn’t there Civil Air Patrol aircraft flying over the county to map the area?  Why isn’t there an integrative government map for planning.?  9/11 was over 6 years ago, Katrina, 2 years ago, now this? C’MON ON!!!!