Ten people are dead. 10,000 buildings are incinerated. Acrage burned is the size of San Francisco. 130,000 people have evacuated.

And in Los Angeles, the one reservoir that could have been used to stop the apocalyptic wildfires that destroyed Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and parts of other towns was somehow empty.

The incompetence is now reaching the stratosphere.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of use when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby.

 

Officials told The Times that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades.

 

The revelation comes among growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water while battling the blaze. Numerous fire hydrants in higher-elevation streets of the Palisades went dry, leaving firefighters struggling with low water pressure as they combated the flames.

So the firemen were sent out into the inferno with nothing to work with, and the County water officials responsible for keeping the huge reservoir they could have used who didn't fill it during fire season are doing a helluva job.

Within the Times report, the water officials claim demand for water was too high, slyly citing the three tanks with one million gallons apiece as the water to be used, which as they drained out, was enough to make the water pressure fall and the fire hydrants go dry.

They left out the part about the 117-million gallons they could and should have gotten from this reservoir that would have kept those tanks stocked.

In the story, one claims the missing 117-million gallon reservoir would not have made much difference from the 3 ditzy tanks they had, which doesn't make sense.

At a minimum, it could have put out a small fire in order to keep it from becoming a big fire. And incidentally, why'd the fire get so big?

Even a water official admitted the reservoir's extended "maintenance" schedule at peak fire season created a problem.

A DWP official acknowledged that the reservoir’s absence likely contributed to some diminished pressure and dry hydrants in upper regions of the Palisades.

However, a spokesperson for the utility said in a statement that DWP was still evaluating the effect of the reservoir being placed offline, and that staffers were conducting a root-cause analysis.

“Our primary focus is to provide water supply throughout the city,” the DWP spokesperson said, adding, “The system was never designed for a wildfire scenario that we are experiencing.”

I think by 'some' he means 'a lot.'

The Times reported that it had been offline for that repair to its cover "for a while," not specifying how long that was, probably because DWP officials didn't want that to get out there. Sure, systems need maintenance. But it's rather insane to schedule that maintenance during peak fire season, or with a week's warning about dangerous Santa Ana winds.

That calls to mind just how bad the leadership of that water agency seems to be. A couple days ago, Janisse Quiñones, the Department of Water and Power's CEO, who pulls in a $750,000 annual salary, showed us just how prepossessing she was:

Here she was making excuses a couple days earlier:

There was also this dereliction of duty from the state:

The Santa Ynez reservoir was one of the old ones.

Her two big accomplishments were in converting water into a greenie DEI project for the "underserved" as this surreal interview with American Public Power Association indicates:

My long-term goals are very well defined — 100% clean energy and 70% local water by 2035. I’m ensuring that everybody understands that’s where we’re heading, because this is not just DWP; our communities have to be part of the equation. They have to be actively involved in the transition — our policymakers, our environmental community, any stakeholder that has a say on how we move policy and how we move technology and innovation. So, a lot of collaboration is going on, engagement, ensuring that we are having the right conversations at the right time with the right people. It’s critical.  

We have a lot of work to do, not only in securing more renewable resources, but increasing the transmission capacity to bring those resources into the local basin while at the same time increasing our local renewable resources, like utility-owned solar in the community.  

One of my No. 1 goals, and I think our differentiator for our energy transition, is making sure that we do this equitably and we don’t leave any community behind. One of the goals that drives me every day is really ensuring that I’m an enabler of creating a new middle class in L.A. by increasing high-paying jobs that are staying in L.A. to support the L.A. clean energy transition. Some of the work that we’re doing locally is creating EV charging hubs, which will have local storage capacity so that we can store that excess power in those hours that it’s not peak hour and redispatch it when we need it locally. And those are going to be primarily in disadvantaged communities. In L.A., 54% of our community is disadvantaged. This is going to have multiple benefits for the community, including resiliency, microgrids, EV charging at residential rates, and creating local jobs.

And what was she last seen doing?

I’m out in the field almost every week, making sure that I connect with my employees, but also the communities we’re serving. Last week we had an event in Watts, one of our underserved, disadvantaged communities. We were able to provide 600 portable AC units for low-income elderly seniors, because of the heat wave and how much heat is impacting our most vulnerable populations, like our young kids and our elderly. I was in the Watts Community Center making sure that we were there to provide not only the AC units, but information on our programs and a level pay plan, so that they can use the air conditioners that were given to them to improve their health.  

I’m working a lot with the tribes in Owens Valley on the water side as well, and I did that the first two weeks in the job, making sure that they know they’re on my mind and that they’re a priority for the way that we engage with stakeholders.

The one thing she wasn't doing was paying attention to whether the most fire-vulnerable zones in a wealthy high-tax area was getting any water at all with the Santa Ana winds coming. Like Mayor Karen Bass, she had her week's warning. Maybe because it was just too white.

She did vote herself a pay increase, though:

What a miserable, incompetent creature, every bit as stupid as she sounds in all her media presentations, clearly in over her head, zero idea about what her water job was really about. But clearly rewarded by the system for the wokester virtue-signalling she did.

Just not providing water. This one would be a good one to fire and throw out on her ear as an accountability measure, given her incredible failure in keeping the critical reservoirs stocked. It makes one wonder what else she hasn't done as she goes ladling out goodies like Hugo Chavez used to do to the shack dwellers in exchange for votes.

There must be an incredible mess at that agency, given the neglect seen in this critical juncture.

Image: Screen shot from X video