The Largest Natural Disaster In American History (Until The Next One)
The Jennings Creek Fire suggested that we're not ready for our new climate reality. The Los Angeles Wildfires and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus's comments about them proved it.
We are not even three months removed from the Jennings Creek Fire. But because memories are short, here is a reminder of what happened:
-The fire consumed over 5,000 acres and required the assistance of firefighters from all over New York State (and beyond).
-Some of our local politicians, including Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, State Senator James G. Skoufis, and South Blooming Grove's de facto co-mayor, Yitzchok "Isaac" Ekstein," treated the fire like a photo-op before it was even contained and after one man died.
-Despite smaller fires, all with the potential to ignite, appearing on the Town of Monroe - Town of Tuexedo border, New York State Senate Candidate and Town of Monroe Board member Dorey Houle only provided updates on the fire to her friends on Facebook. Town of Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone provided no updates at all. Residents depended entirely on one brave volunteer firefighter who provided updates on Facebook for real-time news and information, including whether or not they needed to evacuate.
-The Town of Monroe has no emergency response plan. They didn't have one in 2023 after the historic flooding that hit Southern Orange County. They didn't have one in 2024 with the Jennings Creek Fire. We're now into 2025, and Tony Cardone, Dorey Houle, and Sal Scancarello — the guy who hits women at Food Truck Festivals — have not brought up the creation of an emergency plan at all. There is also no emergency response plan in South Blooming Grove, but the Village continues to truck in water to the tune of what will be $2M by the end of 2025. Residents in Blooming Grove are currently struggling with infrastructure providing power to homes that should have never been put on a mountain in the first place.
-Meanwhile, one of the announced candidates for the Monroe Town Board — and the person I am absolutely going to sue — Tim Mitts denies Climate Change had anything to do with the Jennings Creek Fire. This is despite the unanimous scientific consensus that 2024 was the hottest year on record and that climate change has verifiably created the conditions for these fires to become more frequent and dangerous.
So, not that anyone reading this was going to vote for Tim Mitts anyway, but it's worth saying that his position on the Jennings Creek Fire will actively endanger the lives of Monroe residents as these fires become a regular threat to their health and safety. (Listen, we'd like to ignore the guy, but as we told one reader recently, he was just a candidate for the New York State Senate, and he is announced as a candidate for the Monroe Town Board. So we can't ignore him either.)
By comparison, the Jennings Creek Fire was larger than two of the four forest fires currently raging in Los Angeles—the Hurst Fire and the Auto Fire. Still, it's not even close to the size of the Eaton Fire (14,117 acres burned so far) and the Palisades Fire (23,713 acres burned so far). These numbers, including others such as the 12,300 structures that have been destroyed, are being updated here.
That brings us to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus. You may remember him from such videos as calling everyone in Orange County “soft” over the drone sightings. Mr. Neuhaus is currently deployed with the Naval Reserves in Los Angeles to help fight the four fires. (It's important to stress that there are four of these fires for reasons we'll explain in today's post.) Mr. Neuhaus couldn't just take the win and let his service in Los Angeles speak for itself. Instead, he put out another one of his videos featuring another insidious lie that puts New Yorkers in danger. That’s what we’ll talk about in the next section. (We've also asked the Navy to clarify if, while on active deployment, Naval Reservists can release political commentary bashing the area and state they are there to protect.)
As some of you know, Los Angeles is my home for a lot of the year. The city itself is the second largest city in America. LA County is the most densely populated urban county in America. So, this Taylor Sheriden-Donald Trump myth that LA is somehow this failed city, or that it's not representative of "the Real America" is bullshit. This is America. While it's true that Los Angeles does have problems — the lack of affordable housing immediately comes to mind — Los Angeles is also a thriving city that fuels the largest economy in the United States. If California were its own country, its economy would be the fifth largest in the world. So the idea that it's somehow "failing" is pretty laughable when you compare it to a lot of these "Red States" that are entirely dependent on California to subsidize them—looking at you, Louisiana. And, as I mentioned before, whenever we talk about "Red States," there's no such thing. There are states where people can vote, mostly without issue. And there are those states where they can’t. Florida, you know, the "real America,” is a banner example of what I’m describing if you’d like to learn more.
While it's true that many wealthy people live in Los Angeles, LA County is also one of the most representative places in America. LA County defines who we aspire to be as a nation: The world’s first, thriving, multi-ethnic, representative democracy. LA didn’t start that way. Altadena, devastated by the current fires, was a destination for Black Americans during the Great Migration. It was often one of the few places where you could escape the racist redlining that defined Los Angeles in its early days as a city. Later, The Palisades, also devastated by the current fires, was a refuge for Eastern European Jews like my family, who wanted to escape the Nazis before and during World War 2. While imperfect, Los Angeles was a destination for everyone of all backgrounds to begin their lives again.
I'm happy to say many of my friends in LA are safe. More than a few of them had to relocate. For example, my roommate in West Hollywood is at a temporary AirBnB. But they're the lucky ones. I am, too, as I’ve been here in Monroe since the holidays, and I will stick around for a while. (We’ll talk more about that next month.)
Over 100,000 people are displaced by these four fires. Over 40,000 people have filed for assistance from FEMA. Twenty-four people, so far, have died. Entire neighborhoods are destroyed. While the Jennings Creek Fire saw aid come from all over New York State, Los Angeles has needed to depend on that help and the help of roughly 1,800 convicted felons to help battle the blaze. Some making no more than $5 in the process. Despite their bravery, if you want to find fault with California, a lot of them have trouble finding work as firefighters after their sentences expire because of their records. (Maybe they should take a page out of Tim Mitts’s book, a convicted felon, and run for office.)
These four fires will cost well into the hundreds of millions, making them the most expensive fires in American history. By the time this is done, you could be looking at the largest national disaster in American history—at least until the next one. I don't know if you've noticed, but these "once in a generation" events now happen every three months.
I sure hope you’re all paying attention now. It’s time we identify all the people putting the needs of the wealthy, the real estate developers, and the corporations ahead of our needs, and we kick them out of office. Doing nothing is going to get us all killed.
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More From Our Local Dobby The House Elf Impressionist
During a time when we need to trust our local elected officials, Crooked Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus continues to be a vector of disinformation. For example, During the 2025 Orange County Budget presentation, Steve Neuhaus said he speaks with District Attorney David M. Hoovler "every day." The Monroe Gazette put in a FOIL request for records (notes, emails, texts, and other documentation) between Steve Neuhaus and David Hoovler (as well as associated staff in the DA's office) concerning South Blooming Grove. After three months of waiting, Mary Pat Smith — who has many hats in Orange County government, including FOIL officer — wrote back, “We have reviewed your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request dated October 05, 2024 and following a diligent search, we have been unable to locate any records responsive to your request.” She did not clarify how Orange County defines a “diligent search.” Don’t worry. We asked her to clarify.
So today, we will look at two of his new claims related to the four fires currently burning in Los Angeles. All of this adds up to a County Executive out of his depth in terms of managing life on a hotter, drier planet where such emergencies will become a frequent part of our lives.
Incorrect Thought Dropping #1
"A lot of people on both sides of this Monday morning quarterbacking, saying that it's the the state of California screwed this up, and LA is screwing this up. And then there's people talking about it being natural disasters, all this stuff. The bottom line is it's still an ongoing emergency. You have multiple fires, you have firefighters and emergency services trying to get a handle on this. And at the end of the day, my opinion, I think that the government did fail on many levels. You know, our job is to protect you. There's accidents that happen. We had a major accidents and fires over the last couple weeks in Orange County, but those happen, but something to this magnitude, something has to be done to make sure this doesn't happen again. We owe that to the public, right? That's what government supposed to do. We're supposed to protect you, and sometimes accidents happen, but some of them are preventable."
We know that Mr. Neuhaus gets all of his information from Fox News. That's why he constantly discusses the Bail Reform and the Border. We also know this because he's repeating a Trump talking point that the State of California is to blame. But here's the thing: at this time, we do not know the cause of the largest fire, the Palisades Fire. So, assigning blame during what Mr. Neuhaus describes as an "ongoing emergency" is irresponsible at best. At worst, Mr. Neuhaus is looking to use this emergency to score political points for his upcoming re-election bid this Fall. He's not the only Republican to do that. You'll notice a lot of the "Red State" Republicans that often beg for money after their natural disasters are now demanding conditions on any funding given to California to help it recover from these fires. So, I'm not going to say Steve Neuhaus is a Scumbag for looking to score political points off the misery of others, but I'm sure going to think it and vote accordingly. I encourage you to do the same.
Mr. Trump and his friends on Fox News have also complained that there wasn't enough water in the fire hydrants. But like a lot of things said by the president, it is something slightly true that he blew out of proportion.
Yes. There was "not enough water" in the hydrants; however, these hydrants are NOT AT ALL designed to fight four simultaneous mega-fires during hurricane-force wind. (The wind, by the way, makes it incredibly difficult to get the water out of these hydrants as well.) These hydrants are designed to manage and respond to a localized fire in your neighborhood. Not fires that burn over 45,000 acres (and counting.) And one other thing you need to consider: The modern home makes excellent fuel for an inferno—all those petroleum products. Your sneakers included. We're going to have a reckoning with the amount of things in our home that are little bombs waiting to go off during a fire like the Palisades or the Jennings Creek.
There's also been misinformation pushed by Trump and friends blaming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for cutting $17M from the LAFD budget. That, according to The LA Times, is misleading again. Yes. They did cut $17M, but they also raised the LAFD personnel's salaries by millions. So again, it has a kernel of truth in it, but when you look into the issue further, you can see it's not the whole story.
Here's another example: A lot of Russian and Chinese bots, aided by Megan Kelly, are spreading disinformation on Facebook and Twitter, claiming DEI is to blame for the fires. They then point to the fact that the LAFD Chief is a lesbian. What they don't tell you is that 75% of the leadership of the Los Angeles Fire Department is almost entirely men.
Here's the most troubling thing, though. The Monroe Gazette has waited months for Steve Neuhaus's Orange County government to provide documentation concerning the ongoing poisonous gas leak in the Village of Monroe. So far, they have only provided data from 2021 and emails with Orange County officials describing the hydrogen sulfide levels as "very high.
The Town of Monroe and the Moodna Basin Sewer Commission also refuse to divulge information on this issue. (Fun fact about the Moodna Basin Sewer Commission: The emails they have handed over didn’t include the one I just showed you, meaning their attorney Brian Nugent — yes that dude again — once again failed to provide responsive records to a FOIL request. This is the third time we’ve caught him doing this for multiple clients. Yes. We’re going to do something about that. But that’s for a future post.)
Orange County and Steve Neuhaus did not provide any data concerning the hydrogen sulfide leak from 2022, 2023, and 2024. This is a dangerous gas that children routinely breathe in at Airplane Park and that commuters waiting for their Shortline Bus at the Millpond Bus Stop routinely breathe in.
So one of two things are happening here; neither demonstrates that Mr. Neuhaus is looking to use the local government to protect his constituents during an emergency:
1. Either Steve Neuhaus, Tony Cardone, and Dorey Houle all knew about the dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide and are hiding that information from the public.
2. Or they did know, and decided not to bother doing anything about it after recording the data in 2021.
Now consider that and read again what Mr. Neuhaus said after blaming the State of California and City of Los Angeles for the fires: "We owe that to the public, right? That's what government supposed to do. We're supposed to protect you, and sometimes accidents happen, but some of them are preventable."
Does it look like Scumbag Steve Neuhaus is protecting the children and commuters of Monroe? I couldn't help but notice he didn't say the words "climate change" once in that little blame game, either, much like Mr. Mitts.
To Neuhaus, it's California's fault. It's Los Angeles' fault. It's an accident. "A preventable problem." Did you catch what he didn't say? It's not the oil and gas companies who heated the planet to levels unseen in the history of this planet.
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Incorrect Thought Dropping #2
"The other thing is the insurance I feel bad. I think 70% of the people that have lost their homes and businesses are not insurable in California, we have seen similar stuff happen in New York, where we used to have a number of insurance carriers that would come and get insurance claims for the government. Now it's only a few, because it's so litigious in New York ..."
This gets complicated, so I'll keep it brief. According to the insurance industry's trade association, in 2023, the industry enjoyed record profits of $87.6 billion. The numbers for 2024 haven't been added up yet, but it's expected that they will break their record year of 2023.
Great for them, right? Except there are a couple of huge problems. One that requires immediate government intervention because otherwise, we will have another Great Recession — or worse — on our hands. This is the complicated part. So, in its most basic form ... Remember how the banks were bundling bad debt and selling it back and forth to each other?
Well, the insurance companies are doing that right now. Except they call it "Reinsurance." This is the insurance that an insurance company buys from another insurance company. And like the mortgages, there's very little information or oversight into this process or what it means for consumers should something catastrophic, like say, four giant Los Angeles Wildfires burning at once, should happen.
The second problem is that David Burt, founder and CEO of DeltaTerra Capital, told The Lever, "Unaccounted-for wildfire and flood risk threatens as much as 2.7 trillion dollars in the U.S. housing market." So, as profitable as the insurance companies are right now, the reality is, if they provided insurance to everyone like they're supposed to, those profits would go right out the window in the event of an emergency like the one LA is experiencing.
So, what is a billion-dollar corporation to do? Two things. First, they will pass on any costs involved with the reinsurance transactions to you. State Farm, for example, canceled 70% of the insurance coverage it provides in the Palisades neighborhood. Then, of the 30% who kept their insurance, State Farm passed on the reinsurance cost they incurred from their insurance coverage and raised the premiums of those customers.
The second thing they did? Well, I already mentioned it: They're just not going to provide you with insurance coverage if your home is at risk from a climate change-related emergency. That’s bad news for everyone. One estimate puts 17% of the $48T housing market at risk from fires and floods, and God knows what else. Southern Orange County residents have experienced both things in the last two years. Hey, do you remember all those freaks and weirdos complaining about the cost of the Green New Deal and calling it a scam? Well, wait until you see how much the federal government is going to need to bail everyone out with each increasingly worse climate disaster we face. Maybe next time, spend less time crying about how AOC isn’t attracted to you and listen to what she’s saying, you know?
Let's go back to Mr. Neuhaus. Mr. Neuhaus claims the insurance companies are leaving New York State because it's "too litigious." For reasons I just explained, this is hilariously false. I fell out of my chair laughing when I heard him say it because there is absolutely zero basis in any reality, this or the next, to substantiate this claim. Like, if I walked up to you and said that most unidentified aerial phenomena originate from the Pacific Ocean, I'd have a firmer ground to stand on than Mr. Neuhaus. (I'd also have some former government employees back me up.)
The point here is this: Mr. Neuhaus, once again, showed you who he is. He's someone looking to score political points off of other people's pain, and he's someone who will straight-up lie to your face, even when everything is literally burning around him.
Is that really the guy you want running Orange County?