Reply #6: I live in a land of deep canyons yet less than 30 crow miles from the Pacific. [View All]

[PufPuf23]

In 1964 a 100 ? year flood wiped out all bridges but one on the local Rivers. Then many of the state and county highways were one lane or gravel while all are now paved and most two laned with new and higher bridges. My parents in childhood lived in an area with no wagon much less automobile access until 1921; freight was by mule. Public transportantion is worse than in my childhood in the 1950s (there is none but the local Tribe is trying to piggyback to connect existing systems. We did not have telephone until after I graduated high school and electricity was by generator or none when I was a child. There are still historic villages within 20 miles drive off the electric and phone grid.

The US Forest Service and the local Tribe are the political forces in an area of National Forests and Indian Reservation or aboriginal territory now National Forest.

Now I find this giggly. Back in 2003 or 2004, FEMA came for a community meeting. The locals, American Indian and other long term families, said we will just blow the bridges and access should shit hit the fan.

There was an example where a major county road slid out repeatedly and the Feds and county could not find a solution. Locals used their heavy equipment to fix the road and gated it to private keys in civil disobediance. The Feds responded by building a poorly conceived detour until the county road was finally fixed.

The reality is that if there was a nuclear war or similar, the bridges and access would last but days. I would not be an actor.

What is interesting is that Homeland Security through funding has influenced the politics of the local Tribes and National Forest Managers more recently.