There has been NO interruption of water supply to Los Angeles. The California Aqueduct and the Los Angeles Aqueduct continue to deliver water to the city. Because of the fire fighting efforts, there has been an over capacity issue with water mains within the city and a loss of pumping capacity because of power failures. This is a fire driven by hurricane force winds in a region which is unusually dry. Los Angeles will need to make major adjustments in fire safe construction, urban fire breaks, and threats posed by the Santa Anna winds.
People who loose their homes in hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters did not cause the hurricanes. They should not be penalized or politicized. Hindsight being what it is, it will always be possible to say we should have been better prepared. In this case there were some advance preparations, fire safe building codes, pre-positioned fire engines, but there are also deficiencies. Notably staffing levels in the LA fire department are lower than many other cities. The intensity of a fire driven by hurricane force winds is hard to imagine unless one sees it first hand. I doubt even a fully staffed LAFD could have stropped it during high winds. There need to be physical barriers and sprinkler systems engineered and installed in advance.
For the most part these were residential neighborhoods. Los Angles will have to take steps to keep them residential and prevent opportunists from buying up the land for high end developments.
