Firefighters from all over the Western United States deserve praise and our thanks for risking their lives to save ours and our homes. But the City of Malibu and the sheriff’s department should be ashamed of themselves for how they handled this disaster. They managed to take a tragedy and make it 100 times worse. The City of Malibu in conjunction with the sheriff’s department has confined thousands of residents to their homes for no reason. The reality is that many, many Malibu residents did not evacuate because they stayed behind to save their multi-million dollar assets. We have been without food and water for five days. The Sheriff is not permitting us to even leave our neighborhoods to go to evacuation centers to pick up food and water. The Sheriff is not permitting elderly residents to travel 100 yards outside the Point Dume road block to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. The Sheriff is not permitting handoffs of bottled water from those outside the road closures to those trapped on the other side. The Sheriff and the city are going out of their way to prevent kind souls from Santa Monica from delivering food, water, and other supplies to those trapped on Point Dume without running water or electricity. I have personally witnessed deputies threaten to arrest anyone who dares received supplies at police checkpoints. The City of Malibu has ordered the SoHo House to cease preparing and delivering sandwiches to the trapped locals. The City of Malibu, its city manager in particular, and every single member of the City Council ought to be ashamed of themselves for their disgraceful handling of this disaster.
Ernesto McGuire