I agree that it is grossly negligent to subsidize the building of a major city in a desert or semi-arid area, and then not invest in sufficient infrastructure t

I agree that it is grossly negligent to subsidize the building of a major city in a desert or semi-arid area, and then not invest in sufficient infrastructure to take care of easily forseable issues such as this. But, come on! The hydrants, which are fed from smallish tanks, which are fed from the reservoir, did not run out of water because the reservoir was offline? What magic pixie dust was going to feed those hydrants with the reservoir empty? They could pump water up to those tanks, but we already know that just isn't going to work at any kind of scale. It's barely adequate to meet normal domestic water needs. I guess we should just throw up our hands and not hold people accountable for basic maintenance of basic systems, or taking systems completely offline to do ancilliary repairs to things like a covering tarp. Or making massive cuts at the state and local level to fire prevention and fighting efforts.