Amid concerns about water supply to put out wildfires that have burned thousands of buildings across Los Angeles, President Joe Biden said that intentional power outages caused shortages.
Biden said Thursday that he spoke with California Gov. Gavin Newsom about water shortages that were reported and that generators are being brought in to deal with the fires. Utilities were shut down out of concern about triggering more fires, the president said.
“What I know from talking to the governor, that there are concerns out there that there’s also been a water shortage. The fact is the utilities, understandably, shut off power because they are worried the lines that carried energy were going to be blown down and spark additional fires,” Biden said at a briefing with White House officials. “When it did that, it cut off the ability to generate pumping the water. That’s what caused the lack of water in these hydrants.”…