'Devastating': California had record rainfall last year, but lacked infrastructure to store it

California's fire crisis stems from outdated water systems and poor forestry management, critics argue, with progressive politics thwarting realistic solutions.

"It's all political," Edward Ring, the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center think-tank, told Fox News Digital in an interview. "The entire cause is political, and they ironically politicize it by saying it's about climate change, which is a political wedge that they use all the time, which is really one of the least of the factors causing this." Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate. 

Experts lay blame primarily on the state's handling of its forestry management and a lesser-known problem, the state's outdated water reserves system. California's existing reservoirs can only hold so much water, and many were built in the mid-20th century. 

Last year, the state experienced record-breaking rainfall after an atmospheric river event, but the existing water infrastructure faced difficulties managing the sudden influx of water. A significant portion of that rainfall was dumped into the ocean.