Rain is finally coming to Southern California: What you need to know
Eaton fire victim Windy Crick, right, hugs her neighbor Ray Ahn after they searched for keepsakes and valuables amid the rubble of their burned-out homes on Tuesday.
After an epic dry streak that helped fuel devastating fires, Southern California this weekend will get its first real rain of the winter.
Any moisture will help with the region’s parched, combustible landscape. Yet there is concern that the upcoming rain may provide only temporary relief. After this weekend, a dry spell could return — raising serious questions about whether dangerous fire weather could return sooner than later.
Trump lands in Los Angeles to survey damage after criticizing fire response
A view of homes destroyed by the Palisades fire in Malibu between Rambla Pacifico Street and Carbon Canyon Road.
In a somber scene lit by an orange Los Angeles sunset, President Trump walked through the ruins of Pacific Palisades on Friday, shaking hands with firefighters and speaking to a handful of residents as he took in the devastation wrought by firestorms that swept through L.A. County this month.
Leveled properties and charred trees were visible in the background as the president walked through a neighborhood of destroyed homes. Firefighters handed him a white fire helmet adorned with the number 47 on the front and side.
Trump surveys Pacific Palisades devastation
President Trump walked through the ruins of Pacific Palisades on Friday, shaking hands with firefighters and speaking to a handful of residents as he took in the devastation brought by firestorms that swept through L.A. County this month.
Leveled properties and charred trees were visible in the background as the president walked through a neighborhood of leveled homes. Firefighters handed the president a white fire helmet adorned with the number 47 on the front and side.
Risk of debris flow increases for recent burn areas of L.A. County
The risk of debris flow — a type of landslide that can cause severe damage — around recently burned areas in Los Angeles County is growing as this weekend’s rains approach.
There is now a 10% to 20% chance of significant debris flow for sensitive recently burned areas of L.A. County; that’s up from an earlier estimate of 5% to 10%. The chance of debris flows for other burn scars remains 5% to 10%.
Officials were warned of failing water system before Palisades fire. Fixes never happened
Firefighters battle the Palisades fire on El Medio Avenue in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7.
Los Angeles County officials missed dozens of opportunities for water infrastructure improvements that experts say probably would have enabled firefighters to save more homes during the Palisades fire, public records show.
As crews battled the blaze, attempting to extinguish flames that burned huge swaths of L.A. County and killed at least 11 people, some hydrants ran dry.
L.A. County’s evacuation alert system broke down during fires. It’s part of a larger problem
When the federal government in 2012 launched Wireless Emergency Alerts — a new system that allowed officials to send loud, screeching alarms to cellphones across a large area — many local emergency management officers were wary of the technology.
In 2017, as the Tubbs fire engulfed Northern California’s wine country, officials in Sonoma and Napa counties decided against sending such mass wireless alerts, worrying that they would cause county-wide gridlock and panic. Instead, they relied on an older system that sent messages to a smaller number of landlines and cellphone numbers voluntarily submitted by residents. Ultimately, 22 people perished.
Why water advisories are triggered after a fire emergency
Eight water districts have issued do-not-use or do-not-drink advisories following the Palisades and Eaton fires
Estimated cost of fire damage balloons to more than $250 billion
Residents search for belongings in the remains of their burned-out homes in Altadena on Tuesday.
As raging wildfires continue to torment Southern California, estimates of the total economic loss have ballooned to more than $250 billion, making it one of the most costly natural disasters in U.S. history.
Early estimates by AccuWeather and JP Morgan put the damage in the $50-billion range, but the expected toll quickly rose to more than triple that amount as fires spread through neighborhoods in Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
With rain on the way, dread grows in fire-ravaged Palisades, Altadena and landslide-prone Rancho Palos Verdes
Michael Gessl’s house survived the Palisades fire that destroyed much of his neighborhood, but something else is making him nervous.
Rain.
This reservoir was built to save Pacific Palisades. It was empty when the flames came
The Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades before the Jan. 7 wildfire.
After flames leveled nearly 500 homes in Bel-Air and Brentwood in 1961, Los Angeles had a reckoning over firefighting.
By 1964, city leaders had added 13 fire stations, mapped out fire hydrants, purchased helicopters and dispatched more crews to the Santa Monica Mountains. To accommodate growth in Pacific Palisades, they built a reservoir in Santa Ynez Canyon, as well as a pumping station “to increase fire protection,” as the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s then-chief water engineer, Gerald W. Jones, told The Times in 1972.
Some L.A. fire victims are not getting claims advances as required by law, state says
Some policyholders who lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires are not getting claims advances that are due to them, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara alleged Thursday.
In response, Lara issued a bulletin reminding all California insurers that the law requires victims who have suffered total losses to get advance payments for their living expenses and loss of contents.
Mayor Bass says her brother lost his home in the Palisades fire
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Thursday that her brother was among the thousands of people who lost their homes in the Palisades fire.
“The loss that you’re going through, I share indirectly. It’s hit my family too,” Bass said at a meeting of the Pacific Palisades Community Council. “My brother, who has lived in Malibu for 40 years, been through many fires, evacuated many times — this time didn’t get away.”
Winds and dry conditions across SoCal driving new fires
Southern California’s fire season refuses to quit, even with rain on the horizon.
In the last day, hundreds of weary firefighters have battled multiple fires in the hills around Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including a massive blaze near Castaic, an early morning fire in the Sepulveda Pass that threatened Brentwood and Bel-Air, and another that pushed into Ventura County farmland Thursday morning.
