Steve's Place"Tankers up the hill to deliver water, down the hill to get more water." There are 5 tankers protecting a guy's house. He's emotional and grateful.
The evacuation orders apparently went out to phones in more communities than they should have. There are no evacuation orders for Hollywood or the South Bay area. There are no new evacuation orders at this moment, except for the ones related to the Kenneth Fire.
KCAL9 cut from the presser to say that the community of Oak Park is under voluntary evacuation orders.
Just get out of there.
One of the announcers says the new fire is heading for her home.
"The fire is reported to be burning at a Rapid rate of spread and Law Enforcement has been requested to the area - per radio traffic"
There are water drops happening.
A *new* fire is burning in the San Fernando valley. It ends directly west of where Victory Blvd. dead-ends. Threatening Thousand Oaks, apparently.
White House presser re LA fires, continued:
POTUS turns to a general. In additional to the ground and air support mentioned by POTUS and Chairman Brown, they have additional resources to deploy as requested.
POTUS said DOD stepped up immediately, called him before he asked. Thinks "a lot of help" will be forthcoming from them.
Dept. of Energy is up next. The Secretary says she is still on her plane, so others will give the summary. The Secretary has been dealing with the island-wide Puerto Rico blackout. They are talking about coordination with utilities. Mutual assistance. Working closely with utilities and transmission operators. No issues with stability with the transmission system. Comprehensive assessment hasn't begun yet, but when conditions allow, they will know more about how they'll respond.
POTUS asks for an explanation for how this all led to problems pumping water. There are many accusations. The response is too general. POTUS says, "I think people just don't know how it functions." Talks about flying over burned areas all the way into Idaho. Talks about utility lines falling and igniting fires, and how utilities have to shut down the power lines. Thinks a lot of people don't get the connection between power outages and the ability to pump water, so they blame local officials. Says the utility company cannot maintain the transmission of power, for safety reasons. Asks if they're bringing in generators. Again, the dept. rep is talking too generally. POTUS is less than impressed, from his grunts. Rep talks about grid resiliency. POTUS says it would be a lot easier if these lines were underground in pipes through forests. Says it's expensive. Department agrees. POTUS talking about a family member in an area with hundreds of burned down homes. Says there is "so much anxiety generated." Speaks of Hawaiian effort. Appeals to Congress. "You have to step up when people say the need help." Says "There is global warming. It's changing weather patterns." "The more we can explain to the American people ... [the better]." "We're going to be going back to Congress asking for more help on this stuff. Because we can afford it." Talks about more bills. Says we need to explain in simple, straightforward language what we're doing to help." Also chided politicking.
KCAL just cut him off.
2/2
#KCAL9 #POTUS #VP #EatonFire #PalisadesFire #HughesFire #Congress
White House presser re LA fires:
President Biden said the federal government will cover 100% of the cost of recovery efforts for the next 180 days.
He said Cal Fire, because DWP cut power to their pumping systems, is purchasing backup power supplies for these.
The federal government, alongside Canada, is sending additional help to California.
"We are with you."
"Firefighters and first responders really are heroes."
POTUS gave a nod to reporters covering the fires.
VP Harris is speaking now. "Sadly, insurance companies have cancelled insurance on many of these families ... who will not have the resources to recover in any meaningful way." She praises neighbors helping neighbors. She calls the firefighters heroes.
POTUS is speaking again. He talks about how the US Forest Service is helping. Now to the fire chief.
4 major fires going on in California. Eaton, Hurst, Hamlet, and Palisades. "We're normally at the lowest point of fire in the year." Spoke of climate changing. Said winds kept flying support grounded. "In the last 24 hours, we've had 50 starts." "We stopped the potential for 50 additional fires." Says POTUS did an excellent job of summarizing where we are, so he won't go over that. Talks about air tankers. There are 8 of them. They will have all 8 available soon. [At this time of year, nothing was going on before billionaires decided to become gods, so they did maintenance now. Rushing to get them into service, along with support planes.] "We are going to monitor the air space" because it is "tight," and briefly notes having to avoid drones. Each fire will be investigated. "It would be unusual for lighting-caused fires at this time of year."
POTUS asks what is most concerning now. Chief says wind. Talks about how the winds in the morning blow in one direction, then change directions in the afternoon, making it more difficult.
Talking about recovery now. Mental health support included. Circled back to insurance companies cutting policies. Feds in discussion with state and local governments about how to provide temp housing and other support. Talking about support for hazardous materials removal, and rebuilding smartly. Thinks the mental health stress will be a significant issue. Again took swipes at insurance companies.
POTUS says church and school rebuilding is part of his declaration. Asked if hazardous material removal will take some time. Yes, it will. 360,000 people have been evacuated so far.
The fire administrator for FEMA is on the line. She has been with gov & fire chiefs. On the ground. Checking on firefighters on the front line. They are exhausted. They can take a quick nap in the truck sometimes. Thinks it's important that FEMA shows up & lets them know they're there. "There is so much work firefighters are doing beyond fire suppression." Plan to be there for a couple of more days.
POTUS mentions mental health issues. Pivots to Department of Defense. They have been in receipt of requests. [DOD-speak for we're trying to help.]
Chairman Brown says they have 500,000 available to support, but not in firefighting operations because they'd need training. Search & response, medical care, and other support. Notes some California NG have firefighting training and will be added. C-130's to drop water or retardant. 2 of them on the Channel Islands. More tomorrow. Flights begin tomorrow.
1/?
#KCAL9 #POTUS #VP #Biden #Harris #EatonFire #PalisadesFire #HughesFire #ClimateChange #WhiteHouse
In a confusing broadcast, I gather that winds are lower now, so the smoke pollution is up. But winds are going to rise again until 6 AM to 2 PM tomorrow, when it will begin to get much more still. As a consequence of lower winds, air quality is horrible in many places in Southern California.
It will be a different PCH. Most of the buildings look like charcoal.
In, I think, Altadena, a guy who lost his home said it looked like a cyclone overhead, but when he checked with Google, it said the wind was FIVE MILES AN HOUR when it was "sixty."
Billionaires ruined our climate. Ruined our country. Ruined our mass media. They are lying to us, collecting money, and laughing all the way to the bank. PEOPLE DIE WHEN BILLIONAIRES LIE!!!
Cal Fire hand crews are assisting the trucks from Placer County up on Mt. Wilson, fighting the fire endangering the broadcast complex and the observatory.