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After weeks of windy and dry weather, rain has fallen in parched Southern California and is expected to aid firefighters who are mopping up multiple wildfires. But potentially heavy downpours on charred hillsides could bring new troubles such as toxic ash runoff. Los Angeles County crews spent much of the past week removing vegetation, shoring up slopes and reinforcing roads in devastated areas of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble and ash after breaking out during powerful winds Jan. 7. Most of the region was forecast to get around an inch (about 2.5 centimeters) of precipitation over several days, but the threat is high enough to prepare for the worst-case scenario of localized cloudbursts causing mud and debris to flow down hills, the National Weather Service said on social media. So the problem would be if one of those showers happens to park itself over a burn area, weather service meteorologist Carol Smith said. That could be enough to
California bolstered funding to help the Los Angeles area recover from its recent deadly wildfires under a more than USD 2.5 billion fire relief package approved Thursday by the California Legislature. Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the bills, which had bipartisan support, and now head to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. The proposals include USD 2.5 billion for the state's emergency disaster response efforts such as evacuations, sheltering survivors and removing household hazardous waste. They also approved USD 4 million for local governments to streamline approvals for rebuilding homes, and USD 1 million to support school districts and help them rebuild facilities. We need to be able to move with urgency, put aside our differences and be laser-focused on delivering the financial resources, delivering the boots on the ground that are needed and the policy relief that is needed to get neighbourhoods cleaned up and communities rebuilt, said Mike McGuire, a Democrat and presid
Millions of people across Southern California faced new wildfire warnings on Tuesday, and tens of thousands saw their power shut off as strong winds blew across the parched landscape around Los Angeles where two massive blazes have been burning for a week. Santa Ana winds that began gusting over the mountains before sunrise were forecast to continue with enough force to carry fire-sparking embers for miles and stoke new outbreaks across a region where at least 24 people have already been killed. "Life threatening and destructive and widespread winds are already here," LA city Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told a news conference. Much of Southern California was under an elevated fire risk, with crews on high alert across a 482-kilometre stretch from San Diego to far north of Los Angeles. Facing the greatest risk were inland areas north of LA, including densely populated Thousand Oaks, Northridge and Simi Valley, home to more than 3,00,000 people, forecasters said. Nearly 90,000 househo
In an announcement postponed by the Los Angeles wildfires, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two sites in California as national monuments that will honour Native American tribes while shielding picturesque mountains and deserts from mining and energy development. Biden made the designations at an event at the White House, a week after -- and on the other side of the country from -- how he'd originally planned to do so, with a speech in California's Eastern Coachella Valley. The president landed in California on January 6 but made it as far as Los Angeles before high winds -- that helped spark the Los Angeles blazes -- forced officials to scrap the event. It was a stark reminder that, even as Biden uses the last days of his administration to attempt to safeguard the environment, climate change is already helping to exacerbate natural disasters. Instead, Biden spoke next to screens featuring towering peaks, desert vistas and an array of plant and animal life. "I was hoping w
Weary and anxious from a week of massive blazes burning around Los Angeles, Southern California residents faced dire new wildfire warnings and power shutoffs Tuesday while they prepared to flee at a moment's notice as fire-fuelling winds blasted across the scarred landscape. The winds, predicted to reach near hurricane-force in some areas, were expected to peak Tuesday morning before easing and then regaining strength later in the day. A beefed-up firefighting force was in place to attack flareups or new blazes. A week after the first fires began, the flames have destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people. Life threatening and destructive and widespread winds are already here, LA city Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told a news conference. Residents gathered up their pets and family photos in case they had to make a hasty escape. In other developments, nine people were charged with looting, including a group that stole an Emmy award from a house that had been evacuated,
The Los Angeles County medical examiner's office confirmed the death toll from the wildfires ravaging the area has risen to 16. The total of confirmed fatalities stands at 16 victims, and the cases remain under investigation. Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire, and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the coroner's office said in a statement Saturday evening. The previous number of confirmed fatalities was 11, but officials said they expected that figure to rise as cadaver dogs search levelled neighbourhoods and crews assess the devastation. Authorities have established a centre where people can report the missing. Firefighters raced to cut off spreading wildfires before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward the world famous J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles, while new evacuation warnings left more homeowners on edge. A fierce battle against the flames was underway in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold ..
Eleven people were injured when a small plane collided into the rooftop of a commercial building in Southern California, police said. Police got a report at 2.09 pm on Thursday about the crash in the Orange County city of Fullerton, said Kristy Wells, a Fullerton police spokesperson. Police and fire authorities arrived on scene and battled the blaze and evacuated surrounding businesses, Wells said. It was not immediately known what type of plane it was or whether those injured were in the aircraft or on the ground, Wells said. Fullerton is a city of about 1,40,000 people some 40 km southeast of Los Angeles.
The U.S. government will pay nearly USD 116 million to resolve lawsuits brought by more than 100 women who say they were abused or mistreated at a now-shuttered federal prison in California that was known as the rape club because of rampant staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct. Under settlements approved Tuesday, the Justice Department will pay an average of about USD 1.1 million to each of 103 women who filed individual lawsuits against the Bureau of Prisons over their treatment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. The settlement follows one in a separate class-action last week in which the Bureau of Prisons agreed to open some of its facilities to a court-appointed monitor and publicly acknowledge pervasive abuse and retaliation at FCI Dublin. We were sentenced to prison, we were not sentenced to be assaulted and abused, lawsuit plaintiff and former Dublin prisoner Aimee Chavira said. I hope this settlement will help survivors, like me, as they begin to hea