California fire season kicks off with a blazing bang
The Eaton and Palisades fires in January caused an unprecedented level of destruction, killing at least 30 people, destroying more than 16,000 homes in L.A. County and leaving a burn zone 2½ times the size of New York's Manhattan.
Two weeks into peak fire season, wildfires are spreading in California. Officials say it's just the beginning.
More than a dozen fires began sparking across Riverside and San Bernardino counties last week.
A fire in rural San Luis Obispo County had grown to more than 80,000 acres as of Sunday evening and was California's largest this year, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Experts warn that the latest fiery events set the stage for what is to come over the next few months as the state moves from an unusually dry winter and spring into what are expected to be a hot summer and fall.
Matt Rahn, director of the Wildfire Conservancy, told The Times: 'We are on track for a pretty devastating year overall. If we get hotter and drier throughout the state, then that risk increases significantly. We're hoping that that doesn't happen, but all predictions are pointing to a much hotter, drier summer and fall.'
Is the state ready for an exceptionally active wildfire season? Experts say it may not be.
Sweeping changes at federal agencies that play key roles in California's wildfire preparation and response could make a challenging season even worse.
The forecast comes as the Trump administration is enacting budget cuts, layoffs, office closures and restructuring at the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As my colleague Hayley Smith reports, weakening the three agencies at the start of fire season puts California at a dangerous disadvantage.
Southern California fire chiefs caution that a season of devastating wildfires is all but guaranteed.
'We can never let our guard down,' said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, who helped lead the region through the January wildfires.
Ronnie Villanueva, the Los Angeles Fire Department's interim chief, told The Times that his firefighters were on high alert for brush fires after months of light rainfall left heaps of dry vegetation ready to serve as kindling.
He also encouraged residents to make their homes as fire-resistant as possible, using weed trimmers, clearing roofs of leaves and digging under decks for dead vegetation.
'We simply cannot have a fire engine in every driveway,' he warned.
Wildfires can be scary to think about, but The Times is here to help.
In our seven-part newsletter series, In Case of Fire, breaking news reporter Karen Garcia guides readers through preparing your home, property and loved ones for wildfires. Every week you'll get instructions and assignments. Sign up and send it to your friends and neighbors too.
Today's great photo is from Times photographer Carlin Stiehl and captures the scene at the July Fourth protests in Los Angeles, where a large crowd peacefully marched to City Hall in protest of immigration raids and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics.
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Amid new flood warnings, emergency crews suspend search for flooding victims in Texas
Video above: President Trump surveys flooding damages in Texas KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Emergency crews suspended their search for victims of catastrophic flooding in central Texas on Sunday morning amid new warnings that additional rain would again cause waterways to surge. It was the first time a new round of severe weather has paused the search since the flooding earlier this month. Ingram Fire Department officials ordered search crews to immediately evacuate the Guadalupe River corridor in Kerr County until further notice, warning the potential for a flash flood is high. Search-and-rescue teams have been searching for missing victims of the July 4 weekend flooding. Independence Day floods among Texas' most devastating natural disasters Search and rescue efforts were expected to resume on Monday, depending on river flow, Fire Department spokesman Brian Lochte said. 'We're working with a few crews and airboats and SAR (search-and-rescue) boats just in case,' Lochte said. As heavy rain fell Sunday, National Weather Service forecasters warned that the Guadalupe River could rise to nearly 15 feet by Sunday afternoon, about five feet above flood stage and enough to put the Highway 39 bridge near Hunt under water. 'Numerous secondary roads and bridges are flooded and very dangerous,' a weather service warning said. The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet on the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before daybreak on July 4, washing away homes and vehicles. Ever since, searchers have used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. The floods laid waste to the Hill Country region of Texas. The riverbanks and hills of Kerr County are filled with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp. Located in a low-lying area along the Guadalupe River in a region known as flash flood alley, Camp Mystic lost at least 27 campers and counselors and longtime owner Dick Eastland. The flood was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, experts said, and moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system. The sheer amount of rain was overwhelming. Former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist, calculated on July 5 that the storm had dropped 120 billion gallons of water on Kerr County, which received the brunt of the storm. This summer, flash flooding driven by bursts of heavy rain turned deadly elsewhere in Texas. In San Antonio in June, more than 7 inches of rain fell over a span of hours, prompting dozens of rescues from the fast-rising floodwaters and killing at least 13.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Trump cuts questioned as role of Fema in Texas highlights agency's importance in natural disaster response
As the cleanup continues from this month's torrential rain storms and flooding in Texas that left more than 120 dead, recently departed officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) say the organization is dangerously underresourced and overstretched in the event of further natural catastrophes. A mass staff exodus, plunging morale and a loss of key leaders has left the main US disaster-relief organization ill-equipped to cope with an anticipated deadly spate of storms in the current hurricane season, former agency insiders say. Fema's weakness, exacerbated by grant cuts imposed by the Trump administration and the loss of institutional knowledge in strategic leadership positions, will be exposed if the nation is faced with more than one disaster simultaneously, according to Michael Coen, the agency's former chief of staff. Related: Trump tours Texas flood damage as disaster tests vow to shutter Fema In an interview, Coen – who left his post in January after Donald Trump took office – said the officials at Fema had been preparing contingency plans that would enable the agency to meet the demands of hurricane season, which generally runs from early June until the end of November, with fewer resources. 'They understand that they don't have the resources they've had in past years, whether it's funding or even some contracts have lapsed,' he said. 'They are trying to make decisions so that they can handle multiple events at one time.' But since Trump's inauguration, the agency has seen an estimated 2,000 departures through resignations or retirements, which may have rendered it incapable of coping with the widespread carnage likely to be wreaked by a succession of tropical storms. 'I'm concerned that Fema is going to be at a disadvantage because they don't have the resources to respond to the disasters we know could happen, which could be two or three concurrent disasters at the same time,' said Coen. 'Fema has eroded capacity since President Trump became president. Staff have departed. There have been cuts to grant programs and they are going to be running into a financial challenge with the disaster relief fund, because the president hasn't requested supplemental funding from Congress.' Coen – a disaster relief career official who was also Fema's chief of staff during Barack Obama's presidency – said the cuts could mean the agency running out of funds to respond to disasters by the end of this month. 'Fema is currently supporting the state of Texas with the flooding and the urban search and rescue. But if in a week or two they also have to respond to a hurricane in the Gulf coast or an earthquake on the west coast, Fema is not going to be able to meet the expectations of the American people.' The concerns over Fema's state of readiness come amid signs that Trump may have had a change of heart about the agency's future after months of signaling that he favored its abolition. Last month, he said the administration planned to 'phase out' Fema after the current hurricane season to put more responsibility on individual states to respond to disasters. He previously described the agency – established in 1979 by Jimmy Carter with the goal of coordinating the US government's response to disasters – as 'not good' and said he would 'recommend that Fema go away'. But ahead of Trump's Friday visit to the worst-hit Texas flood areas, White House officials indicated that eliminating Fema entirely was no longer under consideration, the Washington Post reported. The newspaper quoted an unnamed official as saying changes would probably amount to 'rebranding' the agency while stressing the leadership role of the states in disaster response. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary – who has overall responsibility for Fema and has chaired a review council looking into the agency's future – said in the wake of the Texas floods that Fema would be 'eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency', a hardline stance that nonetheless stopped short of abolition. Coen said the Texas floods had proved Fema's worth: 'This flood is a defining moment and brings clarity for the necessity of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fema is an essential agency for the federal government to support states and support the American people in their greatest time of need.' But he said grant cuts had rendered it less effective and may have caused 'an unnecessary loss of life' in the Guadalupe River area of the Texas Hill Country, the worst-hit flood region. 'One of the grant programs they cut was the Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities, which was a program that would have funded things like the siren system to line a river like the [Guadalupe] in Kerr county,' he said. 'Not that many people needed to lose their lives if more mitigation measures had been put in place. With the president cutting a grant program that provides federal funding to increase mitigation in the country, it only is foreboding for the future on what could happen to other communities if they don't mitigate and they don't have access to federal funds.' The picture of an agency undermined by the Trump administration's hostility was corroborated by a former mid-level Fema official, who told the Guardian that staff had left because they felt disrespected. 'It's no secret that a lot of high-level leaders have left the agency,' the ex-official said. 'It's clear that Fema has lost a lot of leadership capability.' Among those who have left are Tony Robinson, who was Fema's head administrator for the region that includes Texas, as well as his deputy. Also recently departing was Robert Samaan, the administrator for the region that covers Florida and several other states in the hurricane-prone south-east. 'Those are two of the three most critical regional administrators for hurricane season, and for them to leave at this time leaves people shaken for sure,' the former staffer said. 'The lack of experienced leadership is certainly going to hamstring efforts. It's not to say that there aren't other good leaders who will step up. But LinkedIn is littered with people whose names I knew who have left.' The departure of 16 senior executives was announced on a single day in May. Compounding the problem is the damage to the morale of those remaining from what insiders say is the scornful attitude of Noem and Fema's acting administrator, David Richardson, a former marine artillery officer with no previous experience in disaster management. Richardson, who has been in the post since May, caused a stir among senior staff when he said during a briefing that he did not know there was a hurricane season. It was unclear if the comments were meant as a joke. Richardson was installed after Noem ousted his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, after he told a congressional hearing that he did not favor Fema's abolition. The new administrator also threatened to 'run right over' any staff members who resisted reforms. 'I, and I alone in Fema, speak for Fema. I'm here to carry out the president's intent for Fema,' he reportedly said. Coen affirmed the picture of staff leaving due to fears for Fema's future. 'The reason many employees have departed since January 20 is because they had a fear that they were going to lose their job,' he said. 'Also, they didn't feel respected by the current administration. The current employees still there are supporting each other, but if they feel they are not getting support and understanding of how much they sacrifice when they go to disasters, it does have an impact on their mental health and wellbeing.' Noem, meanwhile, has drawn criticism for issuing a decree requiring that any expenditures or contracts worth $100,000 or more are submitted to her for prior approval – a requirement that critics say could impede rapid disaster response. 'Typically, pre-Trump, a decision like that would come at a much lower level than the secretary of homeland security so you could get out and mobilize,' the former official said. 'It's just unconscionable that you would centralize a decision like that, [which] truly, on reflection, would have led to the loss of life, or at least the loss of the ability to find the remains of the victims.' The Department of Homeland Security has publicly defended the directive as necessary to root out 'waste, fraud and abuse' and deliver 'accountability' to US taxpayers.
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Melania Trump wears charm bracelet in honor of Texas flooding victims: 'We are grieving'
Melania Trump wore a charm bracelet gifted by a family in the wake of the Texas floods. On July 11, the first lady toured devastation across Texas Hill Country alongside President Donald Trump and shared how she received the accessory, which she wore on her left wrist, during a roundtable meeting with local officials. "We just met with the wonderful families. We prayed with them. We hugged. We held hands," the first lady said. "They shared their stories, and I met beautiful young ladies who gave me this special bracelet from the camp in honor of all the little girls who lost their lives. We are here to honor them and also to give support and help." Melania Trump tours Texas flooding devastation in subdued ensemble "I will be back I promised them. I pray for them and am giving them my strength and love," she added. In a statement shared with press, Trump's official office confirmed that she was gifted a charm bracelet by the Hotze Family – to honor victims of flooding at Camp Mystic, a nearly 100-year-old nondenominational all-girls summer camp that sits on 700 acres. The flooding has claimed the lives of more than 120 people since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the Guadalupe River and flowed through homes and summer camps in the early morning hours of July 4. 'Filled with grief and devastation': Trump surveys Texas flood damage. Live updates The president and first lady arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, before traveling to Kerrville, Texas, to survey the damage of catastrophic flooding that tore across the Texas Hill Country, as authorities and volunteers searched for the missing, and local residents mourned the dead. Earlier in the day, Trump was pictured embracing her husband while departing the White House in a khaki-colored jacket and monochromatic army green look paired with animal print sunglasses and Converse Chuck Taylor kicks, also a fashion favorite of former Vice President Kamala Harris. For the arrival, Trump tucked her free-flowing waves from earlier under a black baseball cap. In recent months, Trump has made selective public appearances that reflect her private, low-key nature. However, in major moments, she has appeared alongside the president at a slew of engagements including his second Inauguration festivities, Fourth of July events, the White House Easter egg roll and the administration's multimillion-dollar festival and parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Contributing: Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison
