This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
What a dangerous week it is unfolding still to be after having been through an unprecedented week of whether and fire, there is still more concern today. The area of concern, it would seem, at least in the short to medium term, has shifted. And even as we watch the Palisades and we watch existing fires as they become encircled, the Eton fire,
et cetera. The fire that broke out overnight is in Ventura County, and so forecasters are very concerned about an emerging phenomenon which essentially will bring us a wind event not along the lines of what I think can fairly be credit categorized as an unprecedented wind event that we saw last week, but events so severe that it could produce some serious issues around southern California. And already there
are some serious issues. This Auto fire inventory county fifty six acres, no containment this as the Hearst Fire in Silmar continues eight hundred acres. There's ninety seven percent containment on that the Eating fire, sixteen people lost.
Their lives thus far.
In the Eating Fire, it's thirty five percent contained, just over fourteen thousand acres, and the Palisades Fire, of course, seventeen percent containment, eight souls gone in that almost twenty four thousand acres consumed. There are questions as to what caused these fires, and as you know, there are already
lawsuits launched. As you know, I expected completely that there would be, given the fact that the Eating Fire likely possibly involved Southern California Edison, and so four lawsuits against Southern California Edison already launched. And these Altadena residents and who can blame them? They've lost everything, they're looking for answers,
and they're looking for compensation. The Palisades Fire, their questions as to how that started, and those questions we're going to explore with an investigative journalist who's done.
Some work in that area. Will do that next hour.
But the genesis of so much of this, while critical, is only part of it, right. I mean, the supercharged nature of the winds is the thing that creates these urgent events, and again supercharge these events and makes them what they are. So we'll talk to a National Weather Service meteorologist at the bottom of this hour to get the wind to outlook for tonight and the next few days. It does look like later today and tonight there will be an increase in wind velocity, and that's when we're
really the most concerned. So these red flag warnings that are up, they are in relation to a couple of components, one of which is the dryness of the air.
I mean, it's just so very dry.
And you know by now you know and have heard all the information pertaining to these red flag warnings, but just to reiterate, it's it's the dryness. It's the drought. It's the persistent month after month with no rain, and with the preceding two years having been so wet, you have so much fuel and it's so available, and so you add that with the wind and you have a
prescription for a very dangerous situation. That's the situation that unfolds later tonight, and so the wind out look for tonight in the next few days, we will get as I say, at the bottom of the hour, the long time Santa Monica mayor will join us in the eleven o'clock hour, and we'll get a sense for how that community is bearing up under this situation. And finally, I've perceived so many emails about animals and about what's happening
with wildlife. You know, I'm very close to the animal activist community and to the rescue community, and for that reason, I think people ping me maybe more frequently with questions about this. And this is an extraordinary situation for people. It's an extraordinary situation for property, and it's an extraordinary situation for wildlife, and then of course for our pets.
And into that extraordinary situation come extraordinary people. I mean, one of the great things about what's happened in southern California is we've seen the very best of this community come together and it's an extraordinary thing. I mean, you I know, there are looters and they're arsonists. This is the vile, grotesque part of society. But at the same time, facing this unprecedented challenge, you see unprecedented gifts of generosity within the community. You see the best of the community.
And so there are many people involved in the animal activism or the animal rescue community that are going into a lot of these areas. And we're going in while the flames were still firing and rescuing animals that were orphaned, now leaving water for wildlife. Wildlife has been desperately decimated by this.
Also.
They're heartbreaking stories of many people, believe it or not, leaving animals behind in their residence. They thought, I'll be back. This evacuation is temporary. I'll be back in another day or so, and it's too hard to wrangle the cat or the dog, or to get everybody in the car, et cetera. Well, as you know, in the evacuation zone. And you know, I've evacuated a couple of times. As you know, we our neighborhood burned in the Getty fire. You aren't allowed back in. I mean, that's the situation
right now. You've been evacuated in many of these areas, Santa Monica, Pallisades, Malibu, I don't care up in Alzadena, whatever, if you've been evacuated. In most cases, they do not let people back in, even if you're a resident, and there are a lot of reasons for that.
They have to secure this area and make sure it's safe.
And what's happened in many of these instances is these animals are left behind and they're left to die and so I we're going to talk to somebody who's involved with the organizations that are associated with going back into these areas to rescue these animals.
And it's not just a feel good story.
There's a lot that can be seen and read into any one of these stories that speaks to the overall problems with and I might say, we will identify them as problems. But also, like you know, I hate to use the term teachable moment, but you know, a learning in this crisis about what we need to do. Systems need to be buffed out, man, I mean, this is not acceptable some of what's going on within the fire's
aftermath warning systems, et cetera. And so we're seeing the community come together, but we're also seeing the politics, and we're seeing the strategies moving forward come together and be planned. Already, I can tell you to night's wind event will be treated in a better way from an organizational standpoint then the last one was. And yet I didn't really feel as though the last one was horribly handled from the standpoint of firefighting law enforcement. Now there's gonna have to
be a real x raying of all of this. And don't get me wrong, I mean I see a lot of the failings, but I guess the point I'm trying to make is in each instance, systems can be buffed up. I mean, we can definitely improve these systems so that each one of these events and there will be more, can be handled in a better fashion. And so I use the animals in the basically as a platform to
make a point about these other issues. Because the animal situation isn't being handled well, LA City isn't handling that well, and you'll learn more. And similarly, people need help and need to interact with public officials and official websites that can point them in the right direction. And that also has to be upgraded. So all of the upgrades and all of the systems and strategies moving forward will be
informed by what we've just been through. But this is an awful way to see things upgraded at all that we have to live through what we've just lived through. This is an unprecedented, horrifying event. But we can improve from it, and we have no choice but to improve from it. So we'll get to as I say, the weather for this afternoon tonight and moving forward.
Next few days.
As we talked to meteorologists later in the hour and then the likely causes of some of these fires as we continue. It's so weird to see the weather so you know, sparkling and bright away from the fires, when there is a life and death struggle being played out in the areas with the fire. And we're expecting, of course, hire wins later this afternoon, this evening. We're getting an update from National Weather Service mediaologist in just minutes.
But right now, some cash.
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Just enter this nationwide keyword on our website bonus. That's bonus, bo n Us. Enter it now at KFI AM six forty dot com, slash cash Howard by Sweet James Accident Attorneys. If you're hurting an accident, Winning is everything, call the Winning attorneys.
It's Sweet James.
One eight hundred nine million, that's one eight hundred nine million, or sweet James dot com.
Yes again it is, Uh, it is What was the what was the keyword.
Bonus?
Right there's just a few hundred things going on right now, and somehow I lost the keywords.
By the way, Uh, it's odd to say it.
As I say, we beg you know, begin this sear and continue to follow the thread of what's happening all over southern California and how we are on fire weather watch. But I do want to say congratulations to the Los Angeles Rams. It was an amazing distraction from a lot of what was going on last night. If you had the luxury of being able to watch it, I know many were evacuating or preparing or packing. We were in
my house, but I was watching on the phone. I was watching the Rams game and was astounded at how dominant they were. And I'll tell you something else. It's moving to see the way in which that team and Arizona and that team ownership reached out to the Rams organization and essentially reconfigured a lot of their stadium to make it feel like Los Angeles, all to help lift
a community that needed a lift. And then this, I will tell you, and this is just maybe the softy that I am, but through the weekend, and I you know, maybe you just have to know this. I mean, we did lose our neighborhood to the Getty fires, So I'm everything about fire lands harder with us in my house. But when they did that moment of silence before all the games, all the playoff games. I choked up. It's really a powerful thing. And so when I was watching
the Rams game and there it is. I mean, you know, it's not just a playoff game. It's the game with the team that is in a sense representing your community that has been touched by the same tragedy urgency that we all have been touched by. I found it very moving, I really did. And then of course the dominant nature in which the Rams won, it was just for it was a little bit of happiness, you know, as an Angelina,
you just felt, Wow, this is really terrific. Look, Los Angeles has problems, but I think it's a great place to live. I have a terrific decade after decade love affair with California. I've dreamt of living here. I grew up on the East Coast. I dreamt every day, i want to say, of moving to California. It seemed like the promised land. I saw the weather when I'd watched sporting events. Everyone was happy. The weather was always better than the weather we were enduring on the East Coast.
There's the topography here, the mountains, the ocean, the diversity, show business, which I love, creative people, different opinions, a connection I think to a lot of issues and a lot of lifestyles. I'm talking about healthy lifestyles, alternative life, you know, all that stuff. California has been an incubator for all of it, and then we export that essentially to the rest of the country. It's historically been that way, and we've lived that, and I'm telling you my love
affair with California continues. And again, I lost a house to fire, I lost a neighborhood to fire. We are beyond frightened. I could tell you all the things we've had to do to sort of just chill out the intense emotions in our home. And I still love Los Angeles and it's not a place that doesn't have big problems, big city problems.
But we will get through this.
And the great things about this community, those great things are coming out and I'm so proud to live here, and I hope I can continue to live here. So where did new fires emerge? Overnight? Ventura County? That was an alarming re emergence of fire in a new location.
The auto fire is burning behind this golf course behind me. But the good news is firefighters have stopped the forward progress of course, the concern here this morning is still going to be the wind. And I want to go to some video that we have overnight of the auto fire which started just before seven pm. And the fire is burning and nears some car dealerships on Auto Center Drive.
Those dealerships are not threatened. Again, the forward progress of this fire has stopped at fifty six acres and the fire is confined to the Santa Clara river bed now. Despite this fire breaking out amid red flag conditions, fortunately no structures are threatened.
But like we've been talking, it does.
Seem as though it's the location of that fire that has favored containment even though it is not contained. I mean, I'm looking at right here the latest zero percent containment, But the acreage doesn't seem to have grown on that auto fire in Mentory County, and that's largely I think it's proximity to water, and you know, again maybe wind direction helps them.
But like we've been talking about all morning, winds are still a problem this morning, and we have some video of the wind in the San Fernando Valley overnight. The National Weather Service has issued a particularly Dangerous situation red flag warning like you mentioned Leslie, and it's the highest level alert the agency is capable of issuing.
For Yeah, we're going to.
Talk about that, and we're going to talk about it with the National Weather Service meteorologist a little bit later in this hour. It is somewhat extraordinary that they've issued that particular warning.
We'll talk about that.
But the auto fire Inventura County again fifty six acres. I do want to talk about what's happening in the San Fernando Valley and we're going to talk with Lindsay Horrvorat next. She's a supervisor and that's her area, a council councilman of the third district. Third district is the valley,
and we will get to that next. So you know, all of the different municipalities and all the different areas that make up the tapestry of southern California, we'll try to address as many as we can as we continue this morning. Again, we'll talk to a councilman of horror At next later in this hour, National Weather Service mediorologists. Next hour, the investigative journalist Cecy Woods on the origins of the Palisades fire, and we continue. Mark Thompson sitting
in Keana's here, Jacobs here, Amy's here. It is a situation that is fast breaking when it comes to the fire, so we're watching them. The Auto fire Inventora County, it's one hundred percent contained. Just wanted to get that clear talking about that before the break. The Hearst fire and still more ninety seven percent contained, so close to total containment. The Eton thirty five percent contained, and the Palisades fire seventeen percent containment. More on that as the morning and
afternoon progresses. I want to welcome in to the conversation the councilman from the third district, Lindsay horvat High Lindsay, no, oh, I'm sorry, okay, so we don't have her. Sorry, well, at least I didn't, you know, if i'd done like a ninety second intro on how proud we are to have her and how important she is. But I didn't. I just did a short thing. So it's fine. It's interesting though. We are going to have a Lindsay on
and we'll talk about a little bit. When it comes to briefings, these council people sometimes are briefed in ways that the rest of us are not, even in the media and so I'm anxious to know exactly where we stand in turns of information that she might have. Hi, Counsel Horvath, are you there?
Yes, Lendsy Horbek, supervisor for the third district.
Yes, there you go. And the third district is the valley? Am I right? What part of the valley is the third district?
A lot of the value portion of the Stanford Inda Valley is in the third district.
So what are you learning?
I was just mentioning as we were waiting to get you on what are you learning in briefings that your party two that might be important for the public to know.
Well, we are not out of this yet. We are going into again some record wins in terms of our particularly dangerous situation. So we want to make sure everybody is following evacuation orders and notices. We also want people to be prepared for power shut offs. So even if you don't live in the immediate area where you're expecting a fire, your power may be shut off in order to help in the areas where there is a fire.
So we're encouraging charge their devices, charge backup batteries, and be prepared.
Did you see some of that power outages and power shutdowns and involuntary shutdowns last week.
We have seen power shutoffs throughout whenever we have these very extreme winds. In some cases it is a preventative measure. In some cases it's in response to what's happening on the ground. And I've seen, you know, being on the ground in a variety of these areas, including in the Palisades. We've seen you know, light poles that bent over streets, us live wires and and you know, disconnected utility equipment.
And so we know there are a lot of frontline workers from our utility companies that are out there working to restore where it is safe and to make sure that the equipment is being cleared in order for these areas to be safe for people to return. But there's a lot of work to be done on the ground, you know.
As you know, we've been through such a dramatic and intense incident already, and now we're beginning what may be a ramp up to another very dramatic and intense incident. And so this is an odd time to do what we're doing, which is looking ahead but also looking back what we've just been through. So it's in the looking back part that I ask you, do you see things that you'd like to improve upon?
Absolutely? And I think I think that's not only human nature. I think it's good government. We have to hold ourselves accountable and see if there were things that could have
been done differently. I also would say that now, looking forward, given the devastation that we're facing, we have a unique opportunity to invest in an equipment and facilities on the ground, knowing what our twenty first century realities are that we didn't have, you know, when this community, when some of these communities were being built more than one hundred years ago. So what kind of facilities do we want for our twenty first century reality, whether that's water reservoirs, whether it's
undergrounding of utility equipment. What can we take advantage of now to ensure that while we are rebuilding, we're doing so in a way that is safe, that is mindful, that is using the home hardening practices that we know our best practice. Now, there's a lot of lessons learned over time, and we have to take all of that into account as we're thinking about our future.
And whose responsibility is that? I mean, I love that list that you just mentioned. It seems like a really solid list. And as voters and as constituents, who do we push back on to see if follow through on some of those things?
Well, everybody is. Everybody is responsible, and I would say that's why we're taking a look at what are all of the things that we want to evaluate in our after action plan. We're putting this list together in concert with my colleagues. We're working with our department directors to talk with them. I mean, these conversations are already happening, and it's because, at least on the county side, I can say definitively, these conversations happen after there's every incident,
no matter what level and scale. Outside of after Wolsey, the county learned that there was uncoordinated communication. If they communicated with law enforcement versus fire, versus the supervisor's office, they often got different answers, which contributed to confusion and frustration. So that's how the Office of Emergency Management was created, how communications were centralized, and new systems were put into place. And you know, we will continue to build on the experience.
You know, I spoke with residents in the valley who talked about the Getty fire and when they were evacuating, you know, and they closed down the four or five some of the canyon streets that were supposed to be used for as evacuation routes for residents were also being used by commuters who are trying to get to work.
So over the weekend we had the conversation as we were going into this PDS event, how do we proactively think about evacuation routes and prioritize the safety of people who live in those areas so they can get out and they're not contending with commuter traffic. These lessons learned have to be implemented both in long term planning and in real time on the ground. And of course nothing's going to be perfect, but we have to challenge ourselves to improve and do better on the ground in real time.
Well, when you look back at the decades in southern California, and I think back to nineteen sixty one the bel Air fire, where the fire jumped that four or five area into a Brentwood and raced up that section, they completely changed the fire access roads and they made a
wholesale change. And as you suggested, through the decades, as we've endured more fires, there have been more substantial strategies laid down and more substantial changes, and then to the modern era or the more modern era and what we're dealing with now. But this is just such an unprecedented event. I mean, with these super charge atmospheric conditions, it seems as though were must limited in what we can really do given those kinds of environments.
You know, well, I think we're limited in terms of you know, people are saying, what if we had fifteen thousand We have more than fifteen thousand people out there, now, what if we had fifteen thousand more? And I will say, in this moment, it's not a question of personnel when you're contending with the kinds of winds that we're seeing. You know, we can have all kinds of aircraft ready to deploy, but if the winds are at seventy miles an hour, you can't deploy them, and they're of no
help to the circumstance. So you really have to address the reality that's on the ground. It's like saying, if you sent you know, tens of thousands more people to respond, you know, when Hurricane Katrina was hitting, then suddenly somehow it wouldn't have been as bad. You know, it's a natural disaster and it's called such for a reason, But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared in all of the ways that we need to, both as a government and through all of our various agencies as well as
informing the public on how to be prepared. And we've done this in our district. We've hosted several emergency preparedness trainings throughout my district in the northeast San Fernando Valley in the Santa Monica Mountains. We did one at Skurball Center for folks both in the valley and on the west side. And we are doing this based on our experience. We know that people need to have access to information.
It's what keeps them safe, and getting them this information when you're not in a time of emergency is ideal. That being said, we also know that many times people are not paying attention until the emergency comes to them, and so we know people are paying attention now and we hope that as we move forwards, people will engage in emergency preparedness efforts. So God's forbid there is another time like this, they are ready. We know that these PDS situations like the one that we're in right now.
There's only been four. There's been four in just recent months, and there hadn't been any since twenty twenty, so it's been more than four years. And now we've had, you know, several in just a couple of months. So we are seeing extreme conditions that you know, our chief has said no amount of personnel could have prevented, and what we faced last week, and yet we staged what we knew, We staged what cal Fire and County Fire and all of the best experts predicted to have ready to go.
And then we do better, I mean, but we have to explore what worked well and what didn't work so we can do better.
Sure, and this doesn't clearly seem like a personnel situation at all. Those all seemed like super solid. Take so, Lindsay Horvat, thank you and good luck to you in the third district. Lindsay, of course, is the LA County Board of Supervisor there for the third district, which covers so much of the valley, and we're all hanging on tight.
Let's stay in touch. Thank you, appreciate you joining us on.
Kofi couldn't even make it through it for one hour without it, and I'm even more excited about the fact that I had nothing to do with this mistake. Now, I wonder if we could just get a what happened? I misidentify Kanna Lindsay Horvath.
Yeah, I think we accidentally said that.
When you say we accidentally.
I accidentally said. I think it was in the heat of the moment. But she is part of the Board of Supervisors.
She's a supervisor.
Then she's the chairman of the Board of Supervisor.
You go, yeah, so Amy must have been laying out and letting us just you didn't catch it, then, Amy, when we.
First luckily I was listening to congressional hearings when that happened.
Okay, I want to apologize. So what would her official title be?
Chairperson or chairman of the Board of Supervisor Chairman.
Of the board.
Okay, I want to apologize to Lindsay Horvath for that.
Oh wait, I got it wrong. Now I'm thinking of Catherine Barger.
This is outrageous.
I come in here, fill in, and this is the kind of everybody's just getting sloppy. I need the same kind of I need the focus that you give Gary and Shannon. All Right, so she's with the l She is a supervisor supervisor for the third district, which is the valley. She's the La County Board of Supervisor supervisor from the third district, which is much of the San Fernando Valley.
Yes, right now we have Mike Wafford with the National Weather Service meteorologists.
All right, very good, thank you, Kenna. All right, you'll be yellowcarded as a result of this, but not red carded. All right, Mike, good morning, thanks to your patience, and good morning. This is it's a pair of extraordinary events that have got the first being last week and then the second being what's coming.
Yeah, so we're actually looking at a little bit less win today than we thought. The winds are coming in a little bit lighter, which is good news. Generally under about thirty miles per hour so far this morning. We are expecting a little bit of an uptick as we move into the afternoon today. But the good news is for the Palisades Fire, we're still looking at generally light winds under twenty miles per hour there today and tomorrow another little increase, but again mostly in the same areas
as today. Probably not too bad. We're kind of looking at some models for tomorrow a little bit less than what we had originally thought, So hopefully that will be true, be a little bit better news.
Oh that's terrific news. Terrific news. Yeah.
And getting into later in the week, we're looking pretty good. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Looks like we have a good solid break in the wind actually turning onshore, our traditional sea breeze coming in to bring in a little bit more humidity, helping the firefighting efforts as we get into the weekend. So there was talk.
Mike Wafford trying interrupt, I'm just going There was talk of a rain event or possibility of some precipitation.
Can you speak to that.
Yeah, that doesn't really look like that's going to happen. We were looking at that a couple of days ago. There was some indications that we might get a little bit of rain. But that chance is dwindle to under five percent right now, so that's not a really a viable option.
So when you look at long term forecast now there is just nothing on the horizon. Is this a this is a blocking ridge of high pressure, or the jet is just so far north? What is the what are the realities concerning the variables here.
Yeah, Sadly, there really isn't anything that we're seeing on our longer range models that suggest anything you know, that's going to drop, anything you know that's going to help us out. It looks like it's basically a dry pattern all the way through the end of the month.
And that's for the entire state or just southern California.
Well, yeah, I was just looking at the southern California area at this point.
Yeah, it's a It's somewhat extraordinary. After two very wet winters we get a persistent drought pattern, I suppose, isn't it.
Yeah, we're moving into we're seeing some drought signals you know, coming up, and as I said, the long range doesn't look good. This is so far, at least the second driest start to the winner that we've ever.
Had, So I just want to reiterate.
Then, the good news is that this next event looks as though it may not be as bad. It's clearly already we weren't expecting to be quite as bad as last week, but still it was going to be pretty bad. It looks as though it's going to be a little bit better than we'd anticipated though, even for this week, that is to say slightly, what would you say, maybe twenty percent better than you thought it would be.
Yeah, I would say something like that. That definitely an improvement there. And you know the good news, even better news is that you know where the fires are still being dealt with at this time, the winds are even lighter in those areas, So that's good.
Look.
I love the Weather Service. I think you guys do a great job. And I think lost in all of this is the accuracy with which these forecasts have at least braced us for impact, even though the impact has been pretty intense. So to all of the forecasters there and to all the support people are great.
Thanks, thank you, Mike Wilford.
Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate that.
Yeah, you've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap