As Hughes Fire Threatens Thousands, LA Braces For Storm, Toxic Runoff

LOS ANGELES, CA — As if tempting fate, Los Angeles County and federal leaders gathered to announce wildfire cleanup and rebuilding measures Wednesday just hours before another Santa Ana wind-driven blaze broke out in the Castaic Lake area, chasing more than 30,000 residents from their homes and burning thousands of acres within a few hours.

The region faces another day of bedeviling winds, but by the time the 65 mph wind gusts subside Friday morning, a new threat will be barrelling down on the communities devastated by the Eaton and Palisades fires: rain.

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A weekend storm isn't expected to bring heavy rain or widespread evacuations, according to county and federal officials. However, the freshly denuded hillsides pose a risk of mudslides, and fire debris and toxic runoff is expected to clog some stormwater runoff systems.

Red flag warnings of high fire danger will be in place until 10 a.m. Friday for a large swath of Los Angeles County, including the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, the San Gabriel Mountains, the 5 and 14 Freeway corridors, the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, the Malibu Coast, Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

"Northeast winds will strengthen and expand either (Wednesday night) or Thursday morning, with winds peaking on Thursday," according to the National Weather Service. "Peak wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph will be common over much of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, with local gusts of 50 to 65 mph in the favored mountains. Meanwhile, extremely low humidities will persist with minimums under 10 percent over much of the area and poor overnight recoveries."

According to the NWS, a "significant change in the weather" is anticipated by the weekend, with temperatures likely struggling to get out of the 50s, along with a "high to likely chance of rain," including a chance of thunderstorms in the L.A. area, most likely between Sunday afternoon and evening.

"At this point, there is a 10-20 percent chance of thunderstorms sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday evening, but there is not enough confidence in the timing to place it in any given forecast period," forecasters said Wednesday.

Snow amounts could range from 2 to 5 inches at elevations above 5,000 feet, "with local amounts up to 10 inches at the resort level."

Mark Pestrella, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, said crews are preparing for the potential rain, deploying K- rails, sandbags and other devices "to manage sediment and debris." In the Eaton Fire area, crews were using Santa Anita racetrack as a staging area for supplies, and on the west side near the Palisades Fire, Santa Monica Airport was being used as a base of operations.

"Currently, our crews are clearing debris from streets, cleaning and preparing debris basins, deploying sandbags and other systems to keep runoff with ash and other burn debris from entering the storm drain system," he said. "Public Works is also working with the state to coordinate the deployment of K- rail in burn areas."

He said residents in the recent burn areas will see a flurry of activity by crews from the county, the California National Guard and the state Department of Water Resources, along with city crews.

Pestrella urged burn-area residents who have returned to their homes to plan to stay indoors during the storm event, saying that while officials do not expect the rain to cause damaging flows that would mandate evacuations, sediment and debris will still likely flow into streets.

"This is not expected to be a tremendous amount of debris, but enough to actually cause transportation problems for our first responders that may be trying to travel," he said. "I'd like to reserve those streets for our first responders."

He said people who live in homes that back up to recently burned hillside areas can have county crews come to their homes and inspect their properties to see if any mitigation efforts are needed to protect against possible landslides. The engineers can advise residents on what mitigations may need to be taken before the rain comes.

"This could be sandbagging or diverting the flows away from your residence,"he said. "But let me be clear, if you live in an area, and you're in the home and there's a slope behind your home that is burned and it's maybe 20 feet or more in height, and it is adjacent to the property in any direction, your best bet is not to be in that home when it rains. The most conservative thing to do is to not be in that home when it rains."

The county Department of Public Works is the lead agency coordinating fire-debris-removal efforts following the Palisades and Eaton blazes, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- which is handling the first-phase removal of hazardous wastes -- and the Army Corps of Engineers, which will oversee physical debris removal. Officials with those agencies noted that preliminary work on removal has begun, but mainly with assessments and establishing temporary storage areas for debris being removed.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order Tuesday to expedite fire debris removal and install reinforcement barriers and sandbags with rain in the forecast for burn areas as early as this weekend. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that state has dispatched "highly trained teams and specialized equipment" to the Southland to ensure protection from possible rain-sparked debris flows.

As that work begins, fire crews from across the area raced Wednesday to respond to the wind- and fuel-driven Hughes Fire in Castaic Lake that forced thousands of new evacuations at it spanned more than 5,000 acres. To the south, crews were also continuing efforts to extend containment lines about both the Eaton and Palisades fires. As of Wednesday morning, the 14,021-acre Eaton Fire was 91% contained, and the 23,448-acre Palisades Fire 68%, according to Cal Fire.

The fires have thus far claimed 28 lives -- 11 in the Palisades Fire area and 17 in the Eaton area, according to the county medical examiner.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency still has 22 active missing-person reports involving adults in the fire areas -- 17 in the Eaton area and five in the Palisades area. It was unclear how many missing person reports were being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

With critical fire danger conditions persisting, red-flag parking restrictions went into effect at 8 a.m. Monday in the city of Los Angeles and will remain in effect until further notice, aimed at keeping streets clear in high fire danger areas to accommodate people trying to evacuate and fire crews trying to respond to blazes. The city of Pasadena enacted similar restrictions.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for dozens of areas in both fires, though some homes were still without electricity and/or gas service due to safety shutoffs. A curfew remains in effect nightly from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the mandatory evacuation areas, with only firefighters, law enforcement and utility workers allowed in those zones.

Also Wednesday, the county launched a website called The LA County Relief: Funding & Resource Portal, a one-stop site to connect the public with local recovery and support resources.

The site can be found at lacounty.gov/relief, and lists a variety of local community funds for donors to choose from, including supporting first responders, offering housing assistance, providing relief for small businesses and workers, and removing barriers for students and communities.

FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers are open at UCLA Research Park West, 10850 W. Pico Blvd., and Pasadena City College Community Education Center, 3035 E. Foothill Blvd., to assist homeowners with applying for aid.

President Donald Trump is expected to visit California on Friday to view the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County, but no official details have been released.

The causes of the Eaton and Palisades fires remain under investigation. They erupted on Jan. 7 as the area was under a red flag warning for critical fire danger due to a historic wind event that saw gusts of 80 mph.

More than 16,000 structures were destroyed in the two fires, according to Cal Fire.

By the time all the damage is assessed, the fires are expected to constitute the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.