Amid Extreme Weather, Official Says Riverside County Is 'Crushing It'

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The "unprecedented" Santa Ana windstorms of the last week are impacting Riverside County residents and burdening emergency resources, but the county remains prepared for contingencies, officials told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

"We're all working together (in the region), and we've been crushing it," Riverside County Fire Department Chief Bill Weiser said of the county's response to local wildfires. "These are extreme weather events."

Emergency Management Department Director Bruce Barton told the board the "unprecedented weather" that began on Jan. 7 has been challenging countywide, but nothing compared to what has transpired in Los Angeles County stemming mainly from the Eaton and Palisades fires.

"Our hearts go out to everybody in Los Angeles County, enduring the incredible destruction going on there," Barton said. "That will be a Herculean effort as far as recovery goes."

The offshore winds haven't produced anything locally that is remotely comparable to the widespread ruin experienced in Los Angeles County, but the EMD director said electricity outages implemented by utilities have been hard on some pockets of Riverside County.

Since Jan. 7, re-occurring public safety power shutoffs, which utilities are permitted by state law to activate during wind events, have resulted in 92,462 people losing electrical services, lasting anywhere from a few hours to several days, according to Barton.

Most of the affected residents and businesses are in outlying locations, including mountain and desert areas, where SoCal Edison supplies electricity, Barton said.

During the outages, impacted parties have been welcomed to "care and reception centers" at all hours of the day and night, he said.

"We've provided 1,300 bags of ice and 40 cases of water," Barton told the board.

The centers, still in operation on Tuesday, are at the Venable Community Center, 50390 Carmen Ave., Cabazon; French Valley Airport, 37600 Sky Canyon Drive; Younglove Community Center, 459 Center St., Highgrove; Home Gardens Library, 3785 S. Neece St.; Idyllwild Library, 54401 Village Center Drive; and Rancho Bellasante Weddings & Events Center, 24351 Carancho Road, Temecula.

Residents can use RivCoReady.org to find helpful information on care and reception centers, emergency shelters and how to establish evacuation plans in the event of a wildfire. The 211 call service is also available for referrals to county agencies available to assist during natural and manmade disasters, according to the EMD director.

"Always stay alert," he said. "Know more than one way to evacuate from your neighborhood."

Weiser said during the first two weeks of January last year, county fire personnel responded to an average 570 calls per day. Since Jan. 7, 2025, that number has been closer to 700 per day.

The fire chief said that the county has, as part of a mutual aid agreement, dedicated 38 engine crews, four hand crews and two bulldozer crews to Los Angeles County to battle the wildfires there. Municipalities throughout Riverside County have also pitched in, lending 19 engine crews and at least one water tender.

Weiser thanked the board for being "nothing but supportive" of generally all his resource requests in the last five years, enabling him to add fire patrols, new communication gear on all engines, replace all the county's water tenders and upgrade multiple fire stations.

"If we stay the course, we have a good plan that will ensure we're on a strategic, smart march forward," he said.

At least one supervisor asked about the status of fire hydrants under county fire jurisdiction, reflecting on the sudden loss of water availability via hydrants during the Palisades fire in Los Angeles. County Deputy Fire Chief Geoff Pemberton replied that all hydrants are subject to inspections by water agencies and the fire department "to make sure they have minimum flow."