California 'horror' fires kill at least 38, deadliest in state history

SANTA ROSA, California - Fast-moving fires spread by shifting winds forced thousands more Californians to evacuate their homes on Saturday as the death toll from the deadliest blaze recorded in the state's history rose to at least 38, with hundreds of people still missing.


About 10,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters overhead were battling 16 major wildfires, some encompassing several smaller merged blazes, in areas north of San Francisco that have consumed nearly 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) over seven days, or roughly 334 square miles (865 sq km) - an area larger than New York City.


The 38 confirmed fatalities, including 20 in Sonoma County, already make it the deadliest fire event in California history.

Some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, including 3,000 evacuated on Saturday from the city of Santa Rosa, about 50 miles (80 km) north of San Francisco, and another 250 from nearby Sonoma city.

"This is truly one of the greatest tragedies that California has ever faced. The devastation is just unbelievable. It is a horror that no one could have imagined," California Governor Jerry Brown told a news conference in Santa Rosa.

The fires have damaged or destroyed about 5,700 structures, reducing homes and businesses to ash. The fires' death toll surpassed the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.

"It's an unwieldy beast right now," fire information officer Dennis Rein said at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, the main staging area for the so-called Nuns Fire in Sonoma County, a world-renowned wine-producing region.

At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state's wine industry and related tourism into disarray.

For the picturesque Napa Valley town of Calistoga, the winds were a double-edged sword. The town was spared by hazardous winds when they shifted, Mayor Chris Canning said, though he warned a resurgence could pose a new threat.

The town of roughly 5,000 people had been evacuated, he said.

Firefighters from states including Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have joined crews from California to battle the blazes.

From the air, some 70 helicopters and large aircraft including a 747, two DC-10s and about a dozen air tankers doused flames across the sprawling affected area with fire retardant, officials said.

On the ground, prison inmates were helping firefighters - sometimes digging lines to help contain fires, other times preparing meals at command centers, always watched over by guard.

In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labor, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they would temporarily suspend routine operations during the emergency, "except in the event of a serious criminal presenting a public safety threat," spokesman James Schwab said in a statement.

SHIFTING WINDS

Ground crews gained on the wildfires on Friday, but drier weather and fast-shifting winds complicated efforts on Saturday, sparking a large new wildfire in Lake County, officials said.

The Nuns Fire, which had killed at least 1 person, was only 10 percent contained with winds threatening more residential areas, Cal Fire spokesman Antonio Negrete said.

But the more deadly Tubbs Fire, which killed at least 17 people in Sonoma County, was 44 percent contained, which officials considered a victory.

"It's cautious optimism, but it's optimism," Negrete said of the Tubbs Fire.

Cal Fire had estimated the fires would be contained by Oct. 20, but Rein said they may need to revise that date because of the winds that kicked up.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, at the news conference with the governor in Santa Rosa pledged more federal aid to the region to help it through the devastation.

Whole neighborhoods of Santa Rosa have been reduced to landscapes of ash, smoldering debris and burned-out vehicles.

Some victims were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, and many survivors had only minutes to flee.

As parts of Santa Rosa were devastated, Calistoga, about 12 miles (20 km) to the northeast, faced hazardous winds that were forecast to push the Tubbs Fire toward town.

Mayor Canning said the shifting winds kept the flames at least 2 miles (3.2 km) from the city limit.

"If the winds shift and come back again, that's a big concern," he said in a telephone interview.

All but 12 of the city's 5,200 people heeded evacuation orders and left, Canning said.

"Nobody was confrontational," Canning said. "When the police or firefighters knocked on doors, most people were already ready to go with their bags packed."

With 235 people still missing on Saturday in Sonoma County alone, and rubble from thousands of incinerated dwellings yet to be searched, authorities have said the number of fatalities from the North Bay fires would likely climb.

The year's wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) burned, just behind 2012, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

California requests USD440M for flood control after dam crisis

LOS ANGELES - California's governor announced Friday a $437 million plan for flood control and emergency response following a recent crisis in which the tallest dam in the United States nearly failed, causing massive evacuations.

Almost 200,000 people fled their homes more than a week ago after flooding and increased water levels at the Oroville Dam in northern California prompted authorities to channel excess water down an emergency spillway, which quickly began eroding and created a potentially catastrophic situation for residents below.

"Recent storms have pounded the state of California resulting in a dam spillway eroding, roads crumbling and levees failing," Governor Jerry Brown said.

He asked the state legislature to approve $387 million for use from a water infrastructure fund in addition to $50 million from a state general fund.

"Our aging infrastructure is maxed out. We can take some immediate actions -- and we will -- but going forward we'll need billions more in investment," Brown said.

The governor already secured federal resources to repair the dam, which was built in 1968 and is the tallest in the United States at 770 feet (235 meters).

Although evacuation orders were lifted after two days, authorities have put area residents on warning that they may need to leave the area again, as heavy rains lash the region after years of drought.

President Donald Trump cleared the path to release federal aid for the dam after a request from Brown, who had already declared a state of emergency to mobilize local resources.

Calling the situation a "textbook example of why we need to pursue a major infrastructure package in Congress," White House spokesman Sean Spicer stressed that the nation's dams, bridges, roads and ports have "fallen into disrepair."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Nearly 200,000 people told to flee crumbling California dam spillway

OROVILLE, California - Evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people living below the tallest dam in the United States remained in place early on Monday after residents were abruptly told to flee when a spillway appeared in danger of collapse.

Authorities issued the evacuation order on Sunday, saying that a crumbling emergency spillway on Lake Oroville Dam in north California could give way and unleash floodwaters onto rural communities along the Feather River.

"Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered," the Butte County sheriff said in a statement posted on social media.

The California Department of Water Resources said on Twitter at about 4:30 p.m. PST (0030 GMT Monday) that the spillway next to the dam was "predicted to fail within the next hour."

Several hours later the situation appeared less dire, as the damaged spillway remained standing.

The state water resources department said crews using helicopters would drop rocks to fill a huge gouge, and authorities were releasing water to lower the lake's level after weeks of heavy rains in the drought-plagued state.

By 10 p.m., state and local officials said the immediate danger had passed with water no longer flowing over the eroded spillway. But they cautioned that the situation remained unpredictable.

"Once you have damage to a structure like that it's catastrophic," acting Water Resources director Bill Croyle told reporters. But he stressed "the integrity of the dam is not impacted" by the damaged spillway.

Asked about the evacuation order, Croyle said "It was a tough call to make." He added: "It was the right call to make."

'DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH'

Butte County Sheriff Korey Honea told an earlier news briefing he was told by experts that the hole forming in the spillway could compromise the structure. Rather than risk thousands of lives, the decision was made to order evacuations.

Officials said they feared the damaged spillway could unleash a 30-foot wall of water on Oroville, north of the state capital Sacramento.

They said evacuation orders remained in place for some 188,000 people in Oroville, Yuba County, Butte County, Marysville and nearby communities and would be re-evaluated at dawn.

The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services urged evacuees to travel only to the east, south or west. "DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE," the department warned on Twitter.

Evacuation centers were set up at a fairgrounds in Chico, California, about 20 miles northwest of Oroville, but major highways leading south out of the area were jammed as residents fled the flood zone and hotels quickly filled up.

Javier Santiago, 42, fled with his wife, two children and several friends to the Oroville Dam Visitors Center in a public park above the dam and the danger zone.

With blankets, pillows and a little food, Santiago said: "We're going to sleep in the car."

The Oroville dam is nearly full following winter storms that brought relief to the state after four years of drought. Water levels were less than 7 feet (2 meters) from the top of the dam on Friday.

State authorities and engineers on Thursday began releasing water from the dam after noticing that large chunks of concrete were missing from a spillway.

California Governor Jerry Brown asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday to declare the area a major disaster due to flooding and mudslides brought on by the storms.

The earthfill dam is just upstream and east of Oroville, a city of more than 16,000 people.

At 770 feet (230 meters) high, the structure, built between 1962 and 1968, is the tallest U.S. dam, exceeding the Hoover Dam by more than 40 feet (12 meters).

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fil-Am appointed as California superior court judge

CALIFORNIA – A Filipino-American was among the 19 judges appointed to the superior court by California Governor Jerry Brown.

Fil-Am judge Julian Recana served as a district attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for 16 years.

He obtained his economics degree from UC Berkeley and Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School.

Recana is a lifetime member of the Philippine-American Bar Association and was awarded the 2015 Prosecutor of the Year by the National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association.

This appointment is a father-and-son success for Recana’s father, judge Mel Recana, who was also appointed by governor Brown 34 years ago and he became the first Fil-Am judge in the country.

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source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

2nd judge OKs Calif. gay 'conversion' ban

A judge upheld California's ban on sexual-orientation therapy for minors a day after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on the new state law.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller said the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown had enough grounds to enact such a law, set to take effect Jan. 1, given that multiple mental health groups, including the American Psychological Association, had discredited the therapy.

Her ruling Tuesday came a day after U.S. District Judge William Shubb, also in Sacramento, ruled in a separate case raising the same issue that the law might infringe on First Amendment rights of therapists who oppose homosexuality.

He issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from enforcing the ban, the first of its kind in the nation, against the three plaintiffs pending a broader ruling on its merits.

He said the scientific evidence challenging the practice was "incomplete."

The office of state Attorney General Kamala Harris said the ban would take effect as scheduled for everyone except two therapists and an aspiring therapist who sued to keep the ban from taking effect.





"The reality is those three individuals are not subject to the law, so [the initial ruling] is very narrow," spokeswoman Lynda Gledhill told the Los Angeles Times.

Democratic State Sen. Ted Lieu, who wrote the law, said in a statement, "On behalf of the untold number of children who can expect to be spared the psychological abuse imposed by reparative therapy, I'm thrilled that today's ruling by Judge Mueller will continue to protect our children from serious harm."

So-called conversion therapy, also known as "reparative therapy," has been a source of intense controversy in the United States and other countries.

Four homosexual men who underwent the therapy filed a civil lawsuit against a New Jersey counseling group under the state's Consumer Fraud Act last month, saying they were deceived.

CNN said the techniques described in that lawsuit included having participants strip naked in group sessions, cuddle people of the same sex, violently beat an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visit bath houses "to be nude with father figures" and be "subjected to ridicule as 'faggots' and 'homos' in mock locker room scenarios."

source: upi.com