Los Angeles—At least 24 people have died and dozens still missing in the American city of Los Angeles and there are “likely to be a lot more” deaths, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom who was quoted on Monday morning by US media.
The situation will get even worse as most dangerous winds will hit the region on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Newsom told NBC the wildfires torching Southern California could be the worst natural disaster in US history. “I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and the scope,” he added.
On Monday evening, forecasters at the National Weather Service have expanded the area where they expect the strongest and most dangerous winds. The threat posed by these incoming winds required the strongest language the National Weather Service uses: a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, CNN reported.
Oxnard, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks are just a few locales that are now under this larger, exceptional warning. The enhanced warning also now covers a major portion of the Eaton Fire perimeter.
The expansion of the “particularly dangerous situation,” or PDS, warning means that more areas could experience wind gusts up to 70 mph from early Tuesday morning into Wednesday. Winds of this magnitude could easily cause extreme fire behavior in ongoing blazes or turn any new spark into a raging inferno.
As winds increase, hope to use a range of aerial resources to battle the raging wildfires will be rather low. Aircraft including fixed-wing retardant tankers and Black Hawk-style military-grade helicopters won’t do, according to LA County Fire Chief.
More than 100,000 Los Angeles County residents are under evacuation orders and some 87,000 are under evacuation warnings, according to authorities. The entire region, from Ventura to San Diego, should prepare for possible evacuation orders, a California Fire battalion chief said who was quoted by CNN.
On Friday, it was estimated that as many as 10,000 structures destroyed by the coastal Palisades fire, which is expected to be the costliest fire in US history. The total area burned by the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires is about 60 square miles, an area larger than Paris, CNN reported.
The wildfires scorching much of Southern California have forced Monday’s NFL playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams to relocate to Arizona.
Meanwhile, in LA the show goes on as usual, it does not matter whether it is a devastating wildfire in LA itself, an ongoing genocide in Gaza or a war raging in Ukraine.
On Monday, it was announced that both the Grammys and Oscars would proceed as planned on February 2 and March 2, respectively, answering a question that has been debated behind the scenes by decision makers tasked with figuring out how to proceed with award season as Los Angeles grapples with devastating wildfires, CNN said.
Some stars, like Jean Smart and Patricia Arquette, have called for award shows to be cancelled in lieu of charitable telethons to raise funds for the fires.
Will there be rain? January is Southern California’s second-wettest month, yet no rain has reached the parched earth in Los Angeles. It has also been abnormally dry in the region for the entire winter, leading to severe drought along the Santa Barbara-Los Angeles-San Diego corridor, according to the US Drought Monitor.
What Los Angeles needs is a few soaking rains — enough that plants and soil will soak up the moisture so they don’t instantly catch fire and spread a blaze. There is no rain of that scale in the forecast for the next 7 days, nor does it look possible through the end of the month, the US Drought Monitor added.
