The Brief

When strong winds shattered the windows on the top floor of Nancy Busacca’s Pasadena home, Michelle Hollis knew it was time to go.

Hollis, Busacca’s caretaker for the past year, packed the essentials. She tried to remain as calm as possible so as not to frighten Busacca, who, weakened by esophageal cancer, could not walk.

As flames neared the home, Hollis first worried about smoke inhalation because Busacca used supplemental oxygen. At the same time, Hollis tried to figure out how she would lift Busacca into her SUV. Luckily, a second caregiver who had wrapped up her overnight shift had stayed to help.

Hollis recalled turning to the second caregiver: “I said, ‘Hey, do you have faith?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Okay, we’re gonna get through this.’”

They did, but their experience in the wildfires that ravaged two Southern California communities last month served as another reminder of the threat that natural disasters pose for people with disabilities and limited mobility as well as their caregivers, who often take on the role of first responders in these situations.

These dangers have been apparent for decades, especially since Hurricane Katrina, the most deadly natural disaster in recent U.S. history, leveled the Gulf Coast in 2005. In California, the deadly fires that struck Sonoma and Butte counties in 2017 and 2018 resurfaced these issues. A state audit from 2019 showed that historically, emergency response by state and county agencies have struggled to properly assist people with disabilities and limited mobility.

Several of the people who were killed in the most recent Southern California wildfires were disabled and the majority were over 70, news reports identifying the victims show. The stories are tragic, but not surprising, aging and disability advocates say.

“Older adults and people with disabilities are often disproportionately impacted by wildfires due to factors like mobility limitations, chronic health conditions and social isolation, and that appears to be the case again in Los Angeles,” advocates wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature.

In the letter, a coalition of 126 organizations that included the AARP, Justice in Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association, asked the governor and lawmakers to prioritize disabled and older residents as the state distributes wildfire recovery funds. The request to the state is less about a specific dollar amount and more about creating a recovery process with this population in mind, said Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and support advocacy at Justice in Aging.

Advocates and caregivers also want more resources and centralized planning to prepare for the next disaster. As climate change fuels more frequent and more devastating events, prompt action is key, they say.

County officials are still assessing the effect of the fires on people with disabilities and the elderly, said Laura Trejo, director of the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities department. Part of that work, she said, is checking in with nursing homes and assisted living facilities on their relocation and reentry efforts; it also involves calling and checking in on people who live at home and receive county services or participate in a county program, such as in-home help or transportation service.

The biggest challenge has been the scale of it all, Trejo said. “In over 35 years of doing this work in Los Angeles County, I have never had that many facilities evacuated at the same time," he said. "That was unprecedented.”

The January fires prompted some 2,500 people to be evacuated from nursing homes alone, according to Trejo’s department’s latest counts. Nursing home and assisted living residents were temporarily sent to emergency shelters, and later relocated to facilities where they could stay more long-term.

It is unknown exactly how many people with a disability or limited mobility who were living at home were displaced by the fires because there isn’t one centralized way to track them.

The governor’s office referred questions about resources and plans specific to this population to the California Office of Emergency Services. The office did not reply to questions from CalMatters. In a news release from last month, the governor’s office listed a number of efforts that state agencies are participating in, including wellness checks on people with developmental disabilities and facility inspections on nursing homes and assisted living centers to ensure a safe reentry.

Tailoring emergency response for unique needs

People with physical and cognitive disabilities have needs that aren’t usually met with traditional emergency response. Many cannot drive. Some may not fully understand the risk they face.

“The thing for people with disabilities is that the ability to, at the last minute, throw something together and get out of harm’s way, you cannot rely on that,” said Silvia Yee, policy director at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. “That won’t happen. So the planning has to be there.”

In a 2019 report, the state auditor said that California was not adequately prepared to protect and respond to vulnerable populations during a natural disaster. A look at three counties — Butte, Sonoma and Ventura — showed deficiencies in wildfire evacuation warnings. It also found that none of the counties had done assessments of their respective populations’ needs or pre-arranged for evacuation assistance. “Inadequate preparation likely hindered the counties’ responses to the 2018 Camp Fire, the 2017 Sonoma Complex fires, and the 2017 Thomas Fire,” the report said.

The issues that people with disabilities face in emergency situations have been widely known for some time, but the urgency to improve plans seems to come and go, Yee said.

“Periodically, something happens,” Yee said. “People are appalled. Advances are made, and then we just fall back. We don’t advance in terms of implementation and enforcement.”

County officials and advocates have a number of improvements they’d like to see.

Dickman at Justice in Aging said one of her concerns during the January fires was the seeming lack of preparation in evacuation centers to accommodate disabled and older adults. When nursing home residents were taken to the Pasadena Convention Center, for example, news reports showed a shortage of cots and basic supplies, such as respirators and incontinence products.

“These are individuals who need a significant amount of support and durable medical equipment,” she said. “Shelters or emergency centers need to be prepared to receive individuals from all kinds of areas with all kinds of needs.”

Trejo, with the Los Angeles County’s Aging and Disabilities Department — a fairly new agency — said she’d like to expand emergency education efforts and take the “vial of life” protocol to scale. A vial of life refers to a packet that includes all of a person’s medical information. The state’s Department of Aging has an emergency preparedness guide that includes a vial of life that people can print and fill out. Ideally every home would have one, Trejo said.

She’d also like to create a tool for people who want to self-identify as having unique needs. That way local agencies know where these people live even if they’re not enrolled in a county program or service. Some disasters, such as earthquakes, hit without warning, but fires may allow for more thought-out evacuations.

“If we’re pre-evacuating an area, then we would know ‘in this area we have 25 people that live alone who are mobility challenged and who we need to assist earlier,’” Trejo said.

Janie Whiteford, president of the California In-Home Supportive Services Consumer Alliance, is 80 years old and a quadriplegic. In the past she has relied on her local fire department in Los Gatos to help her or her husband.

“I think it is super important that your local fire department knows who you are,” Whiteford said. “Our guys know me well because I’ve fallen out of my wheelchair a couple of times and I’ve called them when I can’t get back up. I’ve said ‘Put me on your list. If we have an earthquake and it’s a bad one, I want you guys to call me or come and check on me.’”

Whiteford imagines a system where first responders or a separate local agency can immediately call people with disabilities to check in. “In a perfect world, you would have an organization that would have vehicles that could go out to help these people, or would know exactly who to contact,” she said. “Some type of rapid response taxis.”

In large events, first responders may not be able to check in on individuals right away. For that reason it is also important for people and their caregivers to build their own response team of nearby family and friends or neighbors who know about people’s limitations, said Yee at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

“You have to build the community around you to survive this kind of situation,” Yee said, “Because it’s not always going to be the police or the fire department riding to the rescue.”

Training caregivers for the next disaster

Hollis didn’t have an evacuation plan in place as the Eaton fire approached, but more than 30 years of experience as a caregiver both in California and in her home state of North Carolina prepared her to think quickly and keep calm in the face of the Eaton Fire.

Her original plan was to get Busacca in the car and drive to a hotel. But as she packed, she and the second caregiver flagged down a police officer who was ordering residents to evacuate. The officer called for Emergency Medical Services to pick up Busacca. After about a 30-minute wait, Busacca was taken to the hospital for evaluation, Hollis said.

Caregiver Michelle Hollis stands in front of her patient Nancy Busacca’s home in Pasadena, on Feb. 3, 2025. Hollis and another caregiver helped Busacca evacuate during the Eaton Fire that reached her neighborhood.

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Zaydee Sanchez

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CalMatters

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Hollis feels grateful they were able to get out safely. Busacca died of cancer on Jan. 31; she was able to come home for her final days.

While difficult to plan a smooth evacuation, Hollis believes emergency training for caregivers could be of significant value in thinking through different scenarios.

In many ways, caregivers are also first responders, but emergency training for them is often overlooked. Some training courses for caregivers exist, although the availability of these can vary by county and depend on funding.

The Center for Caregiver Advancement creates and provides training programs for caregivers, including those who work in nursing homes and those who provide care at home. One of its courses focuses on climate change and emergency planning.

The organization is currently offering its emergency planning course to workers of the In-Home Supportive Services program in San Bernardino County as part of a partnership with the labor union SEIU, which represents caregivers. Corinne Eldridge, the chief executive at Center for Caregiver Advancement, said her organization has so far provided the emergency planning course to about 4,000 In-Home Supportive Services workers across the state since 2021 — that’s out of approximately 600,000 caregivers in this workforce.

Stories of the victims in the L.A. fires show that more preparedness is needed, said Nairi Issagholian, an instructor with the center. The emergency course she teaches gets providers to assess their skills, abilities and communication plans. It helps them go over scenarios they may come across in an emergency, such as losing electricity and with that access to an elevator or ventilators.

The course also teaches providers how to recognize the signs of trauma following an emergency. The idea is to help caregivers feel more prepared and self-assured before, during and after, Issagholian said.

“When the emergency happens, just that sense of a little control can make you feel like ‘I’m prepared. I know what I’m doing,'’’ she said. “It can give you that confidence.”

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

We’ve all had a problem neighbor at one time or another, but what if they howled at the moon?

That’s what West Hollywood is dealing with right now at a so-called “coyote condo,” where a pack has taken over a construction site, leading to complaints from residents.

Now, officials are making the property owner take action.

How we got here

Coyotes often show up in Southern California’s urban areas looking for food, but these ones are sticking around.

The pack is squatting in an unfinished site near the corner of North Spaulding Avenue and Romaine Street.

The area was supposed to become a 22-unit condominium building, according to the city. However, construction stopped in 2024 and permits have since expired.

The roughly 19,500-square-feet lot is fenced off. Coyotes have been seen traversing the bare wood frames, though it’s unclear if they’ve caused any other problems besides being a nuisance.

What’s next

West Hollywood said its Neighborhood and Business Safety Division is in touch with the owner’s representative.

“As with any privately owned property, the owner is responsible for maintaining the site,” the city said in a statement.

Officials are requiring the owner to “promptly” retain a wildlife control operator that specializes in humane wildlife management. That expert is tasked with assessing and recommending next steps, so it’s still unclear how the coyote problem will be dealt with.

The city of West Hollywood follows a coyote coexistence plan, which only recommends lethal action for unprovoked human attacks. Wild animal relocation is also generally illegal under state regulations because moving them can disrupt local ecosystems and spread disease.

However, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife can give written permission to relocate coyotes under certain circumstances. The city says it will update residents on its website as new information becomes available.

In the meantime, don’t feed the coyotes and take caution when you’re in the area. Keep pets on a leash and indoors, if you live close. Coyotes are known to attack small animals. Young children can also get targeted, but it’s less common.

You can learn more about how these urban canines live in our coyote guide.

A state appeals court ruled Monday that Long Beach must rehire an officer it fired four years ago after he was accused of lying in official reports.

The unanimous decision from the three-judge panel upholds a previous ruling from a city employment panel and a lower court. It also brings an end to a roughly five-year legal saga during which the city filed two appeals in an attempt to keep former Long Beach police Officer Dedier Reyes off the force, even at a time when the department has struggled to fill vacancies.

Long Beach City Attorney Dawn McIntosh said she was “disappointed” by Monday’s decision by the appeals court, but said her office does not plan to file any further appeals.

Monday’s ruling means Long Beach owes Reyes more than four years of pay he has missed since his dismissal, and the city must offer him a job with the police department that is on par with his previous position as a patrol officer. Records from Transparent California show Reyes’ base salary was $121,948 in his last full year at the LBPD.

The city fired Reyes in 2022, shortly after he was charged with one count of filing a false police report and one count of perjury for allegedly lying about his observations during a 2018 gun arrest. A jury ultimately acquitted Reyes and his less-experienced partner, Officer David Salcedo.

But the charges, the city’s firing of the two officers and the criminal trial that followed, cast doubt on their credibility. As a result, prosecutors dropped dozens of cases where the two made arrests or would’ve needed to testify to make the case.

Reyes, who was training Salcedo, was accused of lying and perjuring himself when he wrote in a February 2018 police report that he recognized two gang members standing outside a Long Beach taqueria and then saw one go inside and leave a bag containing a gun.

Surveillance video from the taqueria made internal affairs investigators question how Reyes could have seen what was happening inside the restaurant and also showed he arrested the wrong gang member for allegedly carrying the bag with the gun.

Reyes later told internal affairs investigators that he “made a mistake in this police report,” according to an interview transcript from a separate civil lawsuit.

Reyes and Salcedo continued working and weren’t criminally accused for nearly four years after the incident. Then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey reviewed the case and decided it didn’t merit charges, but when George Gascón became the new District Attorney in 2021 — after making police reform central to his campaign — he brought charges against the officers.

After their acquittal on the criminal charges, a city employment panel ruled they must be rehired, but Long Beach sued to try to block that decision.

After reviewing all of the evidence, the three-judge appeals panel sided with Reyes on Monday. They found it plausible that he mistakenly recalled the events leading up to the 2018 arrest and noted that the city “identified no apparent motive” for him to falsify the police report, according to their ruling.

When the city fired Reyes, it noted that he had racked up 14 use-of-force reviews and 11 citizen complaints since 2010, according to court documents. But the department determined that all of those uses of force were within policy and none of the citizen complaints were determined to have merit, the court noted in its ruling.

Long Beach has, however, been sued twice over Reyes’ alleged misconduct, resulting in payouts of $550,000 and $499,800.

After Monday’s ruling, Reyes will have the option of rejoining LBPD.

Salcedo has already been rehired and assigned to work patrol, LBPD Executive Communications Officer Allison Gallagher wrote in an email last October.

Canter's Deli turns 95 this year, and the iconic Jewish deli and coffee shop will sell its hot pastrami sandwich — with coleslaw, pickle and chocolate chip rugelach — for 95 cents.

Is there a catch?

No. But dine-in only, limit one per customer.

I don’t eat meat

Lucky you — a plant-based corned beef substitute is available.

Why it matters

The Fairfax institution has been feeding Angelenos since 1953, serving everyone from the neighborhood's Jewish community to the Supreme-loving skate punks who arrived decades later.

Co-owner Marc Canter, the third-generation owner, put it best: Canter's is the place where "grandkids grow up and bring their grandkids."

Why 95 cents?

Canter says the price is purely symbolic of the anniversary, not the actual cost — they charged 50 cents for the 50th anniversary and 75 cents for the 75th.

The history

Now three generations deep, the family has logged roughly 159 years combined behind the counter: Canter's grandfather, about 50; his father, about 65; and Marc himself, 44 and counting.

The sprawling namesake business started in 1931, when Marc Canter’s grandparents sold corned beef sandwiches off a cart in Jersey City before landing in Boyle Heights on Brooklyn Avenue (now César Chávez Avenue).

Canter said his Aunt Selma struck out on her own in 1948 at age 23 and moved the business to Fairfax. Her parents joined her there in 1953. One current employee has been on staff since 1964 — 62 years and counting.

Despite the neighborhood's changes, Canter's hasn't: No remodels, no menu overhauls. The matzo ball soup, potato pancakes, and cheese blintzes have never left.

"The ancestors are watching from above," Canter said, "so you have to keep [going] to make them proud."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is failing to provide adequate healthcare at a new detention center in California City, according to a report from an independent monitor at the facility, where detainees complained of missing medications and months-long delays to cancer treatment.

The findings appear in a report by Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, a court- appointed monitor of the California City Immigration Processing Center, which is about 75 miles east of Bakersfield and run by the private prison company CoreCivic. The federal government purchased the facility earlier this month, but CoreCivic continues to operate it.

A judge appointed the monitor in March as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by seven detainees who allege the conditions in the California City facility are a violation of their due process rights.

“The facility lacks a reliable system to consistently provide adequate health care, placing individuals at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm,” Anandkumar wrote. “This pattern indicates broader problems in the facility's healthcare delivery system rather than occasional lapses in care.”

The fault, Anandkumar wrote, was not with the individual healthcare workers, but rather an issue of staffing, management and oversight. At times, staff was pulled out of training to cover a shift because of staffing shortages.

“As a result, staff who had not been fully trained were themselves training new staff,” Anandkumar wrote. “Given the number of patients and the seriousness of their medical and mental health needs, these substantial gaps contribute to an unsafe environment.”

Anandkumar found 13 areas of deficiency in CoreCivic’s healthcare program in California City. Among them were inadequate emergency care, dental care and chronic disease management. The monitor also found that the facility did not provide timely access to prescribed medications.

ICE opened the immigration detention center at the site of a closed state prison and began admitting detainees in August. In September, a state disability rights group conducted a two-day inspection of the facility and found that its operators failed to distribute medication for life-threatening conditions and did not schedule timely surgeries for people that needed them.

The findings of that two-day inspection by Disability Rights California mirror many of the conclusions found 10 months later by Anandkumar, including delays in response to acute sick call requests and a failure to distribute prescription medication for conditions requiring consistent management like diabetes, high blood pressure and seizures.

A CoreCivic spokesperson said the facility provides daily access to physical and mental care services, and said emergency medical services are available 24 hours a day, every day.

“When specialty or advanced care is required beyond the services available onsite, facility healthcare staff coordinate with community physicians, hospitals, and specialty providers to facilitate access to medically necessary treatment,” said CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin. “While we work diligently to arrange and support those appointments, the scheduling, availability, and capacity of outside providers are not controlled by the facility.”

Gustin said compliance with detention standards in immigration detention facilities is monitored by an ICE compliance officer.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in the Northern District of California by people held in California City claims detainees do not have appropriate clothing for the chilly desert nights, nor appropriate medical attention for life-threatening conditions. The lawsuit alleges detainees with mobility issues don’t have access to wheelchairs, and in some cases are unable to bathe or dress themselves.

Sokhean Keo, a California City detainee and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against ICE said in a statement distributed by the ACLU that he never received the medication he was prescribed for an infection.

“If there is no change to this system,” Keo said, “sick people are going to die.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.