The Brief

Nearly 180,000 people in Los Angeles County are currently under evacuation orders stemming from the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires in what is believed to be one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history. As a result, thousands of structures — including homes — have been damaged or destroyed and many school districts impacted by the fires, like L.A. Unified, have temporarily closed.

For parents or guardians of children, this can be an especially daunting time — managing your anxiety while also making sure your kids' needs are taken care of.

Best practices in the moment

LAist spoke to Rebecca Hedrick, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, about suggestions for how to navigate conversations about the wildfires and evacuations:

Validate children’s feelings: Hedrick said adults should acknowledge feelings of sadness and anxiety.  After you've validated their feelings, she said, you can remind them that you are there to help keep them safe and there are plans in place.

Involve children in packing a go-bag: Even if you are not under evacuation orders, Hedrick recommended packing a go bag with a child to help them feel like they have agency. Ask kids if they would like to pack a favorite toy or book.

Limit exposure to media and social media: Images of the fires can be scary for young children and even teenagers, Hedrick said.

Maintain a routine: With school closures and recommendations to stay indoors, Hedrick said, it can be hard to maintain a routine, but doing so can help children feel like they have some agency. She recommended involving children in chores like preparing meals.

Give them a chance to express themselves: For children in that 4- to 7-year-old age group, Hedrick said, this could look like playing and enacting scenarios through play. For example, having a stuffed toy expresses how they’re feeling about the fires.  ”Give them an opportunity to help, to think of problem-solving solutions themselves,” Hedrick said. “This will help to decrease their sense of helplessness.”

Have young kids enact fire drills at home: Ask them questions about what they would do if they had to leave and where they could go so they have a sense of what plans are. Also enact a fire or evacuation as if children were in school or not at home so they know about plans in those instances.

With older children, discuss the causes of the fires, fire safety precautions and how to respond in emergency situations.

Strengthen a child’s friendships or peer support: Zoom play dates or show-and-tell virtually can help a child still maintain friendships and feel connected during a tragedy, Hedrick said.

We’ve lost our home. How do I talk to my child about that?

Dr. William Lacey-Bisetty, clinic director at the  Center for Connection — Santa Barbara, said adults can try to refocus what home is.

“ Home is this connection, this family, this community we have, and those things are going to maintain even with the loss of the material aspects of home, the physical space,” he said.

Some things you can do:

Don’t diminish the little things: Kids can focus on the little things they have lost like their toys and books or a favorite game. Allow them space to grieve and redirect when you have found some settling. “ Those are the things that really make kids feel connected and grounded in some spaces, and there's nothing wrong with that,” Lacey-Bisetty said.

Model coping methods for children: Hedrick said some people lean on religion and spirituality in moments like this and praying together is something you can do with children.

Creating avenues for expression: Start new routines where children can share answers to questions like five things they miss. Hedrick said adults should start these lists on the negative side and then progress to questions like five things they are thankful for. “ You want to give a voice to the fears, the anger, the sadness, so that there's a little bit more space in their mind and their heart to be able to open up to the more positive aspects of gratitude and hope,” she said.

Open dialogue: Dr. Sabrina Renteria, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center told LAist's AirTalk program that parents should ask children questions about what they understand. Children, she said, fill in gaps with their own imagination and sometimes might not grasp what happened. Having an open conversation and sharing age appropriate information can help dispel those myths.

I’m anxious myself. How can I help a child?

Adults will be anxious if they have had to evacuate or lost a home and it's important to accept it, Hedrick said.

“ It's important that the adult has some place somewhere to express their feelings first,” she said. “It's also important to use a healthy coping skill that we call suppression. It's different than repression. Repression is, ‘I don't have these feelings.’ Suppression is, ‘I am terrified. I am angry. I am in the most intense grief I can imagine, but I don't have time for those emotions right now.’”

Also forgive yourself, Hedrick said, if you find yourself projecting on a child. Apologize to them to model that it’s OK to be angry, frustrated or sad.

Find opportunities for play and joy, she said, like building a fort together, playing board games or tag.

“ These types of things are a lot more helpful in healing to the psyche and to preventing possible development of post traumatic stress or other types of anxiety disorders that will persist after the fires,” she said.

Renteria told LAist's AirTalk that people can go into shock and denial after large scale disasters. And once that subsides, they can experience " changes in their energy, sadness, crying, numbness, anger and irritability, rapid fluctuations in mood that they would normally not display."

Their mind can also manifest psychosomatic responses like headaches, stomach aches, chills or tremors.  

"What's very, very important, like putting one foot in front of the other and taking deep breaths, you need to find a way to calm your nervous system down," Renteria said. "What I typically will recommend for people who are experiencing trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, is to try to breathe."

 Eat, hydrate, avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, she added, which can worsen coping over time. Calming music and gentle stretches can also help.

Los Angeles County will begin sending mail-in ballots starting this Thursday ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. Counties across the state have until next Monday, Oct. 5, to begin mailing out ballots.

In the June primary, nearly 82% of the total ballots cast in L.A. County were through vote-by-mail ballots.

State and local officials are encouraging people to vote early.

When can I turn in my ballot?

L.A. County elections officials say voters can turn in their ballots by mail as soon as they receive them. No postage is necessary.

They can also turn them in starting this week at official dropboxes across the county, which are often found at parks, community centers or libraries.

Voters can also turn them in or vote in person at the county’s Vote Centers, which L.A. County officials say will start to open on Oct. 24. Officials say all Vote Centers will be open by Halloween.

What about in Orange County?

Orange County officials say U.S. Postal Service officials are scheduled to pick up about 1.9 million ballots from the county elections office on Saturday and start delivering them on Monday, Oct. 5.

The Trump administration has tried to restrict mail-in ballots. Will my ballot be affected?

The California Secretary of State’s office says nothing has currently changed. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month issued an injunction on President Trump’s executive order requiring states to turn in lists of voters and ordering the USPS to send mail-in ballots to the people on the approved lists.

"Voters will be able to cast their ballots without uncertainty, without hesitation, and without fear that their voices will be questioned or their ballots rejected," said Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

Los Angeles County is reporting the highest number of rabid bats on record, a to-date total of 69, officials said.

This year’s rabid bat count has already matched 2025’s total, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which released the count Monday, marking World Rabies Day.

Health officials emphasized that rabid bats have been found all over the county "from suburban areas such as the San Fernando Valley to urban areas like downtown Los Angeles, in office buildings, parks, schools, businesses, and residential backyards."

That said, a large share of rabid bats — 68% of the 69 found so far — were in the Santa Clarita Valley, and they were mainly canyon bats, which are common in California.

When to be on high alert

Officials warned that a third of human encounters with rabid bats happened indoors, where the risk of exposure to the virus is higher.

Bat bites are small and can be hard to detect. Rabies can also be spread through scratches or other transfers of saliva.

“If you find a bat indoors or think you may have had contact with one, contact your medical provider or Public Health right away,” Dr. Muntu Davis, a Los Angeles County Health officer, said in a statement. “And remember, never touch a bat or any wild animals. Immediately report any bat found indoors, or outdoors if it appears sick, active during the day, unable to fly, or dead, to your local animal control.”

Who to call

Veterinary Public Health

Phone: 213-288-7060
Email: vet@ph.lacounty.gov
Website: publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet

*Call 211 to find your local animal control

What to know about rabies

Rabies in humans is treatable with a series of vaccines. Rabies is always fatal in animals, the county said in a release, so vaccinate your pets.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Sunday that tightens building rules for sites that store explosive chemicals, responding to an Orange County chemical incident that forced thousands of residents to evacuate Memorial Day weekend.

The law also adds the chemical methyl methacrylate to a state program that aims to prevent chemical disasters.

In May, CalMatters reported that California’s toughest accidental-release prevention rules do not cover the chemical in the tank at GKN Aerospace, a company that makes cockpits and windshields in Garden Grove. Weeks later Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana amended an existing bill with language that addressed that gap. Assembly committee and floor analyses noted CalMatters’ reporting. 

Had the chemical exploded, it “would have been perhaps the greatest catastrophe, certainly in the last several decades in California,” Umberg said at a June Assembly hearing.

Umberg’s original proposal would have set stronger standards for more types of explosive chemicals, but legislators narrowed it significantly in last-minute negotiations.

The final law bars building new facilities near homes and schools and requires backup cooling systems. It also strips an exemption from environmental review that facilities storing methyl methacrylate previously qualified for.

Garden Grove advocates call the bill a good step, but say it offers the community little immediate recourse, especially with GKN Aerospace planning to reopen by the end of September.

The law’s siting requirements apply to new facilities, not to existing ones like GKN’s Garden Grove plant.

Mai Do, research and policy manager for the Orange County advocacy group Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, said she hopes the state will do more to address the threat of toxic chemicals at existing facilities.

“This is a much larger fight than just what's happened in Garden Grove,” Do said. “What we see in terms of the Lineage fire and other industrial crises is that this is a problem that is affecting a lot of different communities”

In an interview with CalMatters, Umberg said the bill reflected a balancing act. “This is a net benefit for the state, a net benefit for the community,” he said.

Stronger rules for new facilities, not existing ones

Over Memorial Day weekend, residents learned of a problem with a tank storing methyl methacrylate at the GKN Aerospace facility. A crack in the tank released pressure and, along with efforts by emergency responders, averted disaster, but questions remained about what went wrong.

CalMatters reported in May that methyl methacrylate and other chemicals that could explode under certain conditions falls outside the California Accidental Release Program, which requires facilities to maintain detailed plans for preventing or responding to chemical leaks or explosions.

Rachel Tochterman, a spokesperson for Sen. Umberg, said the senator took note and initially proposed incorporating a broader category of reactive chemicals into the program.

But industry groups opposed the plan, arguing it was too broad without clearer evidence.

Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, said she does not believe a regulatory gap exists that would justify incorporating more chemicals into the state’s accidental release regimen.

Facilities storing toxic chemicals are already heavily regulated under other federal and state laws, she said, including a requirement for plans to protect people from chemical releases.

Koepke said she worried that "jumping to conclusions and over-regulating" could affect "a wider array of facilities."

Tim Shestek, a lobbyist representing the American Chemistry Council and other groups, said in an email that Umberg’s original proposal would have affected “far more facilities, substances and sectors than were in the original scope.”

After amendments on the next-to-last day of the legislative session, nine industry groups stopped lobbying against the bill.

Most provisions of the law only apply to methyl methacrylate — the chemical involved in the Garden Grove incident. The bill adds it to the state’s accidental release program, requires facilities to maintain prevention and emergency-response plans, and closes the environmental-review exemption for new sites where the chemical is present.

Scrapped from the bill: a requirement to map reactive-chemical sites in CalEnviroScreen, a state program that identifies polluted communities.

GKN Aerospace plans to reopen 

Steve Carlin, senior vice president for GKN Aerospace programs, said the company has been working with regulators and independent experts “to safely reset the remainder of the facility with the appropriate oversight” work that has included inspections, upgrades to safety equipment, and additional monitoring. The company plans to reopen in the next few days.

The company also announced an additional $100 million program to pay residents and businesses that lost money during evacuations.

Lisa Fu, director of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, a worker-safety group, wants California to regulate hazardous chemicals more broadly.

“It's just unfortunate that it's a piecemeal thing,” said Lisa Fu, director of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. “Is it worth it to go piece by piece in terms of trying to ban certain chemicals? It makes the work harder for us, and you can see who's benefiting and who's not.”

Newsom also signed a pair of bills in response to the Lineage fire, a June cold storage fire in Los Angeles. The fire briefly prompted a shelter-in-place order over fears that toxic anhydrous ammonia had been released into the air.

The new laws raise the fines agencies can levy on companies that endanger health and safety. They also bar building permits for cold storage facilities that lack contingency funds or insurance to help communities in emergencies.

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

California is now the second state to recognize the two main Muslim holidays as state holidays.

Eid ul Fitr is the festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and Eid ul Adha is the festival honoring Abraham or Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son as a mark of his devotion to God. They join a state holiday list that also includes Lunar New Year and Diwali.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the change into law Monday. Washington first recognized the holidays in 2025.

Oussama Mokeddem, legislative and government affairs director at the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told LAist the signing day is  “an exciting day for the California Muslim community and a big day for the American Muslim community at large.”

Muslims follow the lunar calendar, so the dates of the two festivals vary each year. Next year, Eid ul Fitr will likely fall on March 10 and Eid ul Adha on May 17.

Why it's important to Californians

The holiday recognition comes at a time when the community is facing “unwarranted and unjustified criticism,” Mokeddem said, which he cited as a reason for a May 2026 attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego. A recent Pew study also found that 42% of Americans believe Muslim Americans have a negative impact on the country.

Adam Khaja, an 11th grader at Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, said the holiday recognition signals that  "you don't have to give up an important part of your identity to fully participate in Californian society."

" For a long time, immigrant and minority communities have sometimes felt pressure to leave parts of their identity at home in order to fit into American educational or industrial institutions," he said.

What does the holiday recognition mean?

California is home to more than 1 million Muslims, and with this law, state employees can use existing paid time off to celebrate the two holidays.

And for students in K-12 public schools, Mokeddem said the law does not mandate statewide time off, but local school districts can declare a district-wide day off if enough community members bring it up as a need.

He added that students can also cite state law when they are absent from school to celebrate the holiday.

Khaja said he will be advocating for his school district to give a district-wide day off.

"Eid has always been a huge part of our lives, but I think that the school calendar and district policies haven't always reflected that," he said.

He hopes his students will not be put in a situation now "to choose between going to school or fully participating in one of the most important days of their faith."

Muslim Women Professionals, a nonprofit, has templates on how to advocate for time off to celebrate Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha.