An update on NorCal fires, a new CA law about mandatory seat belts on buses, the constitutionality of NFL rules about standing and 2 LA residents win MacArthur Grants
How 'atypical' winds complicate firefighting efforts in Napa and Sonoma Counties
Multiple fires continue to burn through parts of Northern California with little containment.
At least 17 people have died, and 2,000 structures have burned in one of the worst wildfires in the state.
Investigators still aren't sure what caused the firestorm, but climate experts have some idea about why the flames may have spread so fast.
"It was a combination of things that we expect to see in October," says Neil Lareau, assistant professor of meteorology and climate science at San Jose State University.
He points to two specific factors: dry brush and high offshore winds.
"When those two things come together, we can get these explosive fire growth patterns that we saw both up here in the Wine Country fires and down south in the Canyon Fire 2," Lareau says.
Here are four things to know:
The winds are warm.
It's a little bit of a tricky scenario. They originate as cold air over the Intermountain West — kind of east of the Sierra Nevada. That cold air then descends very rapidly from the higher terrain. As it moves offshore and as it descends, it warms up by about 20 to 30 degrees.
It starts out cold, but by the time it shows up in the coastal typography, it's quite warm and extremely dry. Very low relative humidity — 10 percent as opposed to a typical nighttime value of maybe 75 percent.
The wind is causing the fire to behave differently.
Under typical wind conditions, fires want to move uphill. They'll head up toward the ridge crests. But when these winds occur, they can drive the fire off of the ridges down the slope and down into town. That's what sets up for these devastating impacts.
It's like water flowing over a dam. You get this plunging flow that can accelerate the fire as it moves downhill. The strongest winds are occurring right along those slopes, bringing the fire right into the edge of town and across town in some instances.
The winds are somewhat 'atypical.'
We're looking at 50 to 70 mile an hour wind gusts in Santa Rosa, which is pretty atypical. It's not unheard of with these events, but it's definitely at the higher end of what we'd expect to see.
That momentum drives the fire itself, but it also spreads embers from where the fire is currently burning well out in front of it, causing spot fires, which are very, very difficult for firefighters to get out in front of.
More wind could be on the way.
We could see another similar wind pattern setting up in Northern California, so, something to keep an eye on.
Press the blue play button above to learn more about how these winds form.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
California's emergency system was supposed to warn people about the fire. It didn't
Napa resident Emily Cocks and her husband woke up to the sound of crackling brush shortly after midnight Monday.
They looked out the window and saw flames blanketing Atlas Peak above their home. They grabbed their cats, some clothes and got out.
There was no warning.
"Just thankful that we woke up when we did. If we'd woken up two hours later... we wouldn't have even had time to grab a pair of pants. We would have just had to run out."
Cocks is safe, but her home is gone.
The emergency alert system that was designed to warn people about wildfires did not work.
Brad Alexander, a spokesman at the California Office of Emergency Services, spoke to A Martinez about the emergency alert system in place for the state.
"The emergency alert system has a uniform approach," Alexander explained "In that, every disaster can have a unique profile in how the alerting system works."
How does the system work?
We have a multi-hazard approach [and] it's up to emergency managers at local level — typically the Sheriffs office...using those systems [to send the alert].
It's an integrated system where [emergency managers] basically make a selection of the different services or techniques they want to use. Cell towers, the internet, broadcasters like yourself...
As far as who gets these alerts goes, it's a mixed bag.
"It's a highway with different lanes of traffic. Some of those lanes are opt-in and some of those lanes you are in by default, by living in an area or paying taxes...or having a registered address or registered cell phone with a carrier."
Having a registered cell phone is why mobile service is one of the most important components of the emergency alert service. It also may be the reason so many Napa county residents did not receive any kind of alert. According to officials, many cell towers were burnt down and destroyed in the fire.
For online alerts, you can sign up at either calalerts.org or you can go to Nixle and they have the ability to text. You provide your zip code and you can get signed up automatically for those agencies in your area.
What happens if cell towers fail?
"When a cell tower goes down, it raises a lot of red flags and staff are deployed immediately to either do repairs or build a new one or potentially set up a mobile system which is what we've done in several cases for these wildfires, especially in the wine country...
These mobile systems are what we call C.O.W.s. It's a funny name but it stands for Cell Towers on Wheels or Cellular on Wheels. Basically, you can hook it up to the back of a large vehicle and... truck it into the fire zone and that pops up a cell signal or radio bounce tower for first responders."
Where do I turn for information if an alert fails?
First, there's radio:
"You should have a radio on hand to listen to AM & FM stations. A lot of the notices go out on those channels, too. Even when it's happening at an odd hour you have anchors or staff there who can push out messages."
You can turn to T.V. too, for updates.
To hear more about the emergency alert system and how it works, click the blue play button above.
Metropolitan Water District approves 4.3 billion for Delta water tunnels
It's official. The California Water Fix project, intended to bring water from Northern California's Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California, will live to see another day.
After some suspense, the board of SoCal's Metropolitan Water District, or MWD, voted Tuesday to spend $4.3 billion to help build the project's underground tunnels.
Ultimately, the vote came down to "cost as well as reliability," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, MWD's general manager. "In other words, how much water would this truly end up delivering to us? And there is a fair amount of uncertainty with that last question, so our board expressed a fair number of concerns with that." MWD has already invested roughly $70 million to get to this point in the process.
Kightlinger, a longtime supporter of the project, says the added benefit for MWD is that the burden of the cost is shared over 19 million customers. "At the end of the day, it works out to about two dollars a month for your typical household on their water bill," Kightlinger said. "In LA city, for instance, it'll be about $1.70."
While MWD's participation is critical to the project moving forward, its future remains uncertain. Partnering agencies in Silicon Valley and Kern County still have to vote on their commitments to the so-called Delta Tunnels. Once construction is approved, Kightlinger says the tunnels will take about a decade to complete.
To hear the full interview with Jeffrey Kightlinger about MWD's decision to fund the Delta Tunnels, click on the media player above.
Bus riders will have to buckle up or pay up, starting January 1st
When you see road signs that say “buckle up, it’s the law,” you know exactly what it means. The law requires that automobile drivers and their passengers wear a seatbelt under penalty of fines. But starting January 1, 2018, you’ll have to “click it, or ticket” if you’re on a bus operated by a long-haul carrier such as Greyhound or a charter company. If there is a seatbelt to be used, that is.
It took motorists time to adjust to our current seat belt laws. Will reluctant riders actually strap in when the law goes into effect?
“Generally people don’t think about wearing seat belts on buses,” said Geoff Wardle, executive director of ArtCenter's Transportation Systems and Design Department in Pasadena. “We’ve got into the habit of wearing seat belts in cars. I just don’t think the same consciousness has been in the public mind over buses.”
Take Two’s A Martinez spoke with Wardle about why seat belts are so important to bus safety in the event of a collision, and how the nature of designing seat belts for buses is innately costly and complicated.
There's more opportunity for injury in a bus
Cars are built pretty much as a padded safety cell these days, so the belts are a really important part of restraining you to stop you impacting a part of a car, or being thrown out of a car in a bad accident.
In a bus, it’s slightly different because the bus is not a safety cocoon. The structure is not nearly as integrated as in a modern car. So, the point of the seat belt is really to stop passengers being hurled down the bus. It’s believed that a lot of the injuries in these bus accidents are resulted from people being impacted against sharp objects in the bus. And even if somebody is belted in, they’re safe. But then if somebody is projected forward, they can break necks or injure the people in front of them.
Designing seat belts for buses is complex
It’s more challenging because buses are a much bigger volume. In a car, there are plenty of opportunities to make the anchorages for the seat belts really secure. Any passenger is not really that far away from the structure.
But on a bus, if you imagine an aisle seat, you’re a long way from the structure of the bus to anchor the seat belts. And seat belts require a very solid, strong anchorage if they’re going to be effective.
So, you’re left with a couple of options. One is that you have to reconfigure the actual structural design of the bus, which is a huge issue and is unlikely to happen in a hurry. Very costly. Or, you make the seats be that structure and that’s difficult because then the seat itself becomes quite a complicated piece of engineering.
Seat belts aren't just about your own safety
I think most people would regard it as a good idea. But of course, human beings were built with a certain suspicion of anything we’re told to do. We want to rebel. I think it comes down to a matter of personal conscience. I have to consider the possibility of me injuring another passenger who is wearing a seat belt because I’m not. I think that’s something we have to think about.
Creating a seat belt you won't mind wearing
The challenge is that people come in all shapes and sizes when they ride on buses. And so, it’s important that the seat belt be designed in such a way that say, the upper belt was irritating because it was rubbing on your ear. So, adjustment would make it easier. But of course, it would make it exponentially more complicated to actually design the seat and structure to do something like that on a bus.
Quotes edited for clarity and brevity.
To hear the full interview with Geoff Wardle about seat belts on buses, click on the media player above.
No Place Like LA: Melissa, and the expensive $250 lesson
No Place Like LA is our series that asks transplants and immigrants to LA, "When was the moment you felt that Los Angeles was truly home?"
THIS IS MELISSA AFABLE FROM PASADENA'S STORY.
I was mostly raised in San Bernardino. Even though I was raised in Southern California, I never really felt much like an Angeleno.
In 2013, I was over a year into my job in downtown LA. I would take public transportation to get in from San Bernardino County.
This one time I was crossing 7th and Figueroa right there in downtown LA, right there in front of the Metro station.
I had seven seconds to spare in the crosswalk countdown timer.
I book it, and I make it. No big deal. I've done it plenty of other times.
But this time, there happened to be an LAPD officer.
He waived me over and he told me that what I did was just illegal. That it was a pedestrian jaywalking ticket he'd have to issue me.
It was over $250! There was no way to fight it. It was incredible.
I had never really felt like an Angeleno until then.
All of the stereotypes that people have of L.A. with the crazy traffic and crazy tickets, I mean, yeah, it finally happened to me – I got a pedestrian ticket and it was this outrageous amount.
It was one of those "Only in L.A." moments, and now I wear it like a badge of honor!
Tell us your own story about that time you truly felt at home in Los Angeles.
The US men's soccer team will not be in the World Cup
For the first time since 1986, the U.S. men's soccer team will not be in the World Cup.
The team lost last night to Trinidad and Tobago, 2-1 to officially be knocked out of next year's worldwide soccer event in Russia.
"There are two levels to this [outcome]," said Dave Denholm, host of Soccer Weekly on ESPN LA. "On the pitch, the U.S. was simply not good enough. You get ten games in qualifying to figure out your problems and the United States just could not get that done."
Denholm said this problem goes beyond a single series of qualifying matches. In fact, it's been in the making for a while now.
"There was a systemic rot on the men's side of U.S. soccer," Denholm said. "They've missed this World Cup. They did not qualify for the past two Olympic games. U.S. soccer has allowed, frankly, an attitude of, 'We're the U.S., of course, we're going to qualify for big tournaments!'
To hear more about what went wrong with the U.S. men's soccer team, click the blue player above.
K2 Sports Round-up: The Dodgers' next opponents and the NFL's kneeling controversy
The Dodgers aren't playing baseball at the moment, but tonight they might be playing a game of Pick Your Poison when it comes to their next opponents. They already handily completed step one in making it to the World Series after they swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Divisional Championship. Now LA waits to find out which team they'll be playing Saturday at Dodger Stadium: the Chicago Cubs or the Washington Nationals.
It all comes down to whether or not the Cubs can win their series tonight or if the Nationals can force a Game 5.
Brian Kamanetsky on who Dodgers fans should want to play in the NLCS
If you want the near 30-year World Series drought to come via the path that feels most earned where you take out the reigning World Series champions, you take the Cubs. And if you just want the most glitz and hype in the series, the omnipresence of Chicago's super fan, Bill Murray, you also want the Cubs. And I guarantee Major League Baseball wants the Cubs. But if you're a Dodger fan looking for the relatively safest path to the World Series, I think you want the Nationals.
The NFL national anthem protests have gotten a lot of strong reactions, including from President Trump. Earlier this week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones weighed in, saying that any of his players who do not stand for the anthem will not be allowed to play; a labor union in Texas also filed a complaint saying Jones violated the National Labor Relations Act.
All this is coming on the heels of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sending a letter to teams reminding them that the league's manual states players "should" stand at attention. Goodell wrote that the issue is "threatening to erode the unifying power of our game."
It's emotional on both sides, but it begs the question: If the NFL bans players from kneeling during the anthem, is it a violation of their first amendment rights?
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UC-Berkeley's School of Law weighs in on the constitutionality of the NFL requiring players to stand during the national anthem
"The First Amendment applies only to the government. The National Football League and the teams within it are all private entities so the First Amendment doesn't apply to it. If Congress were to pass a law preventing kneeling at football games, that would violate the First Amendment, but for the NFL to adopt such a rule doesn't raise any First Amendment question at all."