12/27/2023 0 Comments Cal fire map of malibu fire![]() “What a lot of people forget is that, in some of the events that we’ve seen in California, cell towers go out very quickly, either because they lose power or they’re burned up,” said Crystal Kolden, a professor of fire science at UC Merced. Even several days after the fire, much of the west side of Maui remained without internet, power and water, although officials said some cellphone service was available. And we have settlement immediately adjacent to vegetation,” UC Merced climatologist John Abatzoglou said.Īnd with winds come loss of power and communications, something that hit the historic West Maui town of Lahaina - once the royal residence of the Hawaiian king - before the danger of the fire had become clear. ![]() Hawaii is now facing many of the same questions about the Maui fires, and California can be a place to look for solutions. ![]() But the tactic seemed to work in getting people’s attention in ways that they might have previously tuned out a “typical” red flag warning. In 2019, for example, the National Weather Service office in Oxnard issued an unprecedented “ extreme red flag” warning of dangerous fire weather, with forecast gusts of up 80 mph expected, which meteorologists said they can’t remember ever using. Officials have since become increasingly assertive with warnings. Officials eventually sent an Amber Alert-style bulletin to cellphones - but only after the landslides had begun. In early 2018, officials in Santa Barbara County released conflicting evacuation instructions in the days before deadly landslides struck Montecito, resulting in more than 20 deaths. noted an 80% reduction in ignitions in high wildfire-threat areas reported to the state.Ī common problem found in some of the worst disasters was, in hindsight, seemingly inexplicable reluctance to issue clear evacuation orders early, or even send alerts through tools such as text messages. Still, recently Pacific Gas & Electric Co. They can cause problems, such as cutting off power to medically needy residents, and limiting residents’ ability to monitor evacuation notices should danger come near. But a shorter-term solution is preemptively shutting down of the electrical grid during times of high fire danger. State officials considered the broad alerts a success.Ī long-term solution would be to put power transmission lines underground, reducing the risk of high winds igniting a fire. Those warnings came quite early, and residents said the early alerts kept them vigilant and on alert to watch for evacuation orders. If you have to jump into the water, that’s not enough warning,” he said.Īs Hawaii begins to tally the damage and assess how to improve its safety procedures to address extreme fire weather, California can offer many lessons.Ī series of deadly natural disasters - historic fires in Paradise, Malibu and wine country and landslides in Santa Barbara County - exposed major weaknesses in local, state and federal emergency responses and outmoded evacuation and alerting procedures.Ĭalifornia responded with sweeping changes, including improved emergency communications, automatic power line shut-offs during windy conditions and more robust warnings of forecasts.Īfter Northern California officials were criticized in 2017 for issuing few broad warnings of fire weather ahead of what became historic deadly wildfires, state officials took action when fire weather came to the south: issuing unprecedented cellphone warnings to some 12 million residents in seven Southern California counties.Ĭalifornia Lessons from disastrous wine country fires helped in battling Southern California infernos “Was there enough warning? I don’t think so.
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