Fact-checking the response to California wildfires
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What are the latest updates on the California wildfires?
Good morning. It's Friday, January 10th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, TikTok goes to the Supreme Court, Trump is set to be sentenced in his hush money case, and why canceling student debt is a tricky issue. But first, to the L.A. fires, where more than 9,000 homes and structures have now been destroyed or damaged.
What actions did President Biden take regarding the wildfires?
And at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. The Los Angeles County Sheriff said that some areas look like a bomb had been dropped on them. Yesterday, President Biden addressed the nation, and he said the federal government would cover 100% of the costs for the initial disaster response. That includes debris removal, temporary shelters, salaries for first responders, and more for 180 days.
What criticisms is LA Mayor Karen Bass facing?
Let me close with a message to the people of Southern California. We are with you. We're not going anywhere. To the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes.
Meanwhile, in the press and on social media, there's a lot of criticism being lobbed at LA's mayor, Karen Bass, who is a Democrat. For the first 24 hours of the crisis, Bass was a constant presence online. She declared a state of emergency and urged residents to flee, but she herself was far from the fires on a diplomatic mission in Africa. Bass and her team say that she was in communication with top officials the entire time she was away and returned to Los Angeles as fast as possible.
I've been in constant contact with our fire commanders, with county, state, and federal officials. I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane, which facilitated our communications. So I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight. When my flight landed, immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.
Bass is also being criticized for reported cuts to the city's fire department budget. There's been a lot of confusion about this and criticism from the left and the right, so it's worth taking a moment to clear it up. It is true that in June, Bass signed a budget that cut the fire department's funding by more than $17.5 million, or around 2% of the previous year's budget. But Politico notes that's only a part of the story. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department, and a separate fund was set aside that ended up adding $50 million to the fire department budget year over year. Still, fire officials say they're understaffed and under-resourced. One of Bass' most outspoken critics is real estate developer Rick Caruso, who ran against her in the 2022 mayoral election. His daughter lost her home in the wildfires, and he's been blasting Bass and the city for the lack of available water. Here he is on the local Fox affiliate earlier in the week.
What issues arose with fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades?
Well, what is most concerning to me is our first responders and our firefighters who are trying to battle this. There's no water in the Palisades. There's no water coming out of a fire hydrant. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city. It's not the firefighters' fault, but it's by the city.
But the L.A. Department of Water and Power says that isn't quite right. At issue wasn't supply, but strain on the system that feeds hydrants. Here's Kevin Tidmarsh, a reporter with LAist.
How is the LA Department of Water and Power responding to the crisis?
You have a water system that was not designed to fight fires, that is under a tremendous amount of stress.
Water to those hydrants is supplied by massive tanks that hold a million gallons each and are designed to maintain pressure as water is pumped up hills. The water department says the tanks and palisades were filled to capacity, but as firefighters drew more and more water while the flames spread, the system just couldn't hold. Here's Tidmarsh again.
And the city was not able to get water into these three tanks, maintaining the water pressure fast enough. It's not an issue of supply like a lot of people out there, you know, making these statements on social media, in the press. It's an issue of infrastructure, of not being able to physically move the water fast enough.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the latest updates on the California wildfires?
0:04–0:41
2
What actions did President Biden take regarding the wildfires?
0:41–1:04
3
What criticisms is LA Mayor Karen Bass facing?
1:04–3:05
4
What issues arose with fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades?
3:05–3:35
5
How is the LA Department of Water and Power responding to the crisis?
3:35–6:22
6
What is the legal status of Trump’s hush-money case?
6:22–7:31
7
What are the implications of the Supreme Court case regarding TikTok?
7:31–11:33
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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