Wednesday California Fires Update: So Far, No New Big Catacylsm, But Deep Danger, Sorrow Remain

Areas in red are under a red flag warning, meaning destructive
fires are possible today. Areas outlined in purple are in a 
"particularly dangerous situation" where any fires that
start or spread would be extremely fast moving and
erratic. Click on map to make it bigger easier to see.

A glimmer of good news in California Tuesday as winds weren't quite as strong as forecast, helping firefighters hold the lines on the giant wildfires burning there. 

But today could be a long one. 

Winds have picked up dangerously, gusting to 50 mph in some areas. That's more than enough to spread embers and start new fires. Early morning video from television KTLA early this morning showed fairly strong, gusty winds already blowing through Ventura County.

Reports of 35 to 50 mph with higher gusts have been coming in all morning. That rare, "particularly dangerous situation" fire weather warning remains in effect through 3 p.m, local time today for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Residents have been told to have  a "to go" bad ready by the front door, and be ready to leave, and quickly at the drop of a hat. 

There are far more firefighters deployed in and around Los Angeles today than when the fires started last week, so the hope is those resources can gain the upper hand if a new fire starts. 

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports about 50 arrests for looting, flying drones in fire zones, violating curfew and other crimes. Three of those were arrested for arson, but the fires they allegedly started remained small, were quickly put out, and were not near the disaster zone.

So far, the death toll is 25, but up to 30 people remain missing. Searchers are looking for bodies in the rubble of some of the worst hit neighborhoods, 

Here's one snapshot of the new reality Angelenos are facing. One resident said the sound of helicopters rattling around overhead all night and through the pre-dawn hours would have once driven him nuts. But the fact that those helicopters are trying to prevent more destruction is actually soothing, and helps him fall asleep. 

 OUTLOOK

If the region can get through today without existing fires going out of control again or new ones igniting, then the region gets a brief reprieve,  

Winds should relax again toward evening  and stay fairly calm at least through Saturday, which is great. Some of the lighter breezes could actually come off the Pacific  Ocean instead of the desert. Those ocean winds will bring a little needed humidity, but unfortunately no rain.

 Plus, the nightmare is far from over.  Meteorologists say strong, dry easterly winds might redevelop early next week, and there is still no real rain in the forecast through the end of the month

A new fire started in Ventura County Monday evening, forcing some evacuations.  But firefighters managed to put a stop its forward progress  after it consumed about 61 acres. Thankfully, so far no houses or other buildings, and the fire is about half contained.

Another fire started Tuesday evening in the San Fernando Valley, but firefighters quickly pounced on it. So far, that fire hasn't spread too much, and it hasn't prompted evacuations and it's still largely under control.

Fingers crossed there. 

A very large wildfire was burning in Mexico, just south of the International border below San Diego County, California. While the U.S. is not immediately threatened by the fire, it bears watching. 

Videos:

Some dog videos in the mix this time. 

In this first one, I have to tell the back story. It's heartbreaking but ultimately has a happy ending. On the first day of the fire, NBC reporter Liz Kruetz interviewed a distraught man trying to reach his home where his two dogs were trapped as the fire closed in. "I literally rescued them off the street, they deserve better than this," Casey Colvin tearfully told the reporter. 

Firefighters rescued one of Colvin's dogs before his house was consumed by flames, but the other one, Oreo ran off. For several days, he worried about dog, though there were photos indicating Oreo was still alive, 

Then, the same reporter helped Colvin get to his destroyed house on Sunday, where he found Oreo alive. The reunion is joyous. 

If any of you trolls pick on this guy for his emotions, I hope the rest of your life is one of misery. The traumatized man represents all of those victimized and distraught by the fire. They're clinging to any good news they can get. Colvin represents them all. 

Click on this link to watch this gripping video, or if you see the image below click on that. Make sure the Kleenex is handy:  

In this case, a dog is rescued from the fire. The understandably frightened dog was trapped in the yard of a house in flames. First responders rescued it, and a photographer snapped photos. This inspired an outpouring of donations to help dogs and other animals who were victims of the fire. .  Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

In the next video, a passerby in a neighborhood rescues a woman and her four dogs whose house is on fire and whose car won't start, They braved a blizzard of burning embers to get out of harms way. The video is pretty harrowing. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that.

A drive through Altadena, California after the fire. You can tell despite the destruction this was an absolutely beautiful community. If there were no fire, I'd live there in a heartbeat.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

 

Helene Smashed Ashore Last Night With 140 MPH Winds, Now We Wait On Casuality/Damage Assessments

Screen grab from television station KSDK of a destructive
storm surge from Hurricane Helene plowing into
buildings in Cedar Key, Florida last night. 

 As of early this morning, at least three people have died in Hurricane Helene, and that number is expected to rise as people begin to look around once dawn breaks on trashed Florida and Georgia.

The disaster is ongoing. As of the pre-dawn hours, Helene was well inland with top sustained winds down to 70 mph. 

But it was unleashing torrents of rain and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding in parts of Georgia and the western Carolinas. 

The National Hurricane Center said Helene made landfall at 11:10 EDT time Thursday as expected just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River in Florida's Big Bend region. That's about 45 miles east, southeast of Tallahassee.  It was a Category 4 with top winds of 140 mph. 

On the bright side, Tallahassee just barely missed the worst of the winds from Helene as the eyewall passed a smidge east of town.  There's a lot of trees down and the power is out in the city, but the wind wasn't strong enough to blow houses and buildings apart, as had been feared. Some homes have been damaged in Tallahassee by falling trees.

Here's one sign that climate change might be making at least some hurricanes stronger and more dangerous:  Since 2017, eight Category 4 or 5 hurricanes have hit the United States, with seven of them in the continental U.S. That's as many Cat 4s and 5s in the previous 57 years, reports hurricane expert Jeff Masters. 

Videos beginning to emerge from Florida show deep storm surge flooding in Steinhatchee and numerous other places. The Weather Channel showed video of the storm surge in Cedar Key nearly reaching some roofs. Another video shows severe building damage in Lee, Florida.

The storm surge flooding extended well south of where Helene came ashore, causing a lot of damage in places like Tampa and Fort Myers Beach. The surge in Tampa and Clearwater reached record highs. 

That Fort Myers Beach was so damaged and flooded is especially sad since that community was absolutely devastated by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and was just starting to fully come back from that disaster.  At least this time, the destruction at Fort Myers Beach isn't nearly as bad as it was with Ian. 

Yet another video shows a storm surge blasting into the interior of a St. Petersburg Beach home. 

Further north and inland, water rescues were ongoing in interior Georgia and western North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina was awash in severe flooding from heavy rain even before the core of Helene arrived early today. 

Weather radar shows the eye of Hurricane Helene approaching
northwest Florida last evening. 

Video showed rescuers pulling dozens of people from a flooded apartment complex in Atlanta, Georgia. In a very close call, a woman, baby and dogs were stuck atop a flooded car near Atlanta amid rushing waters for about an hour, but rescuers finally got them to safety. 

Both Atlanta and Asheville were under a rare flash flood emergency early this morning, which is the most dire of this type of warning. As of 7 a.m. there were unconfirmed reports of deaths and injuries around Atlanta.  There have already been reports of at least 16 inches of rain in the mountains of North Carolina.

As of 6 a.m. about 3.2 million customers were without electricity in the Southeast and that number was growing. 

Helene will continue to grind away at the Southeast today with torrential rains, floods and gusty, sometimes damaging winds. High wind warnings have now been extended as far north as Indianapolis, Indiana, where gusts are expected to reach at least 60 mph today.

Helene will fade away and merge with an upper level low over the mid-South later today and tomorrow. That complex could continue to cause flooding rains for the next couple days. 

Since dawn is just breaking in the hurricane zone as I write this early Friday morning, details are still sketchy, of course. I'm sure there will be more updates as the day goes by. 

As has been stated before, the remains of Helene will not affect us here in Vermont. 

Meanwhile, hurricane experts are beginning to watch another disturbance off the coast of Mexico which could eventually become yet another tropical storm or hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in about a week or so. 

Tales Of Terror, Rescues In Luck From July 30 Northeast Kingdom Flood. One Involved A 98-Year-Old Woman

Wreckage of the tiny house in Lyndonville destroyed by
the July 30 floods. A woman living there was dumped out
of the structure and swept away in the raging floodwaters.
She was rescued. Photo by Jeb Wallace Brodeur/VTDigger 

Now that we've had time to catch our breath after the incredible July 30 flash floods in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, tales of extraordinary luck, bravery and generosity are emerging from the disaster.

Given the extreme force of the flooding, and the fact that it struck in the pre-dawn hours, it was a recipe for some tragic deaths. 

One woman tumbled into the raging water when her tiny house collapsed into the torrent. Two women, one age 98, were pulled from a house that had floated away from its moorings. 

I have links to their stories below as those are worthy reads the you can delve into beyond my touching on the highlights

There were surely other close calls that day in the Northeast Kingdom as well.

Before we get into that, a public service announcement.  People up there are still trapped in homes behind roads that are gone. It's taking a herculean effort to restore roads and bridges to the point where people can get in and out for necessities. 

I'm seeing reports those efforts are being hindered by people heading up to the Northeast Kingdom for a first-hand gawk at the destruction. Remember, sightseers are like the rest of the debris: They're in the way and have to be moved. 

Sure, if you're up to it, head on up if you have some volunteer cleanup work you want to do, but that's it. Otherwise, if you want to help, just donate money to groups like the Vermont Flood Response and Recovery Fund at VTFloodResponse.org. 

Now on to two wild stories.

WOMAN SURVIVED TINY HOUSE PLUNGE 

As was the case with so many people, the latest flood snuck up on Leena Aly.

Two women, one age 98, were rescued from this 
Lyndonville flood on July 30. 

As VTDigger reports, the sky was clear Monday evening when she arrived home.  A flood alarm on her phone blared at midnight, so she got up and closed the windows of the tiny home as a precaution.

After 2 a.m., Aly looked out again, and in the lightning flashes could only see flowing water where normally there was gravel, and power lines and a generator. 

Aly tried to flee, collecting her purse, phone as the tiny home began to shake and dip. She stepped off the deck and was swept away by the torrents of water. 

What followed was ....who knows how long. 

Read how it all played out at this VTDigger link. 

From the water she watched the tiny house fall into the river, then her car. Meanwhile, still clutching her phone, she managed to get ahold of 911. 

Here's how luck and people who know the are saved the day. As VTDigger reported:

"The dispatcher asked if she could remember the names of her neighbors, and (Aly) remembered seeing a child named Hazel, the same name as her dog. She told, the dispatcher, who used the name to locate the family: Rose Reynolds and Keith Upham, directly across the street from where she grasped branches in the water.

There was no electricity, so Upham, contacted by the dispatcher, turned on his truck lights attempting to find Aly, That lit things up enough for Aly to see a section of road that she could climb up on. Upham took her hand and led her to his house, which was not being flooded. 

Read everything else on this at VTDigger. 

THE FLOATING HOUSE 

 By now,  you've probably seen a photo of that ranch style house, sitting partly across a road in Lyndonville, pushed there by Tuesday morning's extraordinary Northeast Kingdom flash flood. 

I wondered what happened to the people who live there. I'd hoped they weren't home.

They were. 

Fox Weather interviewed the occupants, a woman named Paula, who I would guess is about 70 years old, and her aunt Dorothy, who will turn 99 years old in September.

Remarkably, neither was injured. Both women stood outside the wreckage of their home, and talked calmly about their order with Fox Weather correspondent Katie Byrne. Click on this link for the video of this amazing interview with the pair.

Here are some highlights of that interview.

Paula said she and her aunt were sound asleep when the house started floating away and at first didn't realize the danger they were in. 

"We got a call from Jeremy, the neighbor, and he says, 'You need to move out,' and I say, 'Why?' And he says, 'You're under water. You're floating." But we never felt the house go."

Two men who live up the road from the pair's house came two the rescue.  One of the two rapped on her bedroom window (remember, this is by the time the house had floated to a point on or near the road). '"He said, 'you gotta get out of there.' So I passed my aunt out, I passed my dog out,  and I was the last one to leave."

As she talked to the Fox Weather reporter, her car was nearby, embedded in a tangle of tree trunks washed down by the flood. The two women were remarkably composed, given what they'd been through. 

Watch the rest of the interview in this Fox Weather video from YouTube. 

 

Northeast Kingdom Flash Flood Waters Receding Fast, But Damage Severe, No Deaths So Far

Severe flood damage near St. Johnsbury
this morning. 

 By some miracle, I have seen no deaths or serious injuries from a highly local, but incredibly extreme flash flooding in the Northeast Kingdom.  

At least as of 1:30 p.m. 

There were two spots in the Northeast Kingdom that really got bullseyed by what amounted to stalled storms. One was centered on St. Johnsbury, the other around Morgan and Island Pond, with plenty of trouble also between those two locations. 

Those two epicenters received five to a little more than eight inches of rain in just four hours. The highest total reported so far was 8.41 inches in one location within St. Johnsbury

At the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium near downtown St. Johnsbury, the deluge deposited 7.96 inches of rain, making today by far the wettest day in the 130 years weather records have continuously been kept there. The old record was 4.99 inches. 

The torrential rain was highly localize. The eastern end of Danville on the St Johnsbury town line had a whopping 7.4 inches of rain. The western end of town just six miles away barely managed an inch of rain if that. Cabot, immediately to the west of Danville, just had a third of an inch. 

The storm was extreme, but not as widespread as flooding earlier this month. This time, almost all the damage was in Essex and Caledonia counties, corners of Orleans County, and Grafton County, New Hampshire. 

In the Northeast Kingdom, basically if you were about ten miles west of Interstate 91 you had little or no trouble with rain or flooding last night. 

Meteorologists are astounded by amount of rain. Peter Banacos, the science and operations officer at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, told VTDigger the rainfall was "extreme" and "just off the charts to see that kind of rainfall in six hours."

About two dozen people were retrieved by swift water rescuers and are now safe.

There were some very close calls. Vermont Public says.

"'This poor woman had a tiny home built near the river,' said (Lyndonville Fire Chief Jeff) Morrow. "Just as her tiny home got sucked away down the river, she went swimming and my team ended up finding her in the river. She is currently at the hospital, but she's okay."

Another tragic photo from this morning, this one posted 
on Facebook by Jan Eric Welch. 

Dozens of people are stranded behind washout out roads. Authorities told people in the Northeast Kingdom to shelter in place if their homes are not damaged, or at least safe.  Most of East Lyndon and East Burke were cut off from their surroundings. 

It's hot and humid this afternoon, as expected. Scattered showers and thunderstorms were beginning to develop, as forecast, and they will become somewhat more widespread as the afternoon wears on. 

Still, they will be hit and miss. Most of the storms won't cause trouble, unless they focus on areas already hit by the flooding. 

It's possible we could see one or two storms in Vermont become briefly severe this afternoon with damaging winds and microbursts. The vast majority of us should come out of that OK, however.

Forecasters are keeping a close eye on possible more widespread heavy rain again tomorrow

Recent Killington Backcountry Rescues Highlight Stupidity In Potentially Dangerous Weather

Several rescues of skiers and riders that have gone 
rogue at Killington Resort and got lost are 
lucky they weren't severely injured or killed
It's easy for an unprepared person to get in 
serious trouble fast in the back country. 

 During January, two large groups of skiers on different weekends had to be rescued when they ventured into backcountry territory outside the bounds of the Killington Resort.  

In both cases, the weather was thankfully not all that extreme. But it's winter. It was cold, with temperatures only in the single digits above zero. Dangerous if your'e stuck out there unprepared.   

The people who went backcountry were, in fact, completely unprepared. They disregarded how how even moderately cold weather can quickly affect people and potentially kill them.

 They didn't have the equipment to pull themselves out of danger. And they put their rescuers in danger, too.

Winter weather is not to be messed with, but I guess these losers didn't get the memo. 

  As WPTZ reports:

"Killington officers spoke with Vermont State Police's Search and Rescue team, and through further investigation, discovered there were actually 23 lost individuals six of them juveniles. 

Twelve members from Killington's Search and Rescue team went into the woods, where they spent the next several hours hiking, snowshoeing and skiing over five miles in frigid temperatures."

The initial call was for nine lost skiers. That number kept swelling to 23.  Killington resort duly noted that 

The rescue of so many people at once who ignored signs and barricades at Killington and went into the backcountry  captured the attention of Outside magazine writer Frederick Dreier:

"Perhaps you wondered, like I did, how nearly two dozen skiers and snowboarders somehow got trapped and needed to be extracted amid bone-chilling conditions. Was this a birthday party gone wrong? Did the local ski club throw its annual kegger a little too deep in the woods? What the hell happened?"

Dreirer phoned up Drew Clymer who helped organize the rescue as part of his job at the Vermont State Police to get an answer.  

"Apparently, four different groups of skiers and boarders who were enjoying a day of skiing and riding at Killington Resort made the unfortunate decision to duck the ropes atop the Snowden Six Express life and head into the backcountry. 

'These were all front-side resort skiers,' Clymer said. 'We were rescuing skiers in the backcountry, but that doesn't mean they were backcountry skiers.'"

THE LANDSCAPE/DANGER

My sister Laurie lives in a beautiful, high elevation spot in Shrewsbury, Vermont. She has a commanding view of the back side of the Killington and Pico ski resorts - the backcountry. 

People who go into the backcountry think they're close to the hustle and bustle of central Vermont's big ski hub. So it would be no trouble finding your way back, right?   

A view from Shrewsbury, Vermont of the back sides of 
the mountains that hold the Killington and Pico ski resorts.
On this side of those mountains, there's nothing
there but wilderness that's easy to get lost within. 

Wrong.

The view from Laurie's house is impressive, to say the least. Her view is squarely on the back  country. It's totally undeveloped. All you see from Laurie's vantage point is trees.  

 It's a vast, vast area of unbroken forest, ridges, and slopes. There's absolutely no houses, roads, or any major human in an immense span of acreage that would get you back to civilization. At night, from Laurie's house, the only light you see up there is the moon. If it's out. 

Also, try climbing back up the mountain in the cold and deep snow to get to the other side that has all the ski runs and lodges and condominiums.    

It looks so easy to get lost there, disoriented. Especially when it's cold, snowy, foggy and/or dark. You're tired, hungry and shivering. And you don't have the right equipment. And you expect to get out of that situation without any help?  

Meanwhile, as  Killington Police Chief Whit Montgomery described to the Rutland Herald: "'One of the ways it becomes so dangerous is you get in there on fresh snow, it can be deep. It can be yup to your waist or higher, with ski boots on or snow boots on....you start to sweat, you get wet, the temperatures drop more, hypothermia can set in; it gets pretty dangerous pretty quickly."

Especially when you're stuck in a bad location. 

 From the Outside article about the rescue: 

"They descended into a steep gully called Brewers Brook that is known to accumulate powder. But when the skiers and boarders reached the bottom, they realized what lay ahead: A 2.5 mile boot-pack out over steep and icy terrain. They were cold and tired and lost.

According to Clymer, nobody had touring equipment like climbing skins or split boards, In total, 21 skiers and snowboarders were down there together - six were children. Multiple people in the party eventually called 911."

So now, this group was in danger. So to - at least to some extent - the rescuers dispatched to find the bozos. Sure, the rescuers had the right equipment, the right experience, the right level of fitness. But things could still go wrong. 

In this case, they didn't. But it's amazing how some vacationers and such have no regard to what winter and terrain and nature can do in the backcountry. 

I don't know how we will ever teach people to learn this, other than hit them up financially for the rescues.  Emergency workers are reluctant to charge people for the cost of rescues. The fear of financial impact might make people needing rescue to postpone calling for help until it's too late. 

So far, pretty much all the stories I can remember about these ignorant backcountry explorers had a happy ending. They tend to be found alive, with no serious injuries. That's not the case everywhere. There have been several fatalities at western U.S. ski areas among people who have skied out of bounds at resorts. 

Perhaps not so happy for some of the people who were rescued. Killington at last report was considering pulling the passes of at least some of this group.

Among the 23 people rescued, one was a Killington employee, the Rutland Herald said. Killington fired that employee.