California
Asking Eric: Conservative brother from Texas misses California wedding
Dear Eric: I recently married the love of my life. It’s a second marriage for both of us and we are an interracial couple. We had a small wedding, about 50 people, with only family and close friends. We had family travel in from many states.
My brother, who lives in Texas, declined to come and said it was because the wedding was in California. He is very conservative. I was very hurt that he didn’t come to my wedding for political reasons and because I’m not sure if it goes beyond politics.
Based on his views, I suspect he may not have approved of my divorce and my subsequent choice to marry a Latino. My parents are deceased and I only have two siblings. It would have been nice for him to try to fill the void of my dad and let me have more than one of my family of origin present on this important day in my life.
Now his son is getting married in Texas. I feel, as Californians, we may not be welcomed with open arms based on the refusal of my Texan brother to come to our state. Although we received an invitation via mail, I’m not sure he wants us there. My husband feels we should go to show this is what family does for each other, show up and support despite our different beliefs.
– Conflicted Sister
Dear Sister: It’s news to me that Texans can’t go to California and vice versa. If residents of the two largest states in the “lower 48″ aren’t welcome across each other’s borders, we’re in big trouble. How will famed Texan Matthew McConaughey film his movies?
If you feel that your nephew’s wedding will be a safe environment, psychologically, for you and your husband, you should go as a way of living into your values. Talk it through with your husband; you know your family better than he does and can point out any potential trouble. Neither of you should willingly put yourselves in a situation where you’ll be discriminated against.
Hopefully, the issue is just with your brother and not the rest of the family. Whether you go or not, you and your brother should have a talk because there’s a lot that’s unsaid and it’s going to come out one way or another. Tell him how you felt when he skipped your wedding and challenge him on any racist beliefs he has. For family, showing up is great, but saying the hard thing is key.
Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.
Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.
California
Ricki Lake says California fire destroying her home was 'called' months ago by celebrity psychic
Ricki Lake, whose treasured Malibu home burned to the ground last week amid the Palisades Fire, shared on social media that three months ago, she had spoken with celebrity medium Tyler Henry, who asserted a home connected to her would be ravaged by fire and water.
“Trying to articulate this without it sounding concerning,” Henry began, bringing up an instance of fire, in an episode from his series, “Live from the Other Side” on Netflix. “I think this may have already happened. If there was a loss [of] material objects from fire and water – and water though – that’s the kind of weird distinction,” he added as Lake nodded affirmatively. “It’s two separate things.”
“So we’re gonna end up finding that there’s a story where, like, there was a house fire, or something along those lines.”
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“There was a house fire,” Lake said.
“Separate from that,” he continued. “And this might end up being a little bit more pertinent. We had like a really bad storm and our basement flooded and it got a bunch of pictures ruined and we couldn’t ever bring them back. There’s just something about watching water seepage into a place it shouldn’t and damaging things. So keeping both of those things in mind.”
LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES: ANNA FARIS LOSES PACIFIC PALISADES HOME, MOLLY SIMS WEEPS OVER ‘DEVASTATED’ COMMUNITY
“But the fire already happened?” Lake clarified, sharing that she lived in Malibu. “The fire already happened,” Henry confirmed, acknowledging the fragility of the area. “But the kind of emphasis here is for some reason water. Fire and water. We got to watch it.”
In a post to Instagram, Lake credited Henry for his premonition, saying he’d “called it,” urging people to watch the episode.
“Less than three months ago, on Oct 15th, 2024 Ross and I were on Tyler’s show and guys, he SAW the fire,” she wrote.
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Last week, Lake shared photos of her beautiful Malibu property to social media, alerting followers that she had lost her “dream home” in the fires.
“It’s all gone,” she wrote, beneath a series of photos of her home before the fire. “I can’t believe I am typing these words.” Lake said “a valiant and brave effort” was made by their friend to save the home, but they unfortunately did not succeed. “The place where we planned to grow old together. We never took our heavenly spot on the bluff overlooking our beloved malibu for granted, not even for one second. I shared our sunset views almost daily with all of you.”
“This loss is immeasurable. It’s the spot where we got married 3 years ago,” she said, referencing her third marriage to Ross Burningham. “I grief (sic) along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event. Praying for all of my neighbors, my friends, my community, the animals, the firefighters and first responders. More to share soon of how we escaped with Dolly and not much else. For now I grieve.”
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On Sunday, she shared a video showing “What’s left of our home and garden from the courtyard.” She wrote, “The Palm trees survived! I can’t believe it…. And to hear the birds chirping warms my broken heart.”
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are three active fires burning in Los Angeles: the Palisades Fire (14% contained), the Eaton Fire (33% contained) and Hurst Fire (89% contained.) Over 12,300 structures have been destroyed.
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California
California wildfires: How and why did fire hydrants run dry across Los Angeles?
As Los Angeles battles multiple fast-moving wildfires, emergency officials have faced a nightmare situation: fire hydrants running out of water.
“How do you fight a fire with no water?” Ryan Babroff, a volunteer firefighter battling the Eaton Fire, told The Washington Post.
At some point this week, up to 20 per cent of the city’s hydrants went dry, according to LA mayor Karen Bass. And on Thursday night, firefighters had stopped tapping into hydrants at all.
“Right now, we’re not utilizing the hydrants,” Kristin M. Crowley, chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, said Thursday.
By Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom had called for an independent investigation into the hydrant issue.
“We need answers to ensure this does not happen again and we have every resource available to fight these catastrophic fires,” he wrote in a statement on X.
Critics have sounded off on the situation from near and far.
Rachel Darvish, a resident of the scorched Pacific Palisades neighborhood, went viral after she confronted Governor Newsom over the tapped-out hydrants, insisting she would “fill up the hydrants myself.”
Meanwhile, real estate developer and former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso alleged “absolute mismanagement by the city.”
Some on the right, meanwhile, have used the shocking water shortage to attack California’s Democratic leadership and policies. Donald Trump claimed the governor’s “gross incompetence” and decision not to open up “the water main” in Northern California was to blame, while Elon Musk has argued everything from environmental protections for endangered fish to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s diversity initiatives were behind the issues with the fire response.
According to experts and government officials, the water shortage issue is much more complex.
Why is there a water shortage?
A patchwork of municipal water systems feeds L.A., drawing water from 200 different utilities. They support a system designed to handle lower-level, urban fires, not multiple large-scale wildfires descending from the hills.
“We are looking at a situation that is just completely not part of any domestic water system design,” Marty Adams, a former general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, toldThe New York Times. “If this is going to be a norm, there is going to have to be some new thinking about how systems are designed.”
“It was like a worst-case scenario, but I think we should be planning for those worst-case scenarios,” Faith Kearns, a wildfire and water expert at Arizona State University, added in an interview with National Geographic. “You can’t predict everything, but also, I do think this is where we’re headed.”
Faced with a series of fires moving as fast as five football fields per minute, this system buckled.
When did fire hydrants run out?
By Wednesday, three 1 million gallon, high-elevation water tanks supplying the hard-hit Pacific Palisades went dry. High demand not only drained the tanks, and drew from water that would’ve been used to replenish them, but it also lowered pressure within the overall hydrant system, further straining the ability of firefighters to quickly get water.
“We had a tremendous demand on our system in the Palisades,” Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said at a Wednesday briefing. “We pushed the system to the extreme.”
Some of that demand would’ve been met by a 117 million-gallon reservoir complex in the Pacific Palisades, but it sat out of use for repairs as the fires in the Palisades began. Officials estimate that had the Santa Ynez Reservoir been online, it would’ve cut demand on the area’s water system from four times to three times as high as normal.
“You still would have ended up with serious drops in pressure,” former Department of Water and Power general manager Adams toldThe Los Angeles Times. “Would Santa Ynez [Reservoir] have helped? Yes, to some extent. Would it have saved the day? I don’t think so.”
Making matters worse, the high winds that helped spread the fires also temporarily prevented officials from using aerial drops of water which could’ve been pulled from the ocean or Southern California’s reservoirs, which are currently sitting above historical levels.
And, as President Biden noted on Thursday, loss of electricity put up yet another impediment to getting water to hydrants, as blackouts impacted pumping systems.
Why did the water shortage cause electrical issues?
California Rep. Judy Chu told CNNNews Central on Friday that a FEMA administrator informed her that “they had to turn down the electricity in order to make sure that the fire wasn’t aggravated because of the electricity.”
“They need electricity in order to pump water. So, they turned that down,” she explained. “And then, at the same time, there were so many hydrants that were being used all at once. That aggravated the situation. In addition, they said, there are homes that have been devastated where the water wasn’t turned off. So, there actually are homes where the water is just pouring out and they have to go home by home to turn it off.”
Chu added that the situation is “in hand right now.”
Other fires, like the 2023 Maui fires and the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California, have caused hydrants to go dry in the past, and it seems L.A. will need to go back to the drawing board if these kinds of wildfire-scale urban blazes become the new normal.
“There is a theoretical world, and maybe a world we’re entering into, where we could pay much, much more to have redundant water and power supply — because you need both [to fight fire], especially in terrains like this,” Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, told LAist. “I’m not even sure that would have made a difference when it comes to these types of wildfires, but that’s possible.”
“There’s no reason to think that [the Department of Water and Power] was particularly ill-prepared, no one was talking about them being ill-prepared for wildfires,” he said. “This caught everyone off guard, as far as I know.”
As the city seeks to fight the fires and rebuild, California leaders have sharply condemned outsiders trying to score political points.
“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down. And this guy wanted to politicize it,” Newsom said in response to Trump on CNN.
California
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass 'not worried' about supposed 'animosity' between Trump and California
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pushed back against questions about any “animosity” between the incoming Trump administration and California that could hamper efforts to battle the multiple wildfires raging in Los Angeles County.
Trump has heavily criticized leaders in Los Angeles and California over the response to the wildfires, saying the city and state were woefully unprepared.
On Sunday, Bass said she’s “not worried” about any supposed animosity between Trump and local officials and said she has been in communication with his team.
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Trump on Sunday posted on Truth Social that “incompetent polls” have no idea how to put out the L.A. wildfires. He had previously accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom of caring more about protecting an endangered fish species than protecting the state’s residents from wildfires.
The incoming president has long railed against Democrats in California for limiting the availability of water for Californians that comes from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in the northern part of the state.
Newsom and Los Angeles County supervisor Kathryn Barger have both extended separate invitations to Trump for him to visit the region to see the devastation the fires have caused.
“I joined in the invitation to the incoming president to come to Los Angeles,” Bass said during Sunday’s press update on the firefighting efforts. “I joined with the supervisor, and the governor and spoke directly with the incoming administration yesterday. It was a fine call.”
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She added, “There are also, as I mentioned before, a number of my former colleagues who are up for confirmation. I feel like I will have good relations there.”
Bass and Barger said they believe Trump will visit the area.
“I will say, knowing what I know, and I represent Altadena, which is probably the most diverse, community, that in the fifth district, this is the exact constituency that he was talking to,” said Barger. “You got socioeconomics from all walks of life, and they are suffering. So I am confident that this president will come.”
The mayor also took issue with questions about the supposed lack of communication between the city and the incoming Trump administration.
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“There isn’t a lack of communication between the city of Los Angeles and the incoming Trump administration,” she said. “I have spoken with representatives of the incoming administration. I’ll be talking more about that in the coming days.”
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