The traffic jam on Palisades Drive prevented emergency vehicles from getting through and a bulldozer was brought in to push the abandoned cars to the side and create a path, according to the LA Fire Department.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was in Southern California to attend the naming of a national monument by President Joe Biden, made a detour to the canyon to see “firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers,” and he said he found “not a few — many structures already destroyed.”Officials did not give an exact number of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat.

And the worst could be yet to come. The blaze began around 10:30 a.m., shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be “life threatening” and the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade. The exact cause of the fire was unknown and no injuries had been reported, officials said.

The winds were expected to increase overnight and continue for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.

“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” Newsom warned residents, saying the worst of the winds are expected between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday. He declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday evening, 28,300 households were without power due to the strong winds, according to the mayor’s office. About 15,000 utility customers in Southern California had their power shut off to reduce the risk of equipment sparking a blaze. A half a million customers total were at risk of losing power preemptively.

The fire quickly consumed about 4.6 square miles (11.6 square kilometers) of land in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in western Los Angeles, sending up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across the city. Residents in Venice Beach, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, reported seeing the flames. It was one of several blazes across the area.

Sections of Interstate 10 and the scenic Pacific Coast Highway were closed to all non-essential traffic to aid in evacuation efforts. But other roads were blocked. Some residents jumped out of their vehicles to get out of danger and waited to be picked up.

Resident Kelsey Trainor said the only road in and out of her neighborhood was completely blocked. Ash fell all around them while fires burned on both sides of the road.

“We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Trainor said. “People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming. The road was just blocked, like full-on blocked for an hour.”

By Agencies

The post California governor says Pacific Palisades wildfire has destroyed many structures as winds kick up appeared first on KahawaTungu.

The children are in critical but stable condition and were being treated at a trauma centre, officials said in an update on Thursday.

The attack happened at a school affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church near Oroville, California, about 55 miles (89km) from Sacramento.

Investigators said they believe the gunman targeted the school because of its affiliation with the church and was motivated as a response to the war in Gaza.

The shooting occurred shortly after 13:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Wednesday at the Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the gunman, Glenn Litton, 56, had scheduled a meeting with a school administrator to discuss enrolling a student, which Honea called a “guise” to gain access to the school.

The meeting was seemingly cordial and Litton went on a tour, Sheriff Honea said, but things took a turn when the gunman walked towards a bathroom and started opening fire. The gunfire hit students outside a classroom, striking two kindergarten-aged children.

The gunman then turned the handgun on himself, police said. He was found dead by first responders with the firearm near his body.

The school’s remaining 35 children were later transferred to a church, where they were reunited with their families.

Sheriff Honea said on Wednesday that the young victims had “very, very serious” injuries.

“I’m thankful that they are still alive but they have a long road ahead of them.”

The sheriff on Thursday said a note was found detailing the gunman’s motive. The note said he carried out the “child executions” as a “response to America’s involvement with Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians along with the attacks towards Yemen”.

Authorities said the gunman had a lengthy mental health and criminal history, which included charges of theft, fraud and forgery over the years.

Sheriff Honea previously said investigators “have received some information that leads us to believe that the subject responsible for the shooting targeted this school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church”.

He previously noted authorities believed the shooting was an isolated incident, but a state-wide alert was sent to other schools affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church out of an abundance of caution.

The church is a Protestant Christian denomination with over 21 million members worldwide. There are one million members of the church in North America, according to the North American Division of Seventh-Day Adventists.

By BBC News

The post Two Children Wounded and Gunman Dead in California School Shooting  appeared first on KahawaTungu.

A tsunami warning was initially issued along the coasts of both northern California and southern Oregon – an area that includes about 4.7 million people – but was later rescinded.

The earthquake’s epicentre hit closest to the town of Ferndale, California, a small city in Humboldt County about 260 miles (418km) north of San Francisco.

Local officials said no deaths or major widespread damage had been reported in the aftermath of the quake, which is one of only nine such 7 magnitude quakes to strike globally this year.

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, there had been no catastrophic destruction to buildings or infrastructure, but some homes did report minor damage.

Several stores in the area reported items falling off shelves and power briefly went out for many residents, the sheriff’s office said.

More than 10,000 people were without power in Humboldt County after the earthquake struck, according to poweroutage.us.

While the earthquake did not cause widespread damage, one resident of Ferndale who spoke to the BBC in the minutes following the quake said the inside of the building she was in “looks like a bomb has gone off in every room”.

Olivia Cobian, the innkeeper at the Gingerbread Mansion Inn in Ferndale, said the inside of the inn now “looks like a warzone”.

“We have huge cast iron fireplaces that have been lifted up and moved over, everything’s fallen over, broken”.

Another who witnessed the quake was Todd Dunaway, who was eating lunch in his home in Fortuna, California when the earthquake hit.

“It literally felt like standing on a giant waterbed,” he told the BBC. “The noise of rattling windows, creaking walls, falling dishes and decorations added to the drama and scariness of it all as it is happening. Naturally – you can’t help wonder as it is happening ‘Is this the really big one?'”

Mr Dunaway said he and his wife – who was also in the house – were shaking nervously for 15 minutes afterwards waiting to see if there would be a bigger aftershock.

His large swimming pool was still sloshing ferociously for minutes after the shaking stopped and lost about 18 inches (45cm) of water.

His sporting goods store experienced some damage, with boxes of shoes falling from the shelves, but nothing major, he said.

Multiple aftershocks were reported after the initial earthquake, which struck around 10:44 local time (18:44 GMT).

Some areas, including the city of Berkeley in northern California, issued an evacuation order due to the threat of a possible tsunami.

“EVACUATE NOW,” an X post from the city warned. “People in the Tsunami Zone are in IMMEDIATE DANGER and MUST EVACUATE NOW. Stay east of 7th St. This is a lawful order to leave now.”

Kayla Aihara was staying at a hotel in Half Moon Bay, California and got the back-to-back alerts about the earthquake and potential tsunami.

Before the tsunami warning was cancelled, workers at the hotel had told her to vacate a gym and go to higher ground out of fear of the tsunami’s impacts.

Some vacated outside and she said multiple people crowded near the shoreline of the Pacific Coast hotel, watching the waves and waiting to see any hints of a tsunami.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the earthquake and met with state emergency officials to help coordinate the response.

At an event along the US-Mexico border, the governor announced he’d signed a state of emergency declaration to help free resources to respond to the earthquake.

He said the earthquake is “another reminder of the state that we live in and the state of mind that we need to bring to our day-to-day reality here in the state of California”.

Tsunami signs line the roads of many coastal communities along the US West Coast. They mark any “tsunami hazard zone” and often point those in the area to evacuation routes leading them to higher ground.

Those who live in these tsunami zones are encouraged to familiarise themselves with their evacuation routes and have a kit ready for quick evacuation.

California’s emergency services website notes a tsunami can hit in as little as 5 to 10 minutes after a large earthquake and sometimes the first wave to hit is not the biggest. It notes if you see water draw out from the shoreline and go out to sea quickly, “escape immediately to higher ground or inland”.

The US West Coast is the confluence of a number of the Earth’s tectonic plates, and tremors are not uncommon. But a strong 7 magnitude quake isn’t typically seen in the region. Experts say there are between 10 and 15 earthquakes of this magnitude that hit globally each year.

There have been eight other earthquakes with a 7 magnitude globally this year, according to data from the US Geological Survey.

The agency says that typically there are about 20,000 earthquakes tracked around the globe each year – about 55 per day.

The area has been struck by a number of major earthquakes, including a 1994 quake that hit Northridge, in the Los Angeles area, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands more, as it wrought billions of dollars of damage to homes and infrastructure.

By BBC News

The post Tsunami Warning Cancelled After Magnitude 7 Earthquake Strikes California Coast appeared first on KahawaTungu.

A search-and-rescue operation was launched for the CH-53E Super Stallion after it was “reported overdue” on Wednesday.

The helicopter was on a training flight from a Nevada Air Force base to an air station near San Diego.

Officials said its last reported location was received on Tuesday evening at about 23:30 local time.

The helicopter was later found on Wednesday morning in the snow-covered California mountains – about 45 miles (74km) from its destination.

“It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that I share the loss of five outstanding Marines from 3d Marine Aircraft Wing and the ‘Flying Tigers,'” Maj Gen Michael J Borgschulte, commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said in a statement on Thursday.

As the Marines’ families are being notified, their names were not immediately released.

US president Joe Biden offered his condolences to the families of the troops after the news broke on Thursday morning.

“Our service members represent the very best of our nation – and these five Marines were no exception,” Mr Biden said in a statement.

Efforts are now underway to recover the troops’ bodies, Maj Gen Borgschulte said. The Marines have also launched an investigation into the crash.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged the ongoing investigation in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

He added that the incident served as a reminder of service members’ sacrifice and said his “prayers are with these brave Marines and their families, loved ones, and teammates”.

The five service members were assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

They had departed for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego late on Tuesday following a training at Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas.

The Marine Corps said that the helicopter was reported overdue at 01:00 local time (08:00 GMT) on Wednesday. Fire crews were then alerted to the missing aircraft shortly thereafter at 02:20 local time.

The crews were dispatched to an area near Lake Morena, California. They were able to locate the aircraft hours later near Pine Valley, California, in the Cuyamaca Mountains.

Rescuers were “using ground and aviation assets to locate the aircrew in co-ordination with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and multiple federal, state and local agencies”, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing had said in a statement.

The search efforts were hindered by heavy snow and wintry conditions in the area, officials said.

The incident comes in the wake of a powerful winter storm in the region that dumped heavy rain and several inches of snow in mountainous areas.

The CH-53E Super Stallion is among the largest helicopters used by the military. Over the past three decades, it has often been brought in for heavy-lifting operations.

But it has a chequered safety record, and there have been several serious accidents involving the helicopter in recent years.

In April 2018, four troops were killed when their Super Stallion crashed near El Centro, California, while on a training mission.

In a separate incident in January 2016, 12 Marines were killed when two Super Stallions collided over the Pacific near Oahu in Hawaii.

By BBC News

The post Five US Marines Dead in California Helicopter Crash  appeared first on KahawaTungu.

The unidentified bodies were originally found on 23 January off a highway in the town of El Mirage, located in San Bernardino county.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating quickly to “bring justice to those folks out there”.

The causes of death are not yet known.

Key details, including the sexes and ages of those killed, are also unknown, and the sheriff’s office has not yet provided information on who was arrested.

Police responded to a call for a wellness check last Tuesday, arriving at about 20:15 local time (04:15 GMT) to a secluded area off of Highway 395 near El Mirage, which is about 90mi (144km) northeast of Los Angeles.

They discovered five bodies by an SUV and a minivan.

Aerial footage of the scene appears to show the SUV with a shattered window, bullet holes in it and remnants of a fire, local media reported.

The area was so remote that the sheriff’s department had to call the California Highway Patrol’s aviation division for help locating the exact scene.

The sixth body was found on Wednesday morning.

“It’s going to be heart-breaking no matter what the situation is out there, as far as the circumstances surrounding it, so our investigators will continue to do their best to wrap this up quickly and get all the information possible to bring justice to those folks out there,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said at a press conference last week.

By BBC News

The post Arrests Made After Six Bodies Found in California Desert appeared first on KahawaTungu.

The storm’s impact has transformed roads into gushing waterways, leaving authorities concerned about the potential for severe flooding and infrastructure damage.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria expressed his concern, emphasizing the uncommon level of precipitation in the midst of summer.

“We are not used to this level of precipitation, generally. Certainly not in the middle of summer,” Mayor Gloria stated, highlighting worries of power outages and flooding due to the storm’s high winds and intense rainfall. “We’re not built for this kind of rainfall.”

Warnings have been sounded across southern California, urging residents to avoid driving amid increased threats of mudslides, road deterioration, debris flows, and dangerous flooding.

Also Read: Historic Tropical Storm Hilary Triggers State Of Emergency In Southern California

Some communities have declared emergencies as they prepare to respond to the storm.

An official in California even went so far as to warn that Hilary could become one of the most devastating storms the state has experienced in recent years.

The National Weather Service issued alarming reports of “dangerous flooding” in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties on Sunday evening, emphasizing the life-threatening nature of the situation.

The service also reported cars becoming stranded in floodwaters and local authorities conducting rescues.

While Hilary’s core officially crossed into Southern California on Sunday evening, the storm’s impact was felt much earlier in the day, leading to substantial rainfall accumulation.

Palm Springs, for instance, witnessed over 2 inches of rain in just six hours on Sunday – a figure nearly half of its annual average.

As the day continued, numerous rainfall records were broken in locations like downtown Los Angeles, Burbank, and Palmdale.

In response to the unprecedented rainfall and flooding, Palm Springs city officials declared a local emergency.

Swift water rescues were carried out, and while the storm is projected to weaken, its severe weather conditions are expected to persist as it advances further into the US.

Beyond California, Hilary’s influence has prompted evacuation orders in parts of Lake Mead National Park in Arizona, urging residents to seek higher ground in anticipation of potential floods.

Nevada’s governor also declared a state of emergency as the storm’s impact drew nearer.

The storm’s disruptive effect on travel cannot be overlooked, with over 1,000 flights within, into, or out of the US canceled and more than 4,900 delayed. The airports most affected are all within Hilary’s range, including Harry Reid International Airport in Nevada, San Diego International Airport, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Adding to the chaos, as the flood warnings echoed across Los Angeles, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the region and other parts of Southern California on Sunday afternoon, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Millions across the region now confront the impending threat of flash flooding, underscoring the challenges brought about by the storm’s unforeseen intensity.

The post Tropical Storm Hilary Sweeps Into California, Triggering Deadly Flood Warnings appeared first on KahawaTungu.

Police said Laura Ann Carleton, 66, was found with a bullet wound at her Mag Pi shop in Cedar Glen, California, on Friday.

A suspect – who fled the scene on foot – was killed by police when found nearby, allegedly still armed.

Ms Carleton was described as a “wonderful friend” by Hollywood director Paul Feig, who posted an image of them together.

Read: US Surpasses 400 Mass Shootings So Far in 2023, Officials Say

The suspect made “disparaging remarks” about the rainbow flag before shooting the victim, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers then located the suspect, armed with a handgun, the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department said.

At this point, “a lethal force encounter occurred and the suspect was pronounced deceased”.

Feig – known for films such as Bridesmaids as well as the Freaks and Geeks TV series – said his friend had been shot after confronting the suspect for ripping down the flag.

Read Also: Tory Lanez Refuses to Apologise Over Megan Thee Stallion Shooting

He said in an instagram post he was “devastated” for Ms Carleton’s family and the LGBTQ+ community, “for whom Lauri was such a true ally”.

“This intolerance has to end,” he wrote. “Anyone using hateful language against the LGBTQ+ community has to realise their words matter, that their words can inspire violence against innocent loving people.”

Local group Lake Arrowhead LGBT said the incident marked a “very sad day” for the area and that Ms Carleton, a “friend and supporter”, would be “truly missed”.

She was “murdered defending her LGBTQ+ Pride flags in front of her store”, the group wrote in its own instagram post.

“Lauri did not identify as LGBTQ+, but spent her time helping & advocating for everyone in the community.”

The post Man Kills Shopkeeper in California After Disparaging Pride Flag appeared first on KahawaTungu.