What’s next, how to help each other, more

EXCLUSIVE: Dallas Raines wasn’t born in the City of Angels, but few Angelenos embody Southern California like ABC 7 News’ chief meteorologist, a Georgia native. A prospect that is especially true during times of extreme weather, like the strong hurricane winds and raging wildfires that have wreaked a seemingly unprecedented extent of destruction across the region last week.

“It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, but these winds and these fires are things we’re going to have to deal with forever,” the 40-year-old Los Angeles resident said bluntly Monday, while as he prepares to continue. air for ABC’s Disney-owned West Coast flagship.

Since winds began gusting last week, Los Angeles County has seen fires burn tens of thousands of acres, decimate thousands of homes and other buildings, and hundreds of thousands of others were evacuated. As far as we know, more than two dozen people have died. The fire that ravaged Runyon Canyon in Hollywood on January 8 was extinguished relatively quickly and the Kenneth Fire is under control. However, flames are still burning and residents are still subject to mandatory evacuations due to the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires.

And, with another red flag in effect, it’s likely more will happen – soon.

The National Weather Service has issued a “particularly dangerous situation” warning for most of the county with winds of up to 70 mph forecast from 4 a.m. Jan. 14 until midday Wednesday. While the LAFD and other first responders are hunkered down to fight any fires that might break out, turbulence could prevent helicopters and Super Soakers from taking to the skies to put out the flames.

Amid all of this, Raines spoke to Deadline about what the last week has brought. The AP Award-winning meteorologist, with one of the most distinctive names in all of television, also examines what could happen, where to get your information from and what could be done to help reduce the endless cycle such fires in SoCal.

DEADLINE: This past week has been heartbreaking for our city, as it has been for all the worst parts of the Bible at once. But through it all, you and local television at ABC 7 have played a vital role in keeping people informed about the wind movement, the fires, the devastation and the efforts to combat the destruction. So my question is: how was the last week for you?

DALLAS RAINES: I’m just doing my job, Dominic.

DEADLINE: More than ever sir…

RAINES: Well, thank you, but you know, anything we can do to that end, from a weather standpoint, we just want to try every day to give our viewers and all of Southern California an opportunity to know what’s coming.

And that’s the real key: try. And can we plan far enough in advance without scaring people.

DEADLINE: How do you mean?

RAINES: I remember when we were working on this about eight days before the event itself, and I was talking to some of my friends at the National Weather Service. I was like, you know what, it looks really bad in terms of damage. Now we all hope and pray that a fire doesn’t start during these types of winds and wind events, but at least I think we’ve done a very solid job of getting information on what was most likely going to happen. That it was going to be an excessive wind event in Santa Ana. These bend approximately every 10 years. Give it or take a few years, and while Southern Californians are accustomed to Santa Ana wind events, an event of this magnitude can still be shocking.

DEADLINE: On that note, were you surprised by what happened from January 7, with the start of the Palisades fire?

RAINES: To be honest, I really wasn’t surprised by what happened.

DEADLINE: For what?

RAINES: Because I knew that if a fire broke out, the winds would blow so hard that the helicopters wouldn’t be able to fly. And when you look at the whole event, the firefighters are working very hard to try to control things as best they can. But the reality is that in Santa Ana Dominic’s excessive wind, if a fire starts in one of these canyons where all these houses are downwind, southwest of the wind, it’s almost impossible to stop it . It really is.

DEADLINE: But the ferocity Among them, Dallas, the old-timers, the seasoned Angelenos say they’ve never seen anything like it…

RAINES: Well, I didn’t grow up here, but I was looking back, and you can also look it up, to the great Malibu firestorm of 1978.

That was a little way back, but it was so close to what we had this time. I was looking at some pictures of some of the old fire trucks that had burned down, and I was looking at some of these hills, and what I also saw was that the population was half of what it is today , in terms of housing. .

DEADLINE: Density has certainly proven to be an issue this year. Another problem we’ve seen this year, as we did late last year with the Franklin fires, is misinformation and disinformation. Now I’m not going to go over this chapter and verse…

RAINES: I know what you mean…

DEADLINE: But I wanted to get your perspective on the proliferation of bad information, and how do you think people can get the right information that they can act on?

RAINES: Well, I think you need to listen to a credible source. It’s number one. Now I realize in my long career in broadcasting where we came from. If you wanted weather information, you got it on ABC, CBS, NBC, that was about it, and then CNN, where I did the weather first. Nowadays, there are people on the Internet who have all kinds of information. There are people who make predictions. We never know what their references are, nor their experiences. The fact is that this information exists and people need to be very careful about what they listen to. Make sure the information they receive is correct and comes from a credible source.

In today’s world you see all sorts of things flying around and for the most part they just aren’t real, credible sources. So, I think that’s a concern.

DEADLINE: You know, I see a concern, and I would never want to underestimate the tragic losses of the last week, the fact that we all know someone, several people who have lost everything, some who have passed away, and the incredible work from the LAFD and other First Nations. Speakers, but it is also true that these fires are not new to Southern California. To varying degrees, they occur several times a year and have been doing so for decades…

RAINES: Yes. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, but these winds and fires are things we’ll have to deal with forever.

When I arrived in Southern California, I was really shocked by two things. That every year the Santa Ana winds come, a fire is lit. It burns people’s houses and we start again. And there are two things that I’ve always felt, and I’ve shared this with many, many people, close friends and information professionals. There are two things that I think…now it’s arduous, so it’s not something that we just say, oh, we’re just going to do this, and that ends it. This is not the case. But I think if they could do two things, they could alleviate this problem or improve it to the point where you could really reduce it.

DEADLINE: What would these two things be??

RAINES: First, during red flag warnings, major canyon passes are closed and only people who live there are allowed to enter.

Now I know, people say, that it’s not practical. It is. This will be a slight inconvenience.

But if you think about our city right now, our beautiful city, it might help, if you just closed during the red flags, which usually last a few days, 48 ​​hours at most. Close major canyons. We can’t close everything, but we can close the main roads.

I live near Angeles Crest, and to show you how serious the situation is, on Sunday there were motorcycles going up Angeles Crest. Dangerous. So close the major canyons and ask individuals to work with their communities.

DEADLINE: How so?

RAINES: A lot of times you might have retirees who are just willing to give their time for the community, for their neighborhood. Ask them to do community surveillance.

This is just my opinion, but if you see someone strange in your neighborhood at 10 a.m. and you may not know all of your neighbors, notify the fire department or sheriff. They can just come and say, hey, this is a red flag, you can’t be here. Look, no one loves hiking more than me. I go to the canyons all the time, but I’m willing to sacrifice for our community, you know, walking on the beach or doing something other than hiking the canyons during red flags. It’s that simple.

DEADLINE: So where do we go from here, after these next few days?

RAINES: Well, the population will continue to increase, for example. I also predict that they will completely rebuild Pacific Palisades.

DEADLINE: Totally?

RAINES: Why not? It’s the most beautiful region in the world and people want to live and enjoy it. But we must know that these winds will occur for as long as our short lifetime and beyond. So I think those two things that would happen would be really helpful.

You would be surprised. I think you would see a significant drop in these types of outbreaks. It wouldn’t eliminate them completely, but I think you would see a considerable decrease in these fires. Really.

DEADLINE: Well, that would be nice.

RAINES: Yes.