Relentless Santa Ana Winds to Continue Raging Through Southland

With fire crews slowly making progress against a series of devastating Los Angeles wildfires that have claimed at least 10 lives, Santa Ana winds will buffet the region for one more day Friday with an anticipated weekend drop-off, but another bout of powerful gusts is expected to blast the area again early next week.

A red flag warning with parking restrictions remains in effect in Pasadena.

Forecasters said the offshore winds will significantly weaken on Saturday, but “an extended period of elevated to potentially critical fire weather conditions are in the forecast for Sunday through Wednesday due to moderate to locally strong offshore winds, likely peaking on Tuesday.”

Forecasters noted that the winds are combining with humidity levels of just 7% to 15% to create dangerous conditions for wildfires.

The winds were fueling the massive brush fire in the Eaton Canyon area above Altadena has claimed at least five lives.

“At one point we’ll be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas — some of them look like a bomb was dropped on them — where we will be able to bring in canines and other things to help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. “That’s our priority. But this is a crisis and we don’t know what to expect but we’re ready for everything.”

County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at least 4,000 to 5,000 structures had been damaged or destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

AccuWeather, which on Wednesday estimated that the total damage and economic loss from the fires would be between $52 billion and $57 billion, issued a revision on Thursday, raising the estimate to between $135 billion and $150 billion. Such a cost would make it “one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern U.S. history,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in a statement.

According to Luna, nearly 180,000 people in Los Angeles County were under evacuation orders due to the various wildfires, and another 200,000 were under evacuation warnings.

Luna said the county plans to implement a curfew for burn-scar evacuation areas that will be in effect nightly from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., in an effort to deter looting.

Twenty people had been arrested as of Thursday for allegedly trying to loot homes in the burn areas. The curfew could be in place by Friday night.

The California National Guard was being deployed to the Los Angeles area. Luna said Guard members will be deployed to the area to assist with traffic control, patrols and other duties.

President Joe Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for the state on Wednesday in response to the fires — some of which he was able to witness firsthand while wrapping up a short visit to the L.A. area. He received a briefing from fire officials before he left the Southland Wednesday afternoon.

During a fire briefing at the White House Thursday, Biden announced that federal assistance that was previously approved to help pay for the costs of the firefighting efforts and recovery — which normally covers only 75% of expenses — will now cover 100% of costs for 180 days.

As is standard during high-fire-danger conditions, Southern California Edison customers in some areas could have their power turned off under the utility’s Public Safety Power Shutoffs program. The program is designed to de- energize power lines that could potentially be damaged and spark a wildfire during red flag conditions.

Updated information about power cuts is available at www.sce.com/outage-center/outage-information/psps.