At least two people are dead and several others injured as the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Woodley fires burned through thousands of acres and prompted sweeping evacuations around Los Angeles County.
The dry landscape in the region heavily contributed to fire’s ability to spread quickly. Only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen in the region since May 6, according to the National Weather Service.
But without the low humidity and extreme winds, the dry landscape wouldn’t present as big of a threat.
On Monday, the National Weather Service began warning of a “life-threatening” Santa Ana windstorm that could spark severe wildfires in Southern California — more than 24 hours in advance of the first wildfire.
What made the Santa Ana wind event so severe is the upper-level support lining up with the surface gradient, Curt Kaplan, a retired operational forecaster for the National Weather Service in Oxford, California, told ABC News. The upper low that moved over Baja California caused a strong colder air subsidence, or sinking, north-northeast over the region.
The sinking air associated with the colder dense air aloft was able to descend, bringing damaging mountain waves across the Los Angeles and Ventura County mountains that then crashed into the foothills and some coastal communities.
As the upper support relaxes later on Wednesday, with the upper low pushing east, the strong winds should taper off to moderate, typical Santa Ana winds late morning into the afternoon hours, Kaplan said.
Many of the cities — like Burbank, Pasadena and Beverly Hills — as well as the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, are not usually affected by typical Santa Ana northeast winds, Kaplan said.
Four wildfires were burning in Southern California on Wednesday afternoon: the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, Hurst Fire and Woodley Fire.
The earlier-than-normal warning from the NWS allowed for ample time to prep for the fire threat.
On Monday evening, California Gov. Gavin Newsom directed state departments to position fire engines, handcrews, aircraft and additional support in areas that could be impacted.
The region remained under a state of emergency on Wednesday as the fires continued.
More than 30,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes, and fires ripped through the Pacific Palisades, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles County.
Celebrities such as Josh Gad, Steve Guttenberg, Chris Pratt, Mandy Moore and Eugene Levy have documented how the fire was impacting their homes.
Some of the regions under elevated fire risk this week, such as Malibu, were impacted by a raging wildfire last month that spread to more than 4,000 acres and forced 20,000 residents into evacuation.
School districts prep students and families for possible mass deportations. ABC News
(SOUTH TEXAS, Texas) — President Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations of immigrants, potentially expanding the “expedited removal” program to conduct raids in neighborhoods and workplaces. This program would allow for the quick deportation of individuals who entered the U.S. without proper documentation and have been here for less than two years.
Trump has pledged to tighten immigration laws and roll back Biden-era policies that he believes have encouraged a rise in undocumented immigration.
On Monday, Trump signed executive orders enhancing operations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in sensitive areas, expanding expedited deportations for undocumented immigrants, and aiming to end birthright citizenship.
Educators and organizers are grappling with what this means for their communities, and schools are determining the best way to support students and families.
ABC News visited a school in South Texas to meet with students and faculty preparing for the potential impacts of President Trump’s immigration policies.
While in South Texas, a student named Maria, a high school junior, shared with ABC News that she came to America from Mexico on a special visa last fall. Born and raised in Mexico, the 15-year-old lives with her grandmother, who is her legal guardian, in South Texas.
“It’s an honor for me to study here,” Maria said. “And my parents, more than anything, they did it in search of something better for me and my future…to have more opportunities and be able to speak a second language.”
When Maria first arrived, she knew very little English and was placed in a special set of classes to help integrate her into the Texas public school system.
She expressed that she misses her family in Mexico but wants to become a Spanish teacher. She must stay in America to do that, but with Trump’s plan, her goals may be cut short.
“We found out through TikTok, later on Instagram or things like that,” Maria said. “And just like in anything else, there are people who find ways to make the news entertaining…even if it’s something bad. We try to focus on the positive to drown out the negative.”
In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that all children, regardless of immigration status, can access public education.
While students like Maria are here legally on unique accommodation, there is growing concern about the potential impact an immigration crackdown could have on educational institutions.
The boundary lines for Maria’s school district run along the U.S.-Mexico border. The debate over immigration is finding its way into the classroom, as administrators in Southern Texas believe many of their students come from mixed-status families — some in the household have documentation allowing them to legally reside in the U.S., while others do not.
“When you come to our school district, you will be asked the name, of course, and some type of identification of your child and what can we do to service your child? Our business will never be to ask ‘what is your status in this nation?'” Norma Garcia, director of multi-language at Harlingen Consolidated Independent Schools, said.
District leaders are enhancing mental health support for students and organizing informative sessions for families. These sessions will connect families with experts, such as immigration attorneys and local border patrol agents, to help address their questions and concerns.
However, not all school districts share the same outrage. In Oklahoma, the Department of Education Superintendent Ryan Walters supports the incoming administration’s push for more decisive immigration action.
He claims that the influx of non-English-speaking students has strained the education system. As a solution, he proposes a rule requiring schools to collect information about a student’s or their parent’s immigration status and then share that information with federal authorities.
“Right now, our schools are being required by the federal government to educate all those children of illegal immigrants and never ask them if they’re here legally, never ask them where they’re from,” Walters told ABC. “Never collect any of this information. And so what happens is, is we have situations where one district, we had over 100 students a week that came in in the middle of the school year that we believe are illegal immigrants.”
Oklahoma is suing the former Biden administration and federal agencies for millions of dollars to recover those alleged costs. So far, no other states have joined this newly filed lawsuit.
“We’ve got to do what’s best for the American people, the American taxpayer, and shut down the border, send illegal immigrants back home,” Walters said. “And the best way for us to do that right now is to work with the Trump administration, get them the information they need.”
(WASHINGTON) — Pilots and air traffic controllers notified authorities about airplanes and helicopters flying alarmingly close at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in at least 15 incident reports dating back to 1991, according to an ABC News review of the reports.
Some of the reports warned that the flight space was “an accident waiting to happen” with others describing scenarios eerily close to what occurred when a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 last week as the passenger jet approached the airport.
“One of these incidents would have been too many,” said former Air Force pilot and ABC News aviation consultant John Nance. “This barometer is in the red. It’s telling us there is a real problem here. There is a very, very clear track record of something that needs to be fixed.”
There are at least four reports of safety incidents associated with runway 33, the same runway that AA 5342 was approaching when the collision that took 67 lives occurred.
“This has been happening too many times over the years, and it’s now led to a tragedy that could have been prevented,” said Steve Ganyard, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and ABC News contributor.
The safety reports were filed with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a program established by the FAA and managed by NASA that enables professionals within the aviation community to voluntarily and confidentially report safety concerns and incidents in a non-punitive manner.
In response to questions from ABC News, the FAA said, “Due to the ongoing NTSB investigation, we cannot provide information at this time.” The FAA added that ASRS reports are “one of many data sources we use to identify system-level safety risks.”
The reports detail accounts of airplane flight crews at DCA who were surprised by helicopters flying too close, oftentimes describing near misses in the air within just hundreds of feet.
One captain for a major carrier went so far as to call DCA “probably the most dangerous airport in the United States” in a report concerning their broader safety concerns about flying in and out of the airport.
In 2015, the flight crew of a regional jet reported a near mid-air collision when it was switched from landing on runway 1 to runway 33 at DCA, coming “within very close contact” of a helicopter also in air. The safety report continues, “This occurred about 400 feet off the ground to the point where the pilot monitoring had to take the controls to make a correction in order to prevent it from becoming a midair collision.”
The reporting crew says that only after taking action to avoid a collision was the regional jet informed by DCA air traffic control of the close traffic, with the flight crew adding “at that point it would have been too late.”
American Airlines Flight 5342 was also switched to runway 33 after lining up for runway 1, in order to keep traffic moving, a common practice at DCA.
It is not yet known whether air traffic control ever communicated the helicopter’s close proximity to the American Airlines flight crew, though the Black Hawk helicopter was asked if they had the airplane in sight and replied that they did.
One airplane captain reported a near mid-air collision with a helicopter in April 2024, writing, “We never received a warning of the traffic from ATC so we were unaware it was there.” The captain urged “better separation for DCA traffic on the river visual to the helicopter traffic that is flying up and down the river.”
In 2013, an airplane captain reported coming within 200 feet of a military helicopter while approaching DCA to land, writing, “There are always numerous military and government helicopters running up and down that river at all times of the day and night. Because of this, what would normally be alarming at any other airport in the country has become commonplace at DCA. The FAA allows these aircraft to operate in this environment and we have no choice, but to accept it and deal with it.”
The concerned airplane pilot in that incident continued, “I cannot imagine what business is so pressing that these helicopters are allowed to cross the paths of airliners carrying hundreds of people!”
Nance said this collection of safety incident reports “details a tale of dress rehearsals for what happened last week.”
In a separate incident report filed in 1997, an airplane first officer detailing a close encounter with a military helicopter said, “I was not comfortable with the level of safety involved with flying within 400 ft [vertically] of a heli and that is considered a normal op.”
In 1993, a captain of an airplane that came close to a helicopter flying above the Potomac River said, “This heli conflict around DCA is a daily prob!… This is an accident waiting to happen.”
In 1991, yet another flight crew reporting a converging flight path with a military helicopter wrote, “Here is an accident waiting to happen.”
Nance said an examination of these reports illustrates “flight crew confusion at critical junctures in the approach caused by alarming interactions with helicopter traffic,” “wildly variable altitudes flown by the helicopter traffic,” and “overburdened tower controllers” who “appear to consider the pace of operations and the number of close calls with helicopters in critical areas as business as usual.”
“The helicopter routes around DCA allow for little margin for error,” Ganyard said. “You cannot have aircraft constantly flying so close together and expect to maintain safety.”
“In the AA crash we see the consequences of a minor mistake becoming a tragedy,” Ganyard added. “Step one for the FAA is to reroute helicopter traffic around DCA.”
In the aftermath of the crash last week, the FAA restricted helicopter traffic over the Potomac River around DCA while the NTSB completes its preliminary investigation. At that point, the FAA said, it will review the airspace based on the NTSB’s report.
The Aviation Safety Reporting System was established in 1976 to “support the FAA in its mission to eliminate unsafe conditions in the national aviation system, and prevent avoidable accidents,” according to its website. The program is managed by NASA as an independent third party with no regulatory or enforcement role, which says it “ensures that de-identified incident data and the results of special studies are communicated to those responsible for aviation safety.”
On its website, the FAA said it established it is “a positive program intended to ensure the safest possible system by identifying and correcting unsafe conditions before they lead to accidents.”
In a report last year on near mid-air collisions, ASRA said, “Such incidents are independently submitted and are not corroborated by NASA, the FAA or NTSB. The existence in the ASRS database of reports concerning a specific topic cannot, therefore, be used to infer the prevalence of that problem within the National Airspace System.”
(NEW YORK) — Live bird markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County will be shut down for a week after seven cases of avian flu in poultry were found at live bird markets in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, state officials said Friday.
The cases were discovered during routine inspections. All infected flocks will be depopulated, officials said.
The state stressed the shutdowns are prudent steps. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that avian flu does not pose a public health threat.
The order requires those markets to sell down all inventory, complete cleaning and disinfection procedures and remain closed for a period of five days after cleaning and disinfection.
There are no human cases of avian influenza, and the threat to the public is low.
Cases of bird flu have increased among animals — including dairy cows, wild birds, poultry and even pet cats.
On Wednesday, a second type of bird flu was found in dairy cows for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced.
The number of birds affected by the virus has been rising in recent months, with roughly 7 million affected in November, 18 million in December, and 23 million in January, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
