BHS - 8A – STORM BATTERS CALIFORNIA

STORM BATTERS CALIFORNIA

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listenings kp I AM six fortythe Bill Handles Show on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Neil Savader in formister Bill Handle this morning. Happy to
be with you on this incredibly rainyMonday morning. The gangs all here.
I'm looking out the window, andI gotta tell you again, the consistency
and the slow moving nature of thisstorm is just bizarre. Still seeing plenty

(00:26):
more off the coast here in theSouthland coming our way, and we're just
keeping you company and making sure thatyou know, you know, really you
shouldn't be going out anywhere, butwhere not to go, where to stay
away from major slides, evacuations.As of right now, as far as
schools go, LA Unified has givena storm update, so all schools will

(00:51):
be open today February fifth, withthe exception of Vindale College, Preparatory Academy
and Tipega Elementary Charge, which makessense. They're Topanga, they're in that
area. They're going to be havingmassive issues, and this is one of
those things they say that really thisis for some kids, this is the

(01:15):
only meals they're getting. So they'rekeeping the schools open unless there is major
danger going on. And that's that. Let's go to Amy King now and
get the latest. Okay, we'regoing to add into that that the classes
at Vindale Elementary and Sun Valley andTopanga Elementary. Classes for Vindale have been
relocated to Glenwood Elementary, oh I. And the classes roll Yeah, classes

(01:40):
for Topanga Elementary are relocated to WoodlandHills Academy. So you don't get the
day off, you just have tomove. And then we're also getting word
that the Santa Monica Malibus School Districthas closed for the day. And then
a couple more closures. Payuma andTopanga Canyon Roads are closed. Bennettt Canyon
and Beverly and Canyon are also closed. And not that anybody wants to go

(02:04):
to a theme park today, butnot Sperry Farmers closed for today. But
our friends at Disneyland still open,right. Disneyland almost never closes. I
haven't I haven't seen anything about Disneyclosing. I got to tell you,
Disney is actually pretty fun in therain. But I'm weird like that.
Right now, looking at the radar, it looks like they might be pretty

(02:29):
clear. No, they're goetting anotherwave of rain getting in there. Your
Belinda's getting another patch of rain.Looks like some heavy coming there. The
area of clarity has moved on tolike Diamond Bar, Ontario upland looks pretty
clear right now. La Puente WestCovena, Losweedier looking pretty good too.

(02:53):
But again this is slow moving storm, but it is moving anymore. Information
Amy king about any of the slidesor anything else going on because of debris
flows. We've got one in Beverly, there's some in Silverado Canyon. Lake's
been checking in from Studio City,and LA Fire says you got to be

(03:15):
careful because these debris flows can bringwater and mud and boulders and other debris
down on your houses and your carsin just a matter of moments. So
we do have evacuation orders for theOwen fire area on Santa Maria Road from
Tipanga Canyon and the Agua Fire alongSolidog Canyon Road east of Agua Dulce Canyon
Road. They're in effect until twono six o'clock tomorrow, and other evacuation

(03:42):
warnings are in effect in unincorporated LaCounty near burn scars, and those include
the Juperta Hills and Valliermo areas fromthe Bobcat Fire, and areas of Lake
Hughes and King Canyon Canyon because ofthe lake fire. And then also roads
leading to and from the Sepulvita Basinwe're closed, including Burbank Boulevard between the

(04:05):
four or five Freeway and Balboa Boulevardand Woodley Avenue between Burbank and Victory,
and then one other thing. You'dthink of all the roadways that are affected,
but if you're flying, you canbe affected too. I don't know
if it's because of standing water orjust because the weather's so bad, but
several flights have been canceled in andout of lax and also out of Burbank

(04:27):
the Hollywood Airport. Wow, youknow what, thanks Samy, because that's
one thing we haven't covered yet thismorning, is the fact that it's going
to be affecting flight. I wonderabout other transit as well. If so
far I have not seen anything,maybe you have about mass transit, the
buses, nothing like that. Itseems to be everything seems to be normal.

(04:50):
The subway. I have not seenanything about any closures or anything for
mass transit. But do also wantto let you know that we've been warning
you that the are dicey in someareas. Some areas it's just rained,
some areas it's a lot more.And we had that wind blowing through yesterday.
Two hundred and fifty four trees andbranches have been reported down since last

(05:15):
night. And as this always happenswhen we get these big rain storms,
because our roads aren't really made forthe rain. Potholes, they've recorded five
hundred and fifty new ones. Theroads is that what you're going with is
not really made for rain, orthey were just not made for driving on
in Los Angeles, because let's behonest, the potholes just get bigger.

(05:41):
And you know, all joking aside, if you've ever hit one of those
larger potholes, and as you know, ramy Amy being a Southland or yourself,
that during the rain they fill upand it's hard to tell just how
deep they are and you take atire straight to that edge and it cause
a blowout. It can cause aslow burst, you know where it kind

(06:04):
of bubbles up out of it justbreaks and the tension builds up like a
bubble, or it can damage yourwheels, your rims there as well,
seen it before, how it happenedbefore, and it's Snowboyno, it's not
fun in the slightest We heard fromMike Lawford a little bit earlier from the
National Weather Service saying that yes,this is going to get lighter as it

(06:27):
goes through the day into the eveningand tomorrow, although there's going to be
patches of high heavy rain still andthe possibility of thunderstorms moving in. But
the reality is Southern California is abig, wide, spread out area with
everything from beaches, deserts and mountains. We're all going to be affected differently

(06:51):
depending on where we are. Ifyou want to jump in at all,
or you have some insights or somethingyou want to add, what's going on
in your neighborhood. Can always We'vegot somebody womaning the phones should you need
to get a hold of us ateight hundred five to zero one five three
four, eight hundred five to zeroone five three four. Remember Gary and
Shannon coming up after nine, andthen John Coblt with a John co Belt

(07:15):
show. Then of course Tim ConwayJunior and Mo Kelly wrapping things up.
So there's really no reason to goanywhere else. Stick here at KFI and
you'll get everything you need to knowyou're listening to Bill Handle on demand from
KFI AM six forty. Hey,everybody, Neil Savadra and for mister Bill
Handle this morning. Who actually isaffected by the weather, probably just like

(07:39):
you and not with us in studiotoday. We've got Amy King here of
course, and we are focusing primarilyon this storm. Boy, is it
battering the Southland. I know welike to make fun of weather here and
the fact that nobody knows how todrive in It's true. Yeah, I

(08:01):
was. I was driving this morning. That's not a joke. Yeah,
if you didn't hear wake up callthis morning, Amy Kate King really let
drivers have it, did not itwas a friendly warning, come on,
It was more like putting them overyour knee. The entire Southland driving in
you are you slowed down? Butthat's the reality. You should be slowing

(08:22):
down. And here's why. Becauseeven on the freeway and I was driving
slowly this morning, when you hitthose big puddles, the little flooded out
areas, which they're all over theplace, and you hear will telling you
to stay in the center lanes ifyou can, because they're less likely to
flood. Uh. And I wasin the center lanes. But I hit
a few patches on the way inwhere I was full on hydro planning.

(08:45):
And when you are full on hydroplaning, you have no control of your
car at all. You hold onand hope for the best. Yeah,
I may take my foot off theaccelerator guy and just hold steering west.
Yeah, yeah, and just dowhat you gotta do. I'll tell you
that black ice in the mountains willmake you see Jesus. And it's when

(09:11):
you deal with these things and you'renot prepared, it can be a mess.
By the way, you can goto KFIAM six forty dot com.
You can go to the bill handlepage and Michelle Cube just posted a great
story on what you should do shouldyou hit one of those potholes and have
an issue with your car. Soit happens every time. Our roads suck.

(09:37):
I don't care what they tax us, the fees, they none of
it ever goes to the roads.The roads are horrible. Can impact your
rims, the suspension of your vehicle. If you hit one of these,
you can flat and attire and you'relooking at two hundred and fifty sometimes one
thousand or more bucks, So youcan you know if you don't go through

(10:01):
your insurance. There are some waysto deal with it, and Caltrans offers
up to ten thousand dollars to driversif your vehicle has been damaged by potholes.
How you get it could be alittle bit of a pain, of
course, there's a lot of hoopsto jump through as well. But if
you want to check that out,go to KFIAM six forty dot com and

(10:24):
look on the bill Handle page andyou'll see a great story about that and
some links there for you to clickon to see how you submit your claim.
Should you get in to that.Did we have Blake here? Bidy
chance? We do not have Blakeright now. He's getting ready for other

(10:45):
things with us. We've got himrunning around. He's in Studio City this
morning where they they've got a smallarea of a neighborhood evacuated. Two homes
have been damaged. Looks like themud might have taken at least one of
the homes off its foundations. So, oh my god, that's not great.
And well, I think we havesomeone from the LA Fire Department with

(11:05):
us. Who do we have here? Hi? Welcome to the bill Handle
Show. Who am I speaking with? Hi? Good morning? This Christian
Reoes so a public information officer withthe Los Angeles County Fire Department. Oh
wonderful the PIO there with la FD, Thanks so much for taking the time.
I know you're busy this morning.Give us the well not highlights,

(11:26):
I guess low lights. What's goingon and what information do you have for
us this morning? Sure was?You know, we're getting a lot of
rain today, so we're keeping aneye on things, specifically on some of
the Burnstar areas that we have throughoutthe county, keeping an eye on all
of our waterways, keeping an eyeon rolling hills up by Paula's Verdies with

(11:52):
some movement up there, but nothingsignificant to report. Just a lot of
vendor benders so far in the freeway, Yeah, because none of us in
the south Land know how to drivethe How much water becomes a problem on
the roads? One inch? Twoinch? Is it? Do people have

(12:13):
more problems in h you know,lower water or the big that big water
puddles that tend to build up onthe sides of the freeway, All of
it becomes a problem. You don'tneed a whole lot of water to begin
hydro painting. As you guys weretalking, about earlier hyder painting on the
freeway. It only takes a fractionof an inch or a car to hydroplane

(12:35):
suggested. Any wetness on the roadsbecomes an issue for drivers. I know
you have to be more professional thanI do, But do you do you
have one particular thing that you thinkis the dumbest thing that people tend to
do during weather like this. Well, we try to tell the public is

(12:56):
this. Be mindful of your speed, be aware of your condition. Since
have adjust your speed to what theconditions are. Don't try to go faster
than the rest of traffic, becausethat's when we seem to get into problems
you touched earlier on deeper bodies ofwater or deeper puddles. Sometimes when roads

(13:18):
are are flooded, it can bedeceiving. It looks like you might be
able to drive through it, whenin reality it's a little deeper than you
might have thought. And now youget cars that are stuck or they begin
to get washed away. So justbe mindful of speed, and if you
come to a point in the roadwhere there's a lot of water, just
remember to turn around and don't drown. All right, thanks so much.

(13:41):
I appreciate your time for coming on. That's from the public information officer from
the LA Fire Department, and againthat that simple message of turnaround, don't
drown. I know it's easy toroll our eyes at some of these simplicities,
but the reality is if people werefollowing them, we wouldn't have to

(14:01):
talk to them like they were kindergarteners, you know. We when you lose
light, it's gray outside, youhave no shadows. It's much more difficult
to understand the depth of field,the depth of the water. It's hard
to see contrast, and it's veryeasy to get yourself in a horrible situation.

(14:22):
And an example of that is thatsome street flooding in Tarzana put some
people in a very precarious situation yesterday. Several cars stalled out in two to
three feet of water. It mightlook like it's just the roadways just covered,
but you're right, you can't tell. And when the clouds aren't there,
you don't have the depth perception ofit. And they got stuck and
had to be rescued. Did theysay if they were all mail drivers saying

(14:45):
I think I can get through that, It did not specify we're We're famous
for that. You know. Wealso another famous one. Don't ask for
directions, No that that's something inthe back of the truck. Tie it
down, grab the rope and go. It's not going anywhere. These are
the type of things we say beforebad things happen. All right, Neil

(15:05):
Savadra in for Bill Handle this morning. Obviously a lot of news coming out
just you know, hovering around thisstorm and everything that's going on all over
the Southland. We're going to keepyou posted where to go, where not
to go. The reality is,don't go out if you can avoid it,
really stay home, you know,do the zoom meetings, you know,

(15:28):
your pajamas on the lower half andthen all business up top. You'll
be fine and try and keep outof don't be part of the problem.
How about that you're listening to BillHandle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Everybody Neil Savader in for Bill Handledthis morning, who could not get

(15:48):
in, who's affected by the weather, Like a lot of people are out
there happy to be with you duringthis major storm coming through really has proven
itself to be slow moving and superconsistent as it batters different parts of the
Southland, and we have so muchdifferent terrain with the desert and the mountains

(16:11):
and the ocean, that everybody's beingaffected a little bit differently. Schools are
open in most locations. When youget into Santa Monica they are not,
but in La County they are withfew exceptions. We'll bring Amy Beck in
to talk about that. In themoment, wanted to give a couple of
shout outs from those who went tothe talk back and those of you who've

(16:33):
never done that. You can goon the iHeartRadio app and there's a little
mic there and you got thirty secondsto send us a message. Want to
give a shout out to Bob whois up in Big Bear door dashing this
morning getting people food and the like, which is a pretty noble thing.
Right now when people don't want toget out. I hope they're tipping well,
but he says, no snow rightnow. They were expecting a foot
or so and right now the rainis washing that out. A very needed

(16:57):
rain though for the lake there.And then someone I love this didn't give
a name, but called up andsays, man, don't forget the utility
workers, and you're damn right jokingabout people being in their pajamas and doing
zoom calls is one thing, butthere are a lot of people that can't
do that, that are out thereclimbing poles, getting power to us,

(17:21):
keeping power to us, and keepingthe roads cleaned and serviced and all of
these things. And well, we'retelling you not to go out on the
road for your own safety, it'salso for their safety as well. These
vehicles have to get through the samebad conditions as you and take care of
us throughout that. Amy K.King. Yes, So a couple of

(17:42):
schools that we that aren't open havemoved to different locations, correct, right,
Instead of closing them, they're movingthem over. And now I need
to go find that because I didn'thave that up Okay to stay twitch.
The Vindale Elementary and Unvalley is movingthe classes to glen Wood Elementary, and

(18:04):
classes for Tipanga Elementary are being relocatedto Woodland Hills Academy. The Santa Monica
schools have announced that they're going tobe closed for the day. LA schools
are going to be open today,and then the colleges in the area of
the cal State colleges we have they'regoing to do remote learning and so that

(18:26):
affects cal State LA, cal StateNorthridge, cal State Long Beach, cal
State Fullerton, and also cal StateSan Bernardino, and then Long Beach City
Council has closed both of its campusesfor the day except they need to have
students check to see if your classesare going to be held online or not.
Yeah, so there's obviously we canhandle this storm. It's best not

(18:51):
to be out on the roads.The hope is, you know, have
they The hope is that getting theschool should not be a problem. But
what about have you read anything amyabout bus schedules or buses still scheduled?
Still haven't seen anything about any delays, But what about school buses? I
know mass transit we hadn't seen anything, but I don't know. As far

(19:11):
as I know right now, I'veheard that the buses, the buses for
schools are still on schedule and pickingup as they were. If we hear
something else, we'll let you know. Looking at the current current radar as
of a couple of moments ago,just seeing a blast of heavy rain just

(19:32):
off the coast there Rancho Palace Verdes. It looks like it's going to be
moving towards Long Beach, Seal Beachis getting some heavy rain. Bellflower Cypress
Torrents looks like it has some decentrain. You know what, if you've
listened to Moe Kelly at all,you know that he always makes He's kind
of a if it's not happening tome, it's not happening to anybody.

(19:56):
Wink wink. He's joking, ofcourse, but I he's out in that
area, and I wonder if he'sactually gotten rained on. We'll have to
listen tonight to see what's going on. Of course, Gary and Shannon coming
up about fifteen twenty minutes from now, and they will cover this in their
own unique way, making sure thatyou know where not to go and how

(20:18):
to stay out of trouble and wherethe trouble spots are. Right now as
they continue to shift slightly, butI'm seeing this new band of some heavy,
deep dark red areas coming in offthe coast there near Long Beach,
Rancho Palos Verdes, which is gonnahit Orange County. There's some nice heavy

(20:42):
yellow coming in Lake Forest, Laguna, Winds, Mission Viejo that's going on
within the past couple of minutes orso, looking like it might give some
heavy heavy rain there, the snowareas have mellowed out. I see some
maybe on the south side of thingsthere on the south shore of Big Bear

(21:08):
Lake, maybe the snow is stillpossible. So forecasters are saying they could
get and again we don't know exactlywhat's gonna happen until the storm moves out
and how much it's gonna done.But they are saying there could be as
much as four feet of snow aboveseven thousand feet, twenty inches of snow
at the six thousand foot level,and about eight inches at five thousand feet.

(21:30):
So but right now, like youwere just saying up in Big Bear,
it's not And I've got my eyeson the Big Bear Eagle Camp.
I was gonna, Yo, whatfunny enough, Amy, I know you've
been watching that the Three Eggs.You're excited about it. Yeah. Are
you seeing rain? Yeah? Throughso it looks like it's Jackie on the
nest protecting the babies, and yeah, she's just soaked. She's got snow

(21:52):
still on the nest because it wassnowing over the weekend. But it appears
that it's just raining now. Lookingthrough camera there on the north shore,
I'm seeing a lot of the snowthat fell is being washed away by rain.
It seems like a lot of rainsome wind going on there. But
again, as Amy said, there'sstill a possibility of lots of snow.
If you're planning on going up tothe mountains this weekend, you can check.

(22:17):
Caltrans has a great site. Youcan see what our level it is.
They have different R levels are numbersdepending on if you need chains or
not, and it goes through gosh, maybe our four or something like that.
But there are levels to where ifyou have a four wheel drive and
you have snow or tires in thelike, then you'll be okay. But
I will tell you this oftentimes,regardless of what the R level is,

(22:41):
when traveling in these areas, youstill have to have chains in the vehicle,
so you don't what they have thechain monkeys or whatever, or the
chain weasels or the chain whatever theycall them. On the side of the
road. Some of these guys thatwill brave the weather and then charge you
for the chain to put the chainson if you have them. We're charging

(23:02):
for the chains and putting them on. If you don't. It's great if
you need to, but it's notcheap and it shouldn't be because they're busting
their hump to be out there.But keep that in mind if you're thinking
about going up to the mountains andenjoying some of that new snow should it
hit. All right, stick around. We'll be back with more. I
think we're going to be talking toour very own Blake Trolley, who's out
there in Studio City with a bigmess and some of the descriptions of garage

(23:26):
debris, stuff that should be inthe garage now out of the garage,
you know, the stuff that yousaid you were going to get to and
put into storage, These things andmore. As we come back on this
massive storm hitting the south Land.You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from
KFI AM six forty. Hey,everybody, Neil Sevadra in for Bill Handle

(23:48):
this morning on the Bill Handle MorningShow. The gangs all here as we're
covering this massive storm coming through town. Of course, Gary and Shannon are
going to be up shortly giving youall you need to know about what's going
on. Where there are floods orevacuations, where there are slides, where
you should stay away from and thelike. It looks like there's some heavy,

(24:12):
heavy rains now going across certain partsof Los Angeles. Carson Avalon,
Village, Lomita over there, makingits way up to Compton. It looks
like nor Walk's getting some heavy rain. Interestingly enough, Anaheim, I see
Fullerton, Orange, Santa Anna.This just in, by the way,

(24:34):
we got this was actually a pressrelease. Santa Anna will not have their
street cleaners out today. They willnot be I thought that was a given,
but apparently you needed to send outa press release there. Something I
did notice is that once you getpast San Clemente, you go to Ocean
Side, Carlsbaden the like, andyou get it into San Diego, it's

(24:59):
like clear there where is the thirdpart of the storm. Last time they
had all that crazy flooding. Sovery strange seeing how things are coming in.
Some pretty heavy bands still making ourway. Long Beach is going to
be seeing them soon as well.Let's go back to radio's very own kfi's

(25:21):
Stormtrooper Blake trolley out there in StudioCity. Oh Blake, what's going on?
Neil? So you're standing out there. You were describing beautifully some of
the you know, the slides thatare coming out, some of the houses
that are effective garage, stuff strewnall over the streets. What's going on

(25:47):
as you see it now, isthe rain still coming down consistently. Yeah,
the rain is still coming down consistentlyhere in Studio City. What we've
seen all morning is really that therain is on for a while then off
for a while. But I've noticedwhen it's off, it's not so much
that it's off, it's just thatit's a lot lighter than those heavier storms
that we notice. But yeah,Neil, the roads, these hilly roads

(26:07):
of South Studio City are absolutely amess. There are large piles of dirt,
debris, and boulders through the streets. I went for a drive recently,
just in the last hour, andreally I had to drive slow.
I had to dodge debris, dodgeboulders in the roadway, dodge wood that
looks like it maybe came off ofhomes. With the sun up, we
were really able to see where thisslide came down. And just to recap

(26:30):
this slide, there were homes sittingat the base of a hill. There's
kind of a ridge on top ofthese homes are maybe one hundred yards down
and what we can see now iswhere this mud slide came from the ridge
all the way down to these homes, appears to have at least blown through
one of these homes. We're assumingit blew through the other. We can't
see that home because it has alot of privacy protection, so we're not

(26:52):
able to really get a good lookat it. But from the home we
can see what it looks like isthis hill just came rivering down and just
blew through the back of this home, through the garage, sent all of
the items that were inside that garageinto the driveway, sent a car that
we were assuming was parked in thedriveway all the way down the driveway,
and actually smashed it into a brickmailbox post, so the car is smashed

(27:17):
up against it. The car hasdebris and bricks on its hood. Just
across the street there's a car that'sjust got debris piled all over it.
And I think one of the things, Neil, that I've noticed here in
the last hour or so, aswe get a little bit more daylight,
is not just how long this mudslideis, but how deep it is.
I mean, at certain points,it really looks like this thing was carved

(27:37):
a few feet deep. So ifthat makes sense. It's like a few
feet of depth of land came downand what you're seeing now in this neighborhood
is just an absolute mess. Imean this debris, these rocks, these
boulders I'm describing, They don't juststop, you know, a few even
fifty sixty yards past the mudslide site. They go at least a half mile.
As you're driving, you're still seeingthem all the way back down to

(28:00):
kind of the main roads here.I want to go to some audio,
Neil, if we have time.We did talk to some homeowners and they
gave us some detail of what theywent through last night, evacuating to their
family members' homes. Okay, let'slisten. We were freaking out. My
son was hysterical, like we wereall scared. Dog in the trunk like

(28:21):
it was there. Unreal. I'velived in Studio City, I grew up
in Studio City. Never seen anythingquite so dramatic. There's so much debris
in the roadway. How loud wasthis for you guys? Last night?
An I got a ninety destable warningon my watch. Yeah we got out.
Well, we were watching a loudmovie. We were watching Indiana Jones

(28:42):
on TV. Last night and itwas loud, but the noise from the
mudslide overpowered the TV and that's whatalerted us though something was happening. So
you kind of get an idea thereof what they were going through. And
they were doing what a lot offamilies were doing, which was staying inside.
And can you imagine they're watching thefirst Indiana Jones and it's the Boulder

(29:03):
scene and that's what you're hearing.Holy smokes, Blake, you know,
we want to talk with Shannon,but before they come on Blake Trolley.
I really appreciate it out there areStormtrooper today out there in Studio City.
I appreciate all the great work.And are you posting up on social media?
I am. I put out atweet if people want to see this

(29:25):
home that we're describing, the onethat's most severely damaged. It's at my
Twitter at Blake Trolley KFI and wereposted it through the KFI Twitter page,
so that's a lot easier to findfor people. Excellent, Thanks so much,
my friend. I appreciate you.Thanks Neil. All right, so
Garyan Shannon coming up, and ifI do say so myself, to my
faves, they have obviously the reporterbackground and the like. So when it

(29:48):
comes to breaking news, as theysay, you can't break news on Gary
and Shannon. Oh, Shannon,yes, dear. So what are you
guys talking about today? Anything?Yes, obviously we'll be spending all the
time. We'll get you caught upon everything else going on, all about
how the president is trying to lookhard on the border and why that's good

(30:11):
and why the Republicans are going todrag their heels to make him do so.
Also, are you so flabbergasted abouthow Tee Swift shunned Celine Dion because
that's all anybody can talk about?Wow, hitting it hard today, that's
right, love it, We'll loveit you rich All throughout the day,
reporters fanned out. KFI News doesit the best and we will have you

(30:33):
covered absolutely. Gary and Shannon comingup. Thanks Shannon, Thanks everybody for
hanging out today. Be safe andall that good stuff. You've been listening
to The Bill Handle Show. CatchMy Show Monday through Friday six am to
nine am, and anytime on demandon the iHeartRadio app.