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L.A. Facing Extremely Critical Fire Weather Today and Tomorrow; Gov. Gavin Newsom Issues Executive Order to Help Fire Victims Rebuild Faster; Senate Confirmation Hearings for Trump Picks Begin Tomorrow. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 13, 2025 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, extremely critical, dangerous winds ramping up again with fire warnings at the highest levels of the death toll in the wildfires in Southern California rises to 24 with dozens more missing.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it is a big week in Washington for Donald Trump, confirmation hearing for the president-elect's cabinet nominees. Cabinet nominees are set to kick off, more than a dozen hearings and a huge test for Donald Trump and Republicans in the Senate.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The walk off doink, the doink heard round the world. Overnight, the first playoff win for the Washington Commanders in 19 years and, yes, there is doinking in the streets.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Breaking news, the fight to contain California's deadly fire disaster in a desperate new race against the clock. This morning, fire crews are back under a rare, extremely critical fire risk as the resurgence of strong winds threatens to soon undo progress being made in California. You can hear the winds picking up.

This hour, the death toll has risen to 24 and officials say dozens more are missing as cadaver dogs are now sifting through the debris. Overnight, the remains of 95-year-old Dalyce Curry, you can see her in the upper corner here, were discovered, as we're now learning more about some of those lives that are lost.

This morning, over 100,000 of people are now under evacuation orders. Thousands of homes, as you know, have already been destroyed with the fight and the nightmare very far from over as these winds pick up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, I'm up here in Mandeville Canyon, which was the site in the last two nights of tremendous investment of resources, firefighters work in the line. A lot of those assets still here, not only in anticipation of potential flare up here in the Palisades fire, but also prepositioned, as we're prepositioning in many counties throughout the state of California because of the upcoming winds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is standing by with the forecast. But, first, let us go to our Stephanie Elam, who is in Malibu, California for us, another place that you have gone to, to see unimaginable devastation. What can you tell us is the latest to try to contain some of these fires and what you're seeing there?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. I want to move out the shot just so I can show you. I'm standing in front of what used to be in here, in Malibu, right along the Pacific Coast Highway. And you can see it's just completely decimated. There's a staircase to nowhere. Now, here, when you look at this over the hillside of where the Palisade fire has burned down.

This is just one of the many part of the massive widespread destruction that we have seen here in this area. Over the weekend, we saw crews battling from the sky to bring down the flames along the Mandeville Canyon, where they prepositioned some firefighters to battle it through the weekend. And I can already tell you now that the winds are picking up. The winds are strong right now.

It is cold out here right now. So, overall, from our driving around this morning, I can tell you that you don't see any flames right now, which happens a lot of times at night. As it gets cooler, the flames go down. But then, as daylight comes up, we start to see these flames come back up.

We know that Los Angeles Unified School District is opening up school today except for nine schools that are in the affected areas, trying to add some normalcy back for these children that have been impacted by these fires.

And when you listen to the stories of people of how they had to run for their lives, how they flee or fleeing to get away, and then now what they're going through, I want you to listen to this couple talking about how they're dealing with their waves of grief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're doing well considering. But, yes, lots of tears, anger. We're going through the stages of grief.

[07:05:00]

There's no doubt about it.

We'll get through it. We've gotten through challenges before. This just feels like the biggest thing that's ever happened to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And that is true for a lot of people in Los Angeles. It's hard to find anyone who isn't impacted by this. Now, for the people who have been evacuated from their homes and are hoping to get back, officials are saying that probably won't happen until Thursday after we get through this wind event. There's another wave of strong winds. And because I want to make sure that these areas are really safe, they're not going to allow people back in. Hopefully, if conditions are going well. Maybe Thursday will be able to get back home. Sara?

SIDNER: It's just so hard to hear these stories, and I know you're in the midst of it. You've been doing excellent work throughout the weekend as these fires continue to burn. This is not over yet and could get worse in the coming days. Stephanie Elam, thank you so much. I appreciate you and your crew there. John?

BERMAN: And that's the key. The conditions could get worse. The warnings in some areas at their highest level. So, where, how strong are the winds and how long will they last?

Let's get right to Meteorologist Allison Chinchar in the Weather Center. Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. The unfortunate part is we are going to see those winds go up. We've already seen that in the last few hours. You can see a lot of those winds ticking up into the teens and even into the 20s. With anticipation, they get even higher throughout the day. You've got the red flag warnings in effect for today, but they're going to stay in effect to Tuesday and even Wednesday of this week. You've got the sustained winds that will get to 20 to 30 miles per hour. But those wind gusts likely to get up to about 45 to even as high as 70 miles per hour.

You have not only today but tomorrow, where you're looking at this pink area here, that's a level three of three, the highest level you can get for the fire weather threat. It's the extreme category, but also areas of Los Angeles slightly down, just still in the critical area, however. So, all of these areas that you see on that map in the orange, pink and red color will have the potential for those incredibly gusty winds starting today.

Here, you can see as we go through the day, more of those areas, you start to see those numbers beginning to tick back up. It's going to stay that way. There really is not a lull expected for these areas in terms of winds for at least the next 72 hours.

Here's a look at the fires themselves. Those containment numbers were able to go up over the weekend thanks to the slightly calmer winds this morning, especially on Saturday. The hope now is that they could hurry up and bring some more of those containment numbers up and get a better hold on these fires right before those winds get to really the peak time coming up here in the next 24 hours.

All three of these fires remaining here are still across portions of the severe drought. That's that dark color there. You see on the map. The reason for this is how little rain they've seen in the last few months. Obviously, January has been a very dry month, but even going back to October 1st, that is the start of the water year. Not January 1st. This follows more of a natural water cycle. So, if you go back to October 1st, the Los Angeles area has only had three one hundredths of an inch of rain. Normally by now, they would have more than 4.5 inches of rain.

The other thing to note is too, it's an odd time to have this dry time of year, because, normally, January is the second wettest month of the year for this area. You go back one year ago today, January 9th, 2024, no part of California was in a drought. Fast forward to now, this year, you have a significant portion of Southern California in some level of a drought.

BERMAN: And so much of the vegetation there right now, just fuel, fuel for these fires, which, as you said, through Wednesday, some areas could see in the riskiest conditions.

Allison Chinchar, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Donald Trump's cabinet will begin to take shape this week and to get there. His nominees must first face the Senate. Confirmation hearings kick off tomorrow. Some of Donald Trump's most controversial picks up first. So, what to expect when Pete Hegseth moves into the hot seat tomorrow.

And President Biden is headed to the State Department today to talk foreign policy in one of the final big speeches of his presidency.

And we have much more on the devastating California wildfires, people now sifting through the ashes for what is left of their family memories.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to find my wife's wedding ring. It's precious to her, so that's what I'm digging for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: California's Governor Gavin Newsom is taking new steps now to try and help fire victims rebuild faster. He signed an executive order Sunday that loosened some environmental regulations around rebuilding.

CNN's Kyung Lah spoke with the governor and has more.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The governor of California, while overseeing this fire emergency in Los Angeles County, for the first time, is now laying out some concrete timeline of when he wants this rebuilding to begin, saying that he wants assessments of all of the losses done within two weeks, and that's to get insurance, and FEMA rolling.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: So, what is this assessment? Help explain why we need this and what this is for that homeowner.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): You got through the state fire marshal, Cal Fire, working with county partners. Teams of two go in. They will go in a property like this. They'll assess and they will photograph. And then they will post online. After it's verified about a 12-hour process, and people can go on a website. They don't have to physically be here to know if their property is damaged, and that will then begin the process for the property owner on insurance and getting us to a point where we can start the rebuild process.

[07:15:08]

LAH: How quickly do you anticipate this?

NEWSOM: Well, as I said, I want all the inspections done within 14 days, every single structure that's been impacted by these fires.

So, that's --

LAH: That's thousands of homes.

NEWSOM: Thousands of homes. And so that's the mandate. Whatever resources they need, we said we're going to provide it. And then we're looking right now at debris removal. And you're looking at herculean effort. Well, you're telling the debris is gone. And I said, we want nine months is the goal, nine months to a year. You're looking at the magnitude of this. And with the hazmat side, it has to be done in a way that services the long-term needs. And then obviously you're going to learn from this process.

LAH: And then what about insurance? I mean, we know. I mean, we live here. Your house is insured, my house is insured.

NEWSOM: Yes. Mine's -- I'm the one -- I have my dad's house is under the fair plan, the state's plan.

LAH: And it's very expensive,

NEWSOM: Very expensive, and it's not great coverage,

LAH: Right. So, what do you tell people?

NEWSOM: We tell them that we are not only assessing all of that in real time and have hired an independent group to look the stress test, not just the insurance market, the utility market in California as well.

We've been making a lot of reforms in our insurance market and we'll need to make subsequent reforms.

LAH: Something that's particularly pressing for this community you're standing in is lack of insurance. A lot of people inherited homes for working class. What do you what about people who didn't have insurance?

NEWSOM: That's -- I mean, and that's going to be the most difficult and challenging thing. And that's where FEMA comes in. That's where the SBA comes in. That's where the state of California comes in. It's where the federal government comes in. That's where philanthropy comes in. People have lost their lives. They've lost their businesses. They've lost hope. And we've got to restore the hope and then restore their lives and businesses and opportunities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: The governor has signed a slew of executive orders, not just on the assessments to speed that along, but also on loosening some of the environmental regulations to get some of this building done as quickly as possible.

Kung Lah, CNN, Altadena, California.

SIDNER: All right, ahead. This week, president-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks begin Senate confirmation. One of Trump's most controversial picks, his secretary of defense.

And new information on what may have caused the L.A. fires. We will look into that as investigators try to figure out how these fires started in so many different places.

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. This morning, Washington is standing by for what could be contentious confirmation hearings for President-elect Trump's cabinet picks. Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary, faces questions tomorrow. Members of the Armed Services Committee are complaining that they're not being given access to the FBI background checks on Hegseth.

Let's get right to West Palm Beach, CNN's Steve Contorno is there. Steve, what are you learning this morning?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: John, this is going to be a big week for Trump's nominees. 13 of them have scheduled hearings on Capitol Hill, and sources close to Trump's transition team tell me that these individuals have been spending weeks in intense preparation for these high stakes appearances, including mock hearings that sometimes have gone on for upwards of two hours, where they have been forced to confront their controversies, their past statements, getting -- fully understanding Trump's policies and trying to demonstrate not only for the public, but to Donald Trump as well, that they are going to be someone who will carry out his agenda.

And what quietly Republicans have been urging some of the more unconventional picks to be just open with the public about some of what they've said in the past. And publicly, many of them are just saying, give these nominees a chance. Let's listen to what. Senator Katie Britt said yesterday on State of the Union. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AL): What President Trump has done is he has selected people who are willing to not move as business as usual, but yet are ready for action. They understand his vision for the nation, they understand the mandate that was given on November 5th, and they understand that time for talk is gone and time for results and action is now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, two of Trump's more controversial picks will not have hearings this week, at least they don't have any scheduled so far, and that includes Trump's pick to lead Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as his pick for director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. John?

BERMAN: Steve, I understand that Melania Trump, the past and future first lady, is talking about the incredibly generous documentary deal she just struck. What is it, $40 million?

CONTORNO: Yes, she has been stepping out a little bit more publicly in recent months after really being a non-presence during the campaign. She released that memoir. There's that documentary forthcoming and this morning talking a little bit more on Fox about how she views the role as first lady. She also talked about how she sometimes might disagree with Donald Trump. Take a listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Maybe some people, they see me as just a wife of the president, but I'm standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don't always agree what my husband is saying or doing, and that's okay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you able to tell him when you disagree?

TRUMP: I give him my advice. And sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't, and that's okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: John, if you remember, during the campaign, Melania Trump actually came out against strict abortion bans, saying, I don't want the government in my personal business.

[07:25:07]

And that was coming right at the heat of the campaign, where Trump was facing all kinds of questions about his own views on abortion.

BERMAN: Steve Contorno for us in Florida this morning, thanks so much, Steve. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us still, the window of good weather conditions is about to close in L.A. County. The wind forecast to kick back up. So, what that means now for the firefight ahead? Cal Fire joins us next with an update on their efforts.

And reports of progress toward a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, words of cautious optimism. Why the White House is saying that it is still possible to lock in a deal in these literal final days before Biden leaves the White House and Trump takes over.

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