Fires Evacuate Endangered Communities
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We're going to take you back up to Capitol Hill to the Cannon Rotunda.
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We're joined by California Democrat Judy Chu.
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She represents that Los Angeles area-based 28th District of California.
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And Congressman, Congresswoman, just wanted to start first by asking about the district, how it's doing today, where the fires are in relation to your district right now.
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Well, my district is doing better now.
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The fire is 95% contained.
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However, the number of homes burned number in the thousands.
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In fact, there are 9,500 structures that have been destroyed and burned, and 17 people are dead.
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Finally, the evacuation orders have been lifted, so people are going back to their homes, but they are discovering that they are burned to the ground.
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And even if they have a home standing, that it's full of smoke and ash.
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So the period of recovery and rebuilding is starting, and it's going to be a very difficult one.
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In the meanwhile, there's a new fire that has started, the Hughes fire, which is north of my area.
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It is, I think, about 18% contained.
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So they are making progress over there.
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But people really have to obey the evacuation orders and make sure that they and their families are safe.
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You mentioned the evacuation orders released from your office yesterday saying that you're demanding an independent investigation into the deadly evacuation order delays during the start of the Eaton fire.
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Explain.
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I'm very, very concerned because the evacuation orders did not reach western Altadena for many hours.
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And as a result, there were those that did not leave right away.
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And actually, all 17 of the deaths that occurred were in that area.
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So I want to know what happened, who's behind this, why were those evacuation orders delayed?
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It's a tremendous tragedy, and we cannot have this happen again.
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Delayed by how long?
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What do you know about the delays?
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It was several hours.
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Remember that most of the people evacuated within that first day.
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And the fire started on a Tuesday night at 6.30 p.m.
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Most people then were ordered to evacuate.
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That Wednesday, they woke up to this fire that was coming towards our home.
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And we're talking about several hours where they could have been evacuated and had their lives saved.
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What does recovery look like in your district?
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What do you, your constituents, need from Congress right now?
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Well, right now there is hazardous removal by Cal EPA.
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They are making progress.
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The next step will be debris removal.
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It'll be a big job.
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And then there will be the process of rebuilding, of getting insurance companies to be able to assess the damage and then provide funds for that.
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But it will not be enough.
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And the job is enormous.
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There have been estimates as high as $250 billion as far as the damage to both Palisades and the Eaton area.
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So we definitely need disaster aid.
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We need disaster aid without conditions, which has been the case for every disaster aid package in our nation's history.
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These wildfires don't have any political affiliation.
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They don't have any political party.
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And when America's, when Americans are in their most desperate time, when they are in great, great need of help, we need to be able to help them.
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And this will be a very, very important time for us to give that aid so that they can recover and that the economy can return to what it was before.
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On disaster aid, President Trump was asked about disaster aid by Sean Hannity in that Fox News interview that took place up on Capitol Hill.
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This is about 30 seconds from yesterday.
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I don't think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into there from the north to the south.
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This is a political thing.
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I don't know what it is.
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You know, they talk about the Delta smelt.
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It's a little tiny fish like this.
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They say it's an endangered species.
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Well, how is it endangered?
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No wonder it's endangered.
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It's not getting any water.
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That was Donald Trump in that interview with Sean Hannity.
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Your response, Congresswoman?
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Well, it is based on tremendous misinformation.