Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Don’t Let Your Guard Down': Forecasters Fear Extreme Wind Will Bring New Level Of Fire Danger To Californians
Los Angeles Times: 'Extreme Red Flag' Winds In L.A. Region Are Dangerous, Unpredictable
Even after several years of devastating wind-driven fires in Southern California, forecasters fear that the next two days could bring new levels of danger. “Extreme” fire weather began in the Los Angeles area at 11 p.m. Tuesday and was expected to persist for 30 hours, bringing isolated gusts of up to 80 mph. It’s an unusually long Santa Ana wind condition, and fire weather of this kind hasn’t been seen in Southern California since October 2007, when similar conditions helped unleash the sixth most destructive fire in California history. (Serna and Lin, 10/30)
The New York Times: Despair For Many And Silver Linings For Some In California Wildfires
After a wildfire razed his spacious suburban home in the Sonoma hills two years ago, Pete Parkinson set out to rebuild. This time it would be an even better one. He reoriented the house toward vistas of a nearby mountain and designed a large kitchen with hickory floors and 16-foot windows under vaulted ceilings. “We are now living the silver lining,” said Mr. Parkinson, a retired civil servant who moved into his new home 10 days ago. “It is a beautiful, brand-new home.” (Fuller, Turkewitz and Del Real, 10/29)
The Washington Post: PG&E Cut Off Power To Millions Of Californians. Its Equipment Is Still Suspected Of Sparking Fires.
Investigators are looking into whether fires ravaging Northern California may have been sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment, deepening skepticism around the utility’s controversial plan to prevent fires in the region by shutting off power to millions of residents — and raising panic among the bankrupt company’s investors. PG&E told regulators last week that equipment on one of its transmission towers broke near the ignition point of the Kincade Fire, a blaze that has destroyed more than 120 structures and burned 75,415 acres of Sonoma County since last Wednesday, making it the state’s biggest fire this year. (MacMillan and Siddiqui, 10/29)
Los Angeles Times: How Parents And Teachers Can Calm Kids’ Getty Fire Anxiety
During this Santa Ana wind season, 12-year-old Nicholas Ladesich tends to go to bed worrying about what might burn overnight. He often has dreams of waking up in his old house that burned down in the Woolsey fire last year. But he awakens instead in the living room of the one-bedroom guest house he shares with his brother and parents. He demands that his mom turn on the news to monitor possible fires while his 15-year-old brother Lucas uses an app to check the strength and direction of winds. (Kohli and Agrawal, 10/29)
Marketplace: Homeowners Struggle To Find Insurance As Wildfires Increase
As wildfires have become more frequent and more devastating, some Californians are having a harder time finding homeowners insurance — or paying more for it. According to the California Department of Insurance, areas affected by wildfires in 2015 and 2017 saw a 10% increase in policies dropped by insurers last year. That doesn’t include the impact from last year’s Camp fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise. (Scott, 10/29)
San Francisco Chronicle: VA Chief To Gavin Newsom: Do Something About PG&E Outages
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s widespread planned blackouts could create “significant life-threatening issues” for veterans with medical problems, the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to resolve the situation. ...PG&E began cutting off power to customers Tuesday, the fourth time this month it has done so. The company said nearly 600,000 residences and businesses in Northern and Central California could lose power into Wednesday. (Koseff, 10/29)
California Healthline: California Fires Illuminate Trauma And Resilience
Dorothy Hammack had planned to wash her thick, dark hair in the kitchen sink Friday morning. She couldn’t yet shower, due to the incision on her breast from a biopsy a few days before. Her doctor had already called to let her know the results: She had breast cancer. She was supposed to be researching treatment options and organizing doctor appointments. Instead, Hammack, 79, was standing in her pajamas in the parking lot of a makeshift evacuation center in Santa Rosa, the urban center of Sonoma County’s celebrated wine country. (Barry-Jester, 10/29)
California Healthline: California Nursing Home Residents Told To Find New Homes
Some of California’s most vulnerable nursing home residents, many of whom have nowhere else to go, are receiving letters from their health care plans saying they are no longer eligible for long-term care. In one notable example, three dozen nursing home residents in San Luis Obispo County were informed on the same day that their Medi-Cal managed-care plan was cutting off payment for nursing home care, said Karen Jones, the county’s long-term care ombudsman. (Wiener, 10/29)
