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    Fire in Oakland Hills Prompts Evacuations Under Gusty Conditions

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    Firefighters in Northern California were responding to a blaze that burned two homes and 15 acres.A brush fire erupted in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, forcing the evacuation of hillside neighborhoods and the brief closure of a major highway as high winds threatened to spread the blaze.The five-alarm fire, which officials have named the Keller fire, had burned about 15 acres and damaged two homes in an Oakland Hills area, the Oakland Fire Department said. It came one day before the 33rd anniversary of the 1991 Tunnel fire, which killed 25 people and destroyed 3,000 homes several miles north of the current blaze.More than two hours after the fire was first reported, officials began to express confidence that they were getting a handle on the situation. There were no reports of injuries, and Oakland Fire Department officials said that the forward progress of the wind-driven fire had been stopped.Images shared by fire officials showed aircraft flying through billowing smoke, dousing the hillside below as a fire engine fixed its hose on a home.“If air resources don’t get here as quickly as they did, we might have a different report right now,” Damon Covington, the Oakland fire chief, said at a news conference.The area has some of the East Bay’s most desirable homes, with those near the top of the Oakland Hills peering over the San Francisco Bay with views of city skylines. But the 1991 blaze also looms in the memories of longtime residents as a deadly threat, especially in an era of climate change that has included some of the most destructive wildfires in California history.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Tallahassee, Residents Worry About a Defining City Feature: Its Trees

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      Tallahassee, Fla., with its towering oaks, stately pines and shaded streets, faces a severe threat to its iconic canopy of trees as Helene approaches.The state’s capital, Tallahassee has long prioritized protecting its trees, which cover more than half the city and are a cherished part of its identity. Its famous canopy roads, shaded by moss-draped live oaks, sweet gums and hickories are a defining feature.Among the city’s notable trees is the Lichgate Oak, an ancient tree that has become a natural landmark. The city is also believed to be the home of two “Moon Trees” — a sycamore and a loblolly pine — grown from seeds taken into space during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. However, the very trees that shape Tallahassee’s character could become a hazard during the storm. A city report on its urban forest warns that much of the city’s trees are short-lived and have wood that is prone to breakage under stress, making them particularly vulnerable to strong winds. Helene could test this vulnerability. Though Tallahassee is located at least 30 miles inland, the city is under a rare hurricane warning. Forecasters have warned that the storm could bring gusts of up to 75 miles per hour, and potentially stronger winds exceeding 110 m.p.h. The city has never before recorded sustaining hurricane-force winds.Brenda Geddes, 60, a longtime Tallahassee resident who was stocking up at a Walmart on Wednesday in advance of the storm, said of the trees, “When it’s a storm like this, you can only do so much.” In past hurricanes, the city has largely been protected from strong winds because of its geography, but storms have still caused significant damage outside the city.Donna Staab, 67, who lives about an hour and a half southeast of Tallahassee in Keaton Beach, recalled how Hurricane Idalia last year felled over a dozen trees on her neighbor’s property and a few on her own. The sound of wood chippers became a familiar backdrop.“You could hear it for weeks afterward,” Ms. Staab said.The fear of similar destruction is weighing on Tallahassee residents such as Natasha Sutherland, 39, who, along with her husband, decided to head to Alabama for safety on Wednesday. As she drove north, she became emotional while taking in the view of the city’s overhanging trees and her favorite places.“I started crying a little bit,” she said, as a thought occurred to her: “‘Gosh, this might be the last time I see it like this ever again.’” More

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      In Hawaii, a Sense of Alertness Without Panic Ahead of Tropical Storm Hone

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      Although the storm is not expected to pass directly over the Big Island, forecasters warned of threats including flooding and damaging winds.Debbie Arita, an office manager at a supermarket in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, took stock of the conditions. Tropical Storm Hone was approaching the region, but the scene on Friday was far from chaotic — no frantic rush for supplies, no desperate boarding up of windows.To Ms. Arita, who said she has been through her fair share of hurricanes and tsunamis, the prevailing mood seemed to be alertness without anxiousness.“There’s no sense of panic here,” she said.Hone (pronounced ho-NAY) is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Hawaii as it passes near or south of the Big Island late Saturday into early Sunday. Forecasters have warned of the potential for damaging winds, life-threatening surf and flash floods.Officials and residents largely said they were preparing, but not with alarm. While a landfall of a named storm on Hawaii is rare, storms frequently come close enough to affect the islands’ weather. Mitch Roth, the mayor of Hawaii County, which covers the Big Island, wants residents to remain watchful. “We want people to be prepared for any kind of hazard,” Mr. Roth said. In August 2018, Hurricane Lane drenched the Big Island with 58 inches of rainfall, damaged over 100 buildings and killed one person — despite the eye of the storm passing over 100 miles south of the state.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Severe Weather Expected to Bring Tornadoes and Flooding to Great Plains

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      Forecasters on Saturday said that “dangerous supercell thunderstorms” were possible that could produce strong tornadoes.The threat of tornadoes loomed across parts of the Central U.S. as warnings were posted in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas amid severe thunderstorms and high winds throughout the Great Plains on Saturday.The severe weather followed a day in which tornadoes tore through parts of Nebraska and Iowa, leveling dozens of homes on Friday.Tornadoes Friday and SaturdayLocations of tornado sightings or damage reported by trained spotters. More

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      Power Shut Off to 55,000 Colorado Customers to Prevent Wildfires Amid High Winds

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      Xcel Energy said the outage would affect parts of six counties and last until at least noon on Sunday. Winds could reach 100 miles per hour.A power company in Colorado announced on Saturday that it was cutting power to roughly 55,000 customers over wildfire concerns as powerful winds, some as high as 100 miles per hour, battered the state.The company, Xcel Energy, said in a statement that it “made the decision to proactively de-energize lines,” which would affect customers primarily in Boulder County and small parts of Broomfield, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer counties.The shut-off was expected to start at 3 p.m. local time and last until at least noon on Sunday. The company said that “outages are likely to persist beyond that time frame because crews must physically inspect the power lines.”“Temporarily shutting power off is intended to prevent our electric system from becoming the source of a wildfire ignition,” the company said.The National Weather Service in Boulder, Colo., said on social media that winds are expected to increase through the afternoon and evening, with the strongest winds coming between 6 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. on Sunday.Areas in and near the foothills are expected to experience gusts from 80 to 100 m.p.h. Other areas could experience gusts of 55 to 70 m.p.h.The Storm Prediction Center warned that the “potential for rapid spread of any new fires that develop” was high, and that “extremely critical fire weather is expected across portions of southeast Colorado into the Oklahoma Panhandle and southwestern Kansas.”Parts of five states, including Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, were under fire danger alerts, the center said.More than 77,000 people were in an area deemed “extreme,” the highest fire risk, while more than 2.9 million people were in areas deemed “critical.”A part of Interstate 70 was shut down in Kansas because of high winds, low visibility and crashes that were blocking the highway, the state’s Department of Transportation said on social media.Power failures, broken tree limbs and blowing dust are all expected because of the winds, forecasters said.People in areas affected by the high winds should “avoid any activity that may produce a spark,” and they should remain indoors if possible, the National Weather Service said.Xcel Energy said that “turning off customers’ power is not something we take lightly,” noting that it is “a last-resort step that can prove to be a lifesaving measure.”“Customers who use medical equipment that relies on electrical service should take steps to prepare for extended outages,” the company said.The South Metro Fire Rescue, which serves approximately 300 square miles of the south metro Denver area, said those who depend on oxygen tanks “should be prepared with enough spare bottles to last through Sunday, or consider staying with family, friends or in a hotel outside of the planned outage area.”It also advised against using outdoor stoves indoors for heating or cooking.“If using a generator, keep it outside in a well-ventilated area away from windows,” it said. More

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      California Faces Heavy Rain and Flooding From Coastal Storm

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      Los Angeles had received one to two inches of rain as of Saturday morning. Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming were also expected to get significant precipitation this weekend.An unseasonably cold and vigorous storm system was cutting through the southwestern Pacific Coast this weekend, bringing rain, flash flooding and snow to parts of California and other states, forecasters said.The National Weather Service in San Diego had issued a flash flood warning on Saturday morning, cautioning the public about potential flooding in the southwestern part of the state.The storm was expected to continue moving along the coast and, eventually, inland.“This storm is going to have an impact all the way across the country, but right now the storm center is off the California coast,” said Bob Smerbeck, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. “There’s going to be some flooding issues, mudslides and debris. People should keep their guard up.”The storm was coming off the coast of California and was expected to shift south and eastward on Saturday or Sunday, creating the risk of flash flooding in Southern California, said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md.Los Angeles had received one to two inches of rain as of Saturday morning, and in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, the rainfall amounts were two to four inches, Ms. Santorelli said.The Transverse Ranges and Sierra Nevada could get heavy snowfall, Ms. Santorelli said. Since this was a fairly cold system, significant snowfall was expected above 6,000 feet, with one to three feet of accumulation, and higher amounts possible above 7,500 feet.Windy conditions were expected to continue, including gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour above 5,000 feet through Saturday morning, the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service wrote on Saturday.Strong winds, combined with the heavy snow, could produce short-term blizzard conditions in the mountain areas, forecasters said. Winter storm warnings were in effect for most of the mountains through Sunday evening.California is expected to dry out by Monday, Mr. Smerbeck said, but the storm will continue to move into Arizona over the weekend. Western Arizona was expected to experience heavy rain overnight on Saturday and into Sunday.Arizona was under a wind advisory from noon until 10 p.m. Saturday. The south-central and southwestern portions of Arizona could get a quarter of an inch of rain, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix.The storm was also expected to bring significant precipitation to parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. As of Saturday, AccuWeather was forecasting a foot of snow in Flagstaff, Ariz. More

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      Storm Updates: California Braces for Heavy Rains and Flooding

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      Millions of people in California were under a flood watch as an atmospheric river was expected to engulf much of the state in heavy rains on Sunday, forecasters said.The West Coast braced for more flooding on Sunday as heavy rains from an atmospheric river were forecast to spread over California starting on Sunday, in the latest series of storms to pound the state this month.A milder storm moved over California’s northern and central coast on Saturday night, kicking off the period of rain for the nation’s most populous state. Forecasters said it was a precursor to a more powerful system on Sunday that was expected to bring the bulk of the precipitation.“Sunday night and Monday alone, we’re looking at areas three to six inches of rain down the coast south of the Bay Area to Santa Barbara,” said Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service.More than 37 million people nationwide were under a flood watch on Sunday. Most were in California, where the watch was in effect through Wednesday, according to the Weather Service.Atmospheric river is the name given to the narrow bands of moisture blown over the West Coast by winds in the Pacific. They are the cause of California’s heaviest rains and floods.“The weather conditions will be drastically different from Sunday morning to Sunday night,” the Weather Service said on Sunday. “A strong storm will arrive today. Rain will begin around midday and will be heavy through the night. Moderate to major impacts from this storm will last into Monday with heavy rain, strong winds, high surf, thunderstorms and flooding potential.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More