On the fourth day of L.A. County’s Red Flag Day windstorms, officials began to focus their attention on recovery efforts and fixing the response, as frustrations continued over apparently arbitrary alarms and power outages, insurance concerns and drone damage.  City, county and state officials shared their comments and reactions to the initial stages of recovery Friday at a news conference with first responders.  The biggest and most direct impact from the winds for most Santa Clarita Valley residents seemed to be a continued lack of electricity in their homes.  A Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter performs a water drop on the burning brush as they battle the Lidia Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Acton, Calif. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Powering down  While the Santa Clarita Valley hasn’t seen much in the way of fires relative to the more hard-hit areas of the county, Southern California Edison said wind damage to circuits, particularly in the east side of the SCV, could leave some without power through the weekend, according to Gabriela Ornelas, spokeswoman for SCE, in a phone interview Friday.  Multiple customers have called to express frustration over the planned outages. One reached out to The Signal on Friday because there was no helpful information online, which is where he said he kept being sent with his questions.  Paul McGuire, a Sand Canyon resident, said he was approaching 48 hours without power as of late Friday morning. More inexplicable to him was the scene near the Highway 14 exit he regularly uses at Sand Canyon: The north side of the freeway had power while the south did not.   “The other thing I would like to say about Edison is, you know, they provide and convey nothing but useless boilerplate information to their customers,” McGuire said, sharing a frustration that’s become a common refrain on social media during the recent power shutoffs. “And you know, they really show nothing but contempt for all of us, and it’s a monopoly. So, you know, we have no choice but to get our electricity from them.”  Ornelas said SCE officials only share information that’s online so they can focus their efforts on restoring power as soon as possible. However, she said that due to the wind damage, some areas may still be worked on as the power is restored.  “We understand that customers are maybe frustrated about their power and being affected by an outage,” Ornelas said. “We do want customers to know we’re working quickly to restore power as safely, as quickly as it’s safe for us to do, so it may be several days before we’re able to restore power.”  Two firemen observe the Lidia Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Acton, Calif. Katherine Quezada/The Signal E-notifications  Kevin McGowan, director of the Office of Emergency Management, began the 8 a.m. multiagency news conference by apologizing for false alarms that went out countywide Thursday evening calling on residents to be ready for a possible evacuation.   “There is an extreme amount of frustration, anger, fear with regards to the erroneous messages that have been being sent out through the wireless emergency alert system across L.A. County,” McGowan said at Thursday’s press conference at the county Hall of Administration on the windstorms and wildfires.  McGowan said the errors were not human-driven, but fixing them would be his No. 1 priority. He also said there was an online mapping website and mobile app people could check as a backup if they are concerned about a possible emergency.  The biggest concern for officials seemed to be people worried the county cried wolf one too many times with its electronic notices sent in error, one of which was quickly corrected with an alert telling users to ignore the previous alert.  “I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone,” he said, reiterating his frustration.  “I want the residents of the Los Angeles region to have faith in what we are doing 24 hours a day,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said Friday, in response to questions about whether people were losing faith. Speaking for all of the first responders on stage, she said everyone is doing everything they can to bring the situation under control.  L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the Santa Clarita Valley, which has largely been spared by this round of wildfires, and also includes areas that were significantly impacted by the Eaton and Lidia fires, among other incidents, called McGowan’s response unacceptable.   She said the problem has been described to her as errors that occurred when powered-down utilities came back online.  The alerts attached to some of the communication towers became frozen when power went out and automatically were sent, off-schedule, when the power returned, Barger said.  “The bottom line is, we are going to drill down,” she said, adding that she received a number of the extraneous alerts also.  “My question is, why can’t we turn it off?” Barger said of the errant messaging, “and the answers we’re getting are not satisfying and I’m not making any excuses.”  She didn’t like the idea of telling residents who might not have power that they need to go online to check the veracity of an emergency alert.  “If we’re going to tell people to evacuate,” she said, “we better make darn sure we’re targeting the right people.”  Insurance concerns  Barger said she asked Ricardo Lara, the state’s insurance commissioner, to speak briefly and address growing anxiety among homeowners, both those impacted and their neighbors.  Barger said the No. 1 question she was getting from residents as she spoke to her impacted constituents was, “‘How do I navigate the insurance process? And will I be able to get insured again?’”  Lara said his top priority is making sure Californians receive the insurance benefits they’re entitled to as soon as possible.   He ordered a retroactive withdrawal of any policy-cancellation notices that might have been sent out between Oct. 9 and Jan 7., a roughly 90-day period before the fires.  “Your insurance company should do the right thing and retain you as a valued policyholder,” he said.   Lara also said he ordered a moratorium on policy cancellations and non-renwals for up to one year as a way to help affected homeowners in the areas impacted by fires.  “This covers you even if your home wasn’t damaged or destroyed in the wildfire,” Lara said, adding residents of those areas can visit insurance.ca.gov and enter their ZIP code to see if they qualify.  Lara also said he was working on a plan to raise coverage limits, which are outdated and in need of change.   Patrick Yanez, a Tesoro del Valle resident, said Friday morning in a phone interview he didn’t think the message had been delivered to insurers yet, regarding Lara’s proclamation.   He said his carrier gave him a cancellation notice around the end of November. But when he heard Lara’s announcement, he was relieved, because his rate would be close to triple the previous one under a new policy.  But when he reached out Friday morning after hearing Lara, his insurer told them there was nothing they could do for him.  Aerial interference  One unexpected challenge mentioned Friday by L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone is the “drone incursion” that damaged one of the Super Scoopers the county leases from Canada each year to support its efforts.  A person flying a drone over the Palisades Fire burn area caused their craft to collide with the CL-415 aircraft, which quickly fills up from nearby reservoirs and then delivers about 1,600 gallons of water per drop during its firefighting flights.   “Quebec 1 sustained wing damage and remains grounded and out of service,” according to a post on X from L.A. County Fire. “There were no reported injuries.”   Damage to the plane’s wing means it will need to be repaired and nonoperational Friday, according to fire officials.  “Everyone should know: Flying a drone in the fire traffic area is not only dangerous but it’s also illegal,” Marrone said. “The most important thing to know is: If you fly a drone through one of these fire areas brush fire zones, all aerial operations will be shut down. And we certainly don’t want to have that happen.”   Using a program called Remote ID, which was announced Aug. 7, authorized drones must be registered, which provides them with a trackable ID number for safety and tracking purposes, according to the FAA website.  Marrone also said “our federal partners behind the scenes” are implementing procedures that will allow them to identify drones in fire areas and find out who the operator is.  Flying a drone in a firefight “is a federal crime and punishable by up to 12 months in prison or a fine of up to $75,000,” according to a statement from the department.  The post Emergency response still dominates county concerns  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.