A Tesla Cybertruck crashed into the sign marking the entrance to the fabled Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunday night, prompting Elon Musk to post about the incident on X, formerly Twitter.
The massive, stainless steel behemoth bonked into the sign around 11:45 p.m. Sunday after it was involved in a collision with another vehicle, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department.
“Cyberbeast is faster than a Porsche 911, but looks like a truck, so perhaps the valet wasn’t expecting so much acceleration,” Tesla founder Musk joked on X, the social media site he owns.
Musk was responding to a claim that went viral, suggesting that a Beverly Hills Hotel valet crashed the truck, which later turned out to be a joke by an X user.
The Beverly Hills Police Department did not have information Monday afternoon about injuries or damage resulting from the accident.
Video posted online showed the truck sustained significant damage to its front left wheel. The truck also damaged the poles holding up the sign as well as the pink sidewalk wall in front of it, according to images from the scene.
“There was not an employee or member of our valet team involved in the accident,” said Brittany Williams, the director of communications for the Dorchester Collection, which operates the hotel.
The agricultural community of El Centro in Imperial County had a rude midnight awakening: the force of a magnitude 4.8 earthquake and a lengthy series of aftershocks.
The earthquake struck around 12:36 a.m. Tuesday 2 miles northwest of El Centro, in an area just off the Salton Sea that has active faults, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Elizabeth Cochran.
The earthquake was followed by a magnitude 4.5 aftershock. In the 12 hours after that, more than 180 aftershocks of lower magnitude were recorded.
If the shaking wasn’t enough, some residents were roused by the alarm their phone received from the ShakeAlert app, which initially estimated that the temblor was stronger than it proved to be. “Pretty terrible to be woken up at midnight with a loud alert telling you to take [cover] (in multiple languages) for something we didn’t even feel,” @MattInformed said on X.com (formerly known as Twitter).
This sort of seismic tumult isn’t an uncommon occurrence in this region, however.
“In this particular area where [the earth’s] crust itself is hotter than average, we get these pretty active sequences where we see lots and lots of aftershocks,” Cochran said. When an earthquake sequence happens, she said, most of the aftershocks are at least one magnitude unit smaller than the first shake.
Residents close to the epicenter would have felt moderate shaking that “can be pretty frightening for folks who are close by,” Cochran said.
Nevertheless, little or no damage is expected from that level of shaking. No damage or injuries were reported in the hours after the quakes started.
During the last earthquake sequence in the area, in 2021, the main shock was a magnitude 5 temblor, Cochran said.
As soon as the floodwaters subside in Southern California, many tenants will start the daunting task of assessing what’s been damaged or lost in their rental homes or apartments.
As of late Monday, authorities just in Los Angeles County responded to more than 300 mudslides, with 35 homes or buildings damaged by debris flows, including five that were deemed unsafe to enter.
If you were given evacuation orders, do not return to your home until the order has been lifted by the local authorities or the city.
Once you’re able to safely return to your rental and assess the damage, there are two things you should know.
First, damage to the rental property is not your responsibility, it’s the landlord’s. Getting your landlord to fix the damage, though, can be a challenge.
“Unfortunately, too much of this is a burden of the tenant to hold the landlord accountable,” said Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival.
Second, although a renters insurance policy can help under certain circumstances, it will not cover flood damage to your personal property.
Renters insurance reimburses you for damage to your belongings, including losses caused by some — but not all — natural disasters. The natural disasters that are not covered by rental insurance include floods, mudflows, sinkholes and earthquakes.
Janet Ruiz, communications director for the Insurance Information Institute, said flood damage is defined as losses caused by water that rises from the ground up. However, if water comes into your home from above — for example, when wind damages the roof or a window and rain cascades in — there is a possibility of coverage.
A water pipe that bursts and floods your dwelling is the other type of water damage that is covered by a renter’s policy, Ruiz said.
If your furniture, clothes, and computer are floating in a pool of floodwater in your living room, chances are good that you’ll have to pay out of pocket to replace them.
Your renters policy may still come in handy if you’re forced to move by the storms. Depending on the extent of the damage, a dwelling can be deemed uninhabitable. Your insurance might be able to cover the costs associated with temporary relocation; contact your insurance provider to find out.
Ruiz said most policies will pay for your additional living expenses when you are displaced from your home by a covered loss (such as damage caused by the wind) and need temporary shelter. Keep all your receipts to document your expenditures.
How to get your landlord to make repairs
Landlords have the responsibility to meet the habitability requirement for rental properties, meaning every rental unit must be maintained in a safe living condition. Part of the requirement is to provide “effective waterproofing and weather protection to the roof and exterior walls, including unbroken windows and doors.”
When a storm has damaged a rental — for example, high winds knock down a tree that lands and caves in a roof or rain has caused a roof leak — the landlord must fix it. State law also requires landlords to make sure their properties are free of dampness and visible mold.
Because of the legal requirements, it may be easy to get your landlord to fix flood damage right away. But most Californians don’t carry flood insurance, so the costs faced by your landlord could deter a speedy response.
Also, when a storm of this magnitude barrels through the state, contractors are usually overwhelmed with requests for repairs. A landlord who is trying in good faith to fix a rental might be stuck waiting until they can get a professional to do the work.
“Unfortunately,” Gross said, “there are too many [situations] where it’s not [repaired quickly] and of course it also depends on the severity of the situation.”
If a landlord doesn’t repair the damage in a reasonable time frame, a renter in the city of Los Angeles can file a complaint with the city’s housing department. This will prompt a visit by a code enforcement officer.
Landlords are also responsible when damage to the rental causes harm to the renter’s personal property. If your landlord won’t comply with your request for repairs, replacement or reimbursement, that can be a case for small claims court as well.
Gross doesn’t advise withholding your rent to try to get the landlord to fix damage to your rental, although you have that option. Doing so, Gross said, could lead the landlord to seek to evict you.
The Coalition for Economic Survival is one of several local organizations that can help renters understand their rights and advise them what can be done if a prickly landlord isn’t helpful. Here’s a list of some of the others.
Tenants Together is a statewide coalition of local tenant organizations, that offers resources and a directory to find an organization near you.
Basta, which has offices in Los Angeles and Long Beach, helps residents with habitability problems, among other services.
The Housing Rights Center serves Los Angeles County and has a housing rights hotline — 800-477-5977 — available from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Flood damage to cars, including flooding from a storm surge, is covered if you have “comprehensive coverage,” also known as “other than collision” coverage, as part of your auto insurance. Comprehensive coverage is optional with a standard auto policy.
Ruiz said most people who took out a car loan to buy their vehicle will have comprehensive coverage because loan companies require it.
Some people with older cars do not elect to have the coverage, however. That’s because, “at the end of the day, you only get the value of the vehicle,” she said.
What else can renters with flood damage do?
You might not be able to get reimbursed for your lost items at the moment, but you can deduct the amount you lost on your state and federal tax returns.
To help in the future, renters can apply for flood insurance to protect their personal belongings through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance program. For renters, the program covers up to $100,000 in damage to the contents of a unit.
The National Flood Insurance Program is available to anyone living in one of the 24,000 participating U.S. communities or in a flood-prone area. You can see whether your community is part of the program by checking the “community status report” on the program website.
If your community is in the program, you can obtain a flood policy from a participating insurer. The National Flood Insurance program offers a list on its website.
The policy won’t go into effect, however, until 30 days after it’s purchased.
You can also reach out to private insurers to see if they offer their own version of flood insurance. But there aren’t many that do, Ruiz said, so your best bet is to stick with the National Flood Insurance Program.
Staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.
In a matter of minutes Monday morning, communities across southeastern San Diego were transformed into disaster zones: Families fled their homes in chest-deep floodwaters; vehicles were swept downstream as roads became rivers; residents cried for help from their rooftops.
A deluge of rainfall from what city officials are calling a “thousand-year storm” forced hundreds of rescues, flooded an untold number of homes and businesses and caused millions of dollars in estimated damage. The floodwaters had mostly receded by Tuesday afternoon, revealing the devastating aftermath of California’s latest climate emergency — and leaving hundreds without housing and transportation, and with ruined valuables and personal belongings.
“The damage and the impact was absolutely devastating,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a Tuesday news conference. “Entire lives changed in just a few minutes.”
“The amount of water that we saw yesterday would have overwhelmed any city drainage system,” he said. “This dumping of rainwater is unprecedented in most San Diegans’ lifetimes. None of us alive have seen anything quite like this.”
More than 4 inches of rain fell in several areas in and around San Diego on Monday — much of it in just a few hours — a historic rainfall event, according to Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. The airport recorded 2.73 inches, more than its typical total for the entire month of January.
“That is not only the wettest January day on record, but it’s the fourth-wettest day of any calendar day” for San Diego, Adams said. Many areas saw rainfall rates well above three-quarters of an inch per hour. Over half an inch per hour can easily cause dangerous flash flooding.
“It’s a ton,” Adams said. “Pretty much anywhere in the country that receives 3 to 4 inches in a three- to four-hour time period is going to see flooding.”
Parts of San Diego were completely inundated.
The city’s southeastern neighborhoods, including Southcrest, Mountain View, Encanto, Logan Heights and San Ysidro, saw some of the worst damage.
Gloria said city and county leaders are focused on recovery. Both the city and county declared a local emergency. The mayor estimated, conservatively, that the storm caused $6 million in damage, but officials say assessments are far from complete.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday proclaimed a state of emergency for San Diego and Ventura counties, both of which have been walloped by wet winter storms. At the end of December, torrential downpours in and around Oxnard caused similar damage. During that event, Oxnard saw rainfall rates of 3 inches an hour, one of the heaviest downpours ever recorded in the area.
Homeowner Maria Ramirez walks through her flood-damaged home in San Diego.
(Denis Poroy / Associated Press)
The worry now is that the number of people displaced in San Diego could continue to grow in the coming days. Though no official figure was provided Tuesday, city leaders said they estimated hundreds had been forced from their homes, at least temporarily.
“What was generally assumed to be the impact yesterday … was probably an underestimate,” said San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, whose district includes some of the communities that saw the worst of the flooding. He said he visited many of those residents early Tuesday, touring a whole apartment complex that took on water, likely displacing dozens of families.
The American Red Cross is operating two emergency shelters at Lincoln High School and Bostonia Recreation Center. As of Tuesday, the nonprofit said 18 households — more than 50 people — had registered to stay. But with so many people probably still returning home after fleeing, Elo-Rivera said he expected those numbers to rise. City and county officials are asking residents to fill out a voluntary survey about flood damage.
“I think it’s going to take a little bit more time to realize the extent of the damage,” Elo-Rivera said.
On Monday afternoon, Manuel Deleon was unexpectedly called back to the office during his shift driving a tow truck — only to find the office flooded. Roaring water had swept away his personal vehicle.
“The water was out of control,” said Deleon, 47. “My car slipped with the mud and went right into [a nearby] ditch and it was just fully submerged.”
Deleon, whose 2007 BMW was one of dozens of cars carried away in the flash floods, said he wasn’t sure how he’d get to work in the coming days. He attempted to clean the soggy and caked-in mud from the interior, but that was a lost cause.
“This rain took everybody by surprise,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said his crews made at least 150 rescues Monday, in addition to 30 animal rescues.
“We literally saw over 100 rescues in the Southcrest neighborhood alone,” Stowell said.
“Luckily we saw very few injuries and no fatalities,“ Stowell said, calling that feat “remarkable” given the extent of the emergency.
More than 1,000 people remained without power Tuesday, after widespread outages Monday, according to the San Diego Gas & Electric outage map.
Although much of San Diego was under a flood watch all day Monday, city officials said they were not prepared for the extent — and speed — of what came down.
“Nobody anticipated the severity of the storm,” Gloria said. “We got a lot more rain than [what was predicted] in a much shorter amount of time.”
He said he planned to meet with the National Weather Service to discuss the disparity between forecasts and what occurred but emphasized that his teams were currently focused on recovery.
Adams said the circumstances Monday ended up being a perfect storm for rare, heavy rainfall in San Diego: extreme atmospheric moisture and a storm path over its downtown — which forecasters warned residents about as soon as possible, she said.
Just after 8 a.m. Monday, the agency issued a flash flood warning for a stretch of coastal communities just south of Orange County, including Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista. Soon after, a larger stretch of southwestern California was placed under a flash flood warning.
Marlene Sanchez-Barriento salvages items behind her San Diego home, which was damaged by flooding.
(Denis Poroy / Associated Press)
“We used pretty intense warnings,” Adams said. “We tried to really heighten the message … [that] this is a really dangerous situation that doesn’t happen in San Diego proper that often.”
The day before the storm, the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion warned that the ground, already saturated from storms over the weekend, could heighten flood concerns. But forecasters said it was still hard to predict how much rain would fall, and where.
By Monday morning, Adams said the situation developed rapidly, with that intense atmospheric moisture — what she called 250% to 350% of normal — and the direct storm path aligning.
That “really lead to torrential rainfall across the county, but especially focused on downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods,” Adams said.
City officials said these extreme circumstances are likely to become a new normal requiring more preparation, coordination and investment.
“This is called climate change. It is real, it is happening,” Gloria said, “and we experienced it yesterday in San Diego.”
Officials agreed that the city’s outdated stormwater drainage system, for which $2 billion of necessary work hasn’t been budgeted, didn’t help.
Elo-Rivera said he would like to see those much-needed funds allocated, and in an equitable way — noting that many of the communities affected most were working-class, with a majority of Latino and Black residents.
These communities “have long been under-invested in and divested in and ignored by the city,” he said. “Public investment in climate resiliency is incredibly important … [especially] prioritizing the communities that have been left behind and are most likely to be devastated by events like yesterday.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been sued by a man who claims he was physically assaulted by a bodyguard for the boxing legend after trying to film Mayweather at a downtown Los Angeles restaurant nearly two years ago.
In a complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Eduardo Andres Torres Martinez alleges that he spotted Mayweather at the Yard House at L.A. Live on Feb. 10, 2022, and began recording video of the undefeated fighter with his cellphone.
According to the lawsuit, Mayweather, 46, noticed Torres Martinez’s activity, and Mayweather and/or a member of his team “signaled” toward his bodyguards.
“At the behest, request, command, demand and/or prompting of the Mayweather Money Team,” the complaint states, a bodyguard approached Torres Martinez and struck him, which knocked him to the ground.
The bodyguard then began “wrestling with Plaintiff in an attempt to confiscate Plaintiff s cell phone, causing further injuries and damages to Plaintiff,” the filing states, adding “by reason of the aforementioned acts, Plaintiff was placed in great fear for his life, health and safety.”
The lawsuit names Mayweather, the Money Team LLC and the Yard House as defendants, with causes of action that include assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, general negligence and negligent hiring training and supervision.
Torres Martinez is seeking unspecified “general damages for past, present and future pain, distress, anguish and suffering, including physical and mental pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, and impairment of the quality of life,” as well as other damages, the lawsuit states.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, police responded to a radio call of a battery/assault on that date and at that location, but no report was taken.
The Times was unable to reach Mayweather, who has denied that any such incident occurred. Torres Martinez’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message from The Times.
A federal agency wants changes in how container ships are anchored off Southern California as well as new safety measures for vessels near offshore pipelines to help prevent or minimize ruptures like the one that spilled 25,000 gallons of crude oil off Huntington Beach.
The 2021 spill caused damage to beaches and wetlands and killed scores of fish and birds.
After a sweeping, two-year review, the National Transportation Safety Board released findings Tuesday that the Orange County spill was a direct result of container ships anchoring in close proximity to offshore pipelines. The board called for the U.S. Coast Guard to increase the buffer between anchored ships and pipelines.
The catastrophe also could have been avoided with improved communication and planning between those monitoring the massive container ships in Southern California’s ports and the operators of the pipelines, investigators found.
The probe into the major oil spill off Huntington Beach confirmed initial findings that indicated a months-earlier anchor strike caused the undersea pipeline to burst, sending at least 25,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific. The investigation found no other possible cause of the damage, officials said at an almost four-hour NTSB meeting Tuesday.
NTSB investigators specifically blamed the “proximity of established anchorage positions to the pipeline,” which made it difficult for crews to prevent the anchors of two container ships from striking the pipeline during stormy weather in January 2021.
Though two ships — the MSC Danit and Cosco Beijing — struck the pipeline with their anchors, investigators determined the former caused the “initiating event” that led to the spill.
NTSB officials said that, given the ships’ locations, there was not sufficient time to weigh anchor or redirect the vessels when bad weather struck. This finding led the board to recommend that the U.S. Coast Guard revamp its plan governing the locations of ships anchored off Southern California to provide a greater margin of error among pipelines.
“Anchorages need to be designed to account for the size of vessels using them and the time it takes for these ships’ crews to react when anchor dragging occurs,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.
In the 2021 incident off Huntington Beach, the initial contact from the anchor caused “progressive cracks” in Houston-based Amplify Energy’s 17.3-mile underwater pipeline, which eventually burst in October, almost nine months later. The two giant ships had been anchored outside the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports as vessels stacked up during the COVID-era supply chain backups, officials said.
The probe found two other factors also contributed to the spill: When the ships dragged their anchors, the pipeline operators were never notified — a step that officials noted is not yet required. Also, months later, the operators’ response to leak alarms was significantly delayed.
Based on those findings, board members urged the Coast Guard to implement new alarms for its marine traffic monitors who stand watch over busy waterways, to signal when anchors might come close to pipelines in any U.S. waterway, as well as to put in place processes for notifying pipeline operators when such contact may have occurred.
Although the NTSB does not have regulatory or enforcement power, its recommendations carry weight.
Investigators also found pipeline operators involved in the 2021 spill had “insufficient training,” which contributed to a 14-hour delay in halting the pipeline’s operation after the first alarm sounded to indicate a possible leak — confirming prior reports of a delayed response.
“It took eight total leak alarms before controllers shut down and isolated the line,” the NTSB said in a statement. “Had the San Pedro Bay Pipeline controllers responded in accordance with company procedures and shut down and isolated the line at the first alarm, it would have significantly reduced the volume of crude oil released and the resulting environmental damage.”
The NTSB board also is seeking a federal audit of the company operating the pipeline, a subsidiary of Amplify Energy. Although the report didn’t find any indication that drugs were a factor in the spill, it said operators were not given drug or alcohol tests after the spill — as regulations require — so it’s impossible to know for sure.
Amplify Energy did not immediately respond Tuesday to questions about the findings or recommendations.
“Although there were no human injuries, there most certainly was injury to the environment and to the wildlife and their habitats,” Homendy said Tuesday. She said the estimated damage and cleanup costs from the spill were $160 million, and a total of 116 dead birds were recovered.
Pinpointing fault in the spill before these findings created a string of complicated lawsuits, court cases and settlements. It wasn’t immediately clear if any would be affected by the federal investigation.
The companies behind the two container ships agreed earlier this year to pay Amplify Energy almost $100 million.
The 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles was shut down indefinitely in both directions early Saturday after two wooden pallet yards caught fire, damaging an overpass and destroying several vehicles, including a fire truck, authorities said.
Both westbound and eastbound lanes of the heavily traveled freeway are closed between Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue, while structural engineers assess the damage, said Lauren Wonder, a CalTrans spokeswoman.
“As of now, the freeway is shut down indefinitely,” Wonder said. “I would encourage people to avoid this area between the East L.A. interchange and Alameda Street.”
The fire was reported shortly after midnight in the 1700 block of East 14 Street after a pallet yard under the freeway caught fire and spread to a second pallet yard nearby.
The massive fire prompted Californai Highway Patrol to issue a SigAlert and closed the freeway in both directions. Traffic on the eastbound lanes was being diverted at Santa Fe Avenue while traffic on the westbound lanes was being diverted at Alameda Street.
Los Angeles fire officials said firefighters from 26 companies and one helicopter responded to the scene and prevented the fire spreading into nearby commercial buildings. Heavy equipment operators were also used to move debris around and allow firefighters to douse small pockets of fire.
Firefighters douse the still smoldering massive pallet fire that gutted Fire Engine 17, right, which became stuck under the 10 Freeway overpass at 1700 block of East 14th Street on Saturday in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also assisted by boosting water pressure in the area to compensate for the high volume needed.
Fire officials said the fire forced several homeless people to evacuate the area but vehicles parked under or near the freeway were damaged or destroyed. Officials said one of those vehicle was a fire engine.
The fire was extinguished as of 10 a.m. but firefighters continue to mop up the area. Caltrans officials also remained on the scene.
Wonder said hazmat teams are waiting on firefighters to finish mopping up the area and will head in to ensure that it’s safe for structural engineers to go in and assess the extent of the damage to the freeway.
“We see what we call ‘concrete spalling,’ which is chips of concrete that come off but we won’t know the extent of the damage until the structural engineers can go in and see if the rebar was burned or not,” she said. “This is still developing.”
LAWRENCE, Kan. (WIBW) – One turkey in Douglas County has been pardoned from a fowl situation.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister said on Wednesday, Nov. 23, that he pardoned one local turkey from criminal damage charges racked up earlier in the month.
Sheriff Armbrister indicated that on Nov. 10, Tom the Turkey broke through a resident’s window, which caused the damage. Thanks to the quick thinking and good work of Master Deputy Dunkle and Deputy Bonner, he said Tom was safely removed from a fowl situation.
Armbrister noted that Tom was set free shortly after.
SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) – Thousands remain without power after strong winds came through mid-Michigan.
Many schools in the TV5 viewing area are closed today because they are without power. You can find the school closings here.
Over the weekend, some wind gusts were over 65 mph.
Consumers Energy announced Monday morning, crews have restored power to 70 percent of customers impacted by the storms, and with favorable weather, they hope restoration efforts will continue.
“We’ve made good progress overnight and have turned the lights back on for approximately 93,000 customers that were impacted by this weekend’s severe weather,” said Scott McIntosh, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “We know how frustrating power outages can be, but our customers should know that our team is committed to finishing our work as quickly and as safely as possible. We are grateful for our customers’ continued patience and cooperation.”
More than 140,000 Consumers Energy customers were impacting by the damaging weather.
Customers can report an outage or check the status of an outage by visiting this link,.
Consumers recommends residents stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, and keep children and pets away.
Some other safety tips include:
Be alert to crews working along roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
Call 2-1-1 if you are looking for help connecting to resources that offer assistance in your community. 2-1-1 is a free statewide service.
Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement, enclosed patio or near any air intakes. Doing so could cause a generator to produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and deadly gas. Read more guidance on safe generator use here.
Consumers Energy will trim or remove trees interfering with electric restoration activities. Once safe to do so, clean-up of debris from tree trimming or removal during a storm emergency is the responsibility of individual property owners.
In some cases, the mast that holds the electric service wires to a home or business may have been damaged or torn away. Crews will reconnect the wires to a home, but only a licensed electrician can repair or replace a mast or a cable.
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