good to be with you, i'm katy tur from just absolute and utter destruction here in the pacific palisades. at this hour, five wildfires are still burning across los angeles county. the largest of them is the palisades fire, and it is 0% contained. same goes for the eaton fire. at least five people have died, all of them at that eaton fire. that's affecting pasadena and altadena, just east of where we are. about an hour east of where we are. we also saw a fire break out in the hollywood hills overnight.

one that firefighters did seem to be able to get control over, and while the winds right now are dying down, enough to do some aerial fire fighting if you've got a good ear, you can hear the sound of large airplanes, super scoopers, and other planes up in the air right now. they are back up and they are able to pour water on the fires again. the wind, though, and the wind is picking up. while it's not picking up right now, excuse me, it is expected to pick up tomorrow. the wind advisory has been extended until tomorrow, which means everything that hasn't yet burned is still under threat. this has been a really emotional experience coming back here to the pacific palisades. especially walking into a community that i grew up in, born and raised in, and to find that there's nothing left. we're talking a lot about the fires that are still raging and, again, the palisades fire is still 0% contained.

there are still hot spots in this community, still fires raging throughout the hillside. firefighters are extraordinarily worried about if the winds start to pick up again as they are expected to do. but, again, looking around here, even if the fires were able to make it to much of the palisades, there would be nothing left to burn. a little bit earlier, i was able to do a bit of a walk warned with my colleague, jacob soboroff, who also grew up here, going back to some of the places that we knew well, including my first childhood home. watch. childhood home watch. >> was that your front door? >> yeah, and this was the living room. we put a christmas tree in this corner right here. and behind that was a bathroom that my dad set up a darkroom for me in because i loved photography, and he loved it, and he wanted to teach me how to

take pictures and how to develop them. we used to have barbecues back here. there was a little -- we had a little koi pond weirdly in the backyard. i think they changed a little bit of the structure. when i was a kid, i would get really mad when my parents didn't let me have my way. shock. >> what a surprise. >> at one point, this seems so much smaller, i hid in this -- i hid right here. must have been behind something, for hours. >> there were bushes here or something. >> my parents called the fire department looking for me and i just sat there because i was so mad at them. >> did they come? >> yeah, there was an apv out for this little girl. >> the fire station is around the corner. isn't that weird how it just kind of all comes back, right? looks like it's the same stove too. >> that's what i'm saying. >> it does all come back, and it's weird to see all of your

memories, the structures that scaffold your memories, all of them gone. and you can only imagine what it's like for somebody who still lives here, waking up today and getting in here. we've seen some scattered people who were able to get past the police lines, going back to their home, and finding that there's absolutely nothing left. it's just been devastating. jacob is with me. jacob, you grew up here as well. we went by your childhood home. it's also gone. i think that when we're talking about this, it's hard to put your mind around the destruction, put it into words. you hear people talk about, this is a fancy, rich neighborhood, they will be able to rebuild. there are a lot of regular people. it's going to cost a lot of money to rebuild. if you are rebuilding, you have to rebuild everything, you have to rebuild the schools. the elementary is heavily damaged. >> the village school around the

corner over here is gone. corpus christi, the catholic school is gone. >> the church as well ? >> one of the two churches is gone for the presbyterian church and the lutheran church, you know what i keep thinking about is there were 23,000 or so people who lay their heads at night in pacific palisades, and you and i for a time were two of them. there are probably just as many people who come into this town every day that worked at cafe vida who worked at the starbucks on this corner, the whole retail stretch that was behind us, and those people, and their livelihoods are tied to this community. they're as much a part of the community as you or i ever were. it makes me feel very sad for them as well. i remember, there was a guy i told you, we used to have a deli called ort's. >> if you're a curb your

enthusiasm fan, you would know mort's because larry david always went to mort's. >> and before it was closed, all the gentlemen and ladies that worked there, we knew, and one of them, for a very long time was a worker here at cafe vida. these are people who have worked in the community for decades. i'm thinking about them, where are they going to do? what are they going to do as well? and man, just driving around this place, it brings back a lot of memories, doesn't it? >> we were looking at the eaton fire a moment ago, and a fire surrounding communications towers in the hills. there's concerns if they get the communication towers, the city is going to have a hard time talking to each other. >> those are repeaters, as you know. you know this as well as i do. >> we already have terrible cell

service. >> the communication system especially for lawmaker as well, works with a series of repeaters on top of mount wilson and the other highest points in los angeles county. a lot of people don't know how vast los angeles is. >> i think you can fit delaware and rhode island into the county of los angeles. >> and so think about being in the emergency services that work in the county to rely on towers that we're looking at right now. they're critical to law enforcement and first responder responses like the ones we have been saying, and, so i mean, there's no more critical infrastructure in los angeles. as we hear another one of these air drops. >> let's bring in larry welk, who's also joining us, a little bit off camera. you know the city by air better than anybody at this point. >> one of these guys that flies up. >> you have been in the air now for many decades, starting out with my parents, my mom and dad, how important is it to get these air tankers, super scoopers back in the air. the good news is we have been

seeing them on a loop now, consistently, for the past hour and a half, two hours. >> it's critical. it's critical to get the aerial assets. as you know, these are the super scoopers that are flying over right now, so they're able to just dip right into the pacific ocean, and make a quick round trip, quicker than any airplane or helicopter can, and certainly the big tankers that drop -- >> i don't think a lot of people understand that. we see them going into reservoirs, they are going into the ocean, less than a mile or two away. >> the round trips are taking less than 5 minutes, faster than a helicopter and faster than a tanker that can drop the fire retardant. for them to put out hot spots is really a blessing, combined with the helicopters and the other aircraft there are up there, that's the most effective way. i think the greatest example

would be last night in hollywood hills, you have the fire that started in yon canyon, it looked like it was going to blow up, and the wind was up, and the fire was out within minutes. >> if helps you understand that if they were able to operate during the beginnings of the palisades fire, it might not have gotten as out of control as it did. they weren't able to operate. the winds were so insane. >> the problem the first night and first day, the wind, there's nothing that can stop. you can throw a million aircraft at it, a million firefighters at it, and mother nature just couldn't be stopped. >> can you explain why the wind is such an obstacle. i had a lot of friends calling me, where the super scoopers, where are the helicopters? why are there no people in the air. help us understand why it's so dangerous for them to get into the air. >> anybody that's been on a commercial aircraft that has felt turbulence and uncomfortable, you can magnify

that feel ten times by any aircraft in that kind of wind. >> and fly safely. >> and accurately. >> that's the other good point, even if you could get the aircraft there, by the time it leaves the air craft, the water or fire retardant, it never hits the ground. it's not only a dangerous operation in the wind, it's also not effective. >> what would have been the maximum sustained wind speed that those airplanes could have been up in. the gusts are 50, 60, sometimes 100 miles per hour, what would have been safe. >> each aircraft has its own limitation, and the pilots that fly them know what the limitation is. helicopters can fly in a stronger wind. once you get to the 40 miles an hour range, people scratch their heads and say, is this safe, and so obviously the other night when we had 100 miles an hour wind gusts, not safe at all. >> talk to us a little bit about, we were showing the

repeaters on ount wilson, and give us more about what that could mean for communications in the city. >> not only communications for law enforcement and firefighters, it's also the primary means of broadcast. anybody that's watching tv. >> over the air television with an antenna is getting it. it's also the communication between cell phones and radio repeaters like you were saying. tast it's a critical part of the infrastructure of los angeles, and it's so widespread, and it's, by the way, been through several fires. this is not the first time that the fires have burned up to those towers. there's an observation post up there. there's an observatory. there's lots of activity. it sits above 500 feet at the top of the mountain there. they were most likely not lose any of the equipment. they have in the past. they've got very good brush clearance up there, and the winds, as katy, as you pointed out, are cooperating today.

so they're going to be in good shape up there. the problem is that they've got so much in the way of topography and geography. is that angeles national forest? >> it is. >> so that is a national forest that surrounds what you're looking at on your screen right now, and angeles national forest, what does it look like from the sky? >> first of all, it's massive. you get up there and these aircraft look tiny when they're flying up there, and while it looks like these are small, these are from trees. these are giant, 25 foot branches and bushes, and so the terrain is extremely difficult. they've got snakes and all kinds of wild animals up there. for the firefighters to get up there, it's a difficult proposition. >> it's quite literally a long and winding road. >> it's nice at night when the you get to the higher altitudes, sometimes the hose lines they manage will breeze. >> because there are communications towers, can you use the super scoopers on this

stuff? >> educational background you c fact they're doing that. a lot of the aerial resources were being sent to the palisades and malibu. and another fire near acton. they flew one of the dc 10s in and dropped a long line of fire retardant. this morning i checked it. another super scooper flying by. this morning i checked and the retardant line was super effective. the fire burned right up to the retardant line. they're devastated in altadena and pasadena as well. the good news is over night, the fire did not make much of a progression. >> let me ask you this, we're starting to feel wind pick up now. it's been pretty calm all day. you're feeling more wind at the top. i fumbled this at the top, forgive me, the air quality is so far bad, it's starting to give you a bad headache.

the winds are expected to pick up tonight. wind advisory extended through friday. is it going to be wind that they'll -- the super scoopers, the air tankers, the helicopters will still be able to operate in? >> the limitations, so, yes, the answer is the aircraft will be able to operate. the limitation for the super scoopers that we hear flying overhead is that if the wind picks up in the water and becomes too choppy in the water. >> over the ocean. >> over the ocean. if they have to go through the big as well as of the wind or the big white caps, that's what makes it difficult. >> so you need a level of calm, a glassiness to the ocean surface. >> it can't be 30 knots of wind. >> how accurate is wind prediction, wind forecasting, in relation to the forecast we expect about the weather, the rain. >> the forecasts are extremely accurate. the pilots are really good at

telling which way the wind is coming from and what the velocity it is. when you see a lot of the big tankers, you oftentimes see a smaller plane ahead of it. two reasons, one, it wants to check the wind in the canyons, check the turbulence to make sure it's going to be safe, and the second thing is you'll see a little bit of sky writing, puff of smoke to come out, to identify where they want the next drop to be. >> the scouts. i want to keep you guys around for a minute. we're going to take a quick break. i want to play a little bit more of the video we were able to gather today as i walked around my old neighborhood and saw the just complete and utter destruction that these fires have done to the pacific palisades. let's watch. why did that house survive, do you know? >> what about these two? why were they okay? that tree over there, that tree

is still green. the rest of these trees you can see how hard the wind was whipping when the fire came through. the palm trees are bent this way. their palms are thrust this way. there's a tree down there that the leaves are blackened and frozen this way. the wind was blowing through and froze them in time. great, that has made it. wonderful, you can go and get your stuff, great, but what are you coming back to. it seems like if not all, a lot of the schools in the neighborhood are gone. the elementary schools, both private and public, multiple elementary schools are down. the high school is really damaged. can't go back to that for a while. it's going to be so hard to come back to this, because what are you coming back to? your neighbors are all gone. your community is gone. i feel awful for everybody here. >> coming up next, we're going to talk about water. what happened with the water in

los angeles, what thousands of firefighters and first responders are doing to contain the fires now, and how they're getting enough water to fight the fires. plus, what some of the victims of the fires say it's been like to face one of the most destructive fires in los angeles history. there's no secret about this, it's going to ache months, years to rebuild what was lost, especially here in the palisades, what that might look like and how much it could all cost. we're back in 90 seconds. we're back in 90 seconds you know, when i take the bike out like this, all my stresses just melt away. i hear that. this bad boy can fix anything. yep, tough day at work, nice cruise will sort you right out. when i'm riding, i'm not even thinking about my painful cavity. well, you shouldn't ignore that. and every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. you don't have to worry about anything when you're protected by america's number-one motorcycle insurer. well, you definitely do. those things aren't related, so... ah, yee!

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we're back in the pacific palisades. los angeles mayor karen bass says the sunset fire which ignited overnight in runyon canyon in the hollywood hills has been fully contained. a little bit of good news today. but most of the largest blazes that are currently destroying a lot of los angeles county are uncontained. entirely uncontained, including the palisades fire and including the eaton fire. we're going to go to a fire battalion chief in just a second. i want to talk to larry and jacob about the water issues. a lot of residents reported water issues. i was talking to a guy last hour who said he saw firefighters standing around as fires were raging, homes were burning down, and he was told that there just wasn't water. >> yeah, and as jacob just pointed out, the problem here in

the palisades was not necessarily a lack of water but more a pressure issue. they had the reservoirs and the tanks pretty much full. >> the reporting indicates that the tanks here, there was some misinformation spread by a local would be politician, and that person was saying that they didn't have the resources actually adequately provide water here. the issue wasn't there wasn't enough water. some people in their wn homes, you turn on multiple taps at one time, the pressure decreases. >> they were using millions of gallons of water. they used some of the water they use normally for fire fighting purposes, dedicated to the hydrants, firemen did a smart thing, and they went to the local water supply for homes. they used residential supply off the department of water and power supply, and started to realize that they were having a water problem here, and unfortunately, again, with the wind and the weather and the

amount of fire storm that happened so quickly, that water, it was just used so quickly that they just simply ran out of pressure. >> go ahead. >> go. >> i was going to say, i think what you just said about the fires being contained is so important for people to understand that as the wind starts to pick back up today and over the next few days, as you and i just drove around, 10, 15 minutes ago, we saw firefighters battling active fires in the palisades, and pasadena, the other fires raging, up by mount wilson right now, this is a long way. >> there's a hot spot just down a few feet from us on a fire pole that has been burning for a little while. the good news is there's nothing else to burn around here. if the wind picked up an ember, maybe there's a tree that can light up. if you have hot spots like this anywhere else, in the backyard of a home that hasn't yet burned down, or a hillside in an area

that has homes that are still in tact, that's the sort of thing that firefighters keep pointing to it. what we're seeing are the burning embers underneath the telephone pole. that's what firefighters are worried about. it's that sort of spark that can set off another major blaze. >> before we leave you, you're going to talk to the battalion chief, i want to say what an extraordinary experience it's been to watch the mutual aid response. ventura county, down to manhattan beach, if people understand the vastness of the state of california, it's larger than nations around the world, and there has been marshalled a fire response here, the likes of which i certainly haven't seen in my 41 years as a resident of california. >> not to mention all the other fire departments from the surrounding areas, at the same time that they are also experiencing threats and worried about their own population. >> it's a literally army. they go out and work long, long

hours. i mean, some of these firefighters haven't slept for 36 hours, and that's the problem with the nature of these fires, while it's calm right now, the wind could pick up and is forecast to pick up, and now you've got an entirely new fire, and pasadena, altadena, hollywood hills, and not to mention that you have to then still protect the public at large as well. it's really an amazing feat that they pull off, but at some point, they do run low on resources, and that's what people need to understand. >> larry, jacob soboroff, thank you very much. i'm going to ask you not to go too far. california fire battalion chief, thank you so much for being with us, chief. talk to me a little bit about what you are worried about right now. >> yeah, so what we're worried about right now is the winds coming back. we have had this great warning where we have had calm winds. we have been able to make progress on this fire. we're hoping to turn the corner

on this fire, and start doing what we need to do to get that containment up. we know there's winds predicted for later on. all hands on deck. bustling hard to get the containment, to get the fire put out. >> as of the last news conference with officials, the pacific palisades fire was 0% contained, as was the eaton fire. have you made any progress? is it a little bit more contained now that you have been able to use the super scoopers? >> i believe we're going to see some more containment now. we have been able to use aircraft last night. we had helicopters dropping on the fire. aircraft dropping on the fire, as we speak, dipping out of the ocean, so that's going to help a lot. help tremendously. before then, it was just wind gusts that would not stop, and it was just blowing fire everywhere. >> there's been very little loss of life reported, five people dead, according to officials, but there's a lot of worry that

those numbers are not exactly accurate. can you describe to me, just the scenes that you have been witnessing and whether you've ever seen anything quite like what we have been watching unfold in los angeles? >> i have not. i have been to many santa ana driven fires and i haven't seen one burn this fast, this erratic, this extreme. this seemed to like double in speed as far as any other fire, santa ana fire i have been to. when we get here, we know number one priority is get people out of the way. we want to save lives. then we'll worry about the structures in the homes. when a fire is moving that fast, we know it can catch people off guard, so our goal is to get them t of the way. >> how is your battalion doing? how is your department doing? how are your firefighters? >> they're doing good. they are exhausted but they're in good spirits. they have been fighting the fight since we've gotten here. they don't want to lay down.

now that the winds have calmed down, maybe they'll take a nap or something, but when it was blowing and still burning all around, the firefighters were engaged. >> get the rest while you can. chief pascua, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. and president jimmy carter has returned to his home state of georgia. you're looking right now at lawson army airfield where special air mission 39 carrying former president carter and his family just arrived. the military team is going to transfer his casket to the hearse. his family will follow the hearse in a motorcade to maranatha baptist church in carter's hometown of plains, where there will be a private funeral service held. following that and a procession through downtown plains, president carter will be laid to rest at his residence. coming up, malibu councilman bruce silverstein on what he's seeing on the ground and what his residents need right now.

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nearly 180,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders across los angeles county. nearly 200,000 people. the few who have been allowed to return to their homes are returning to this, nothing. this is what's left of the palisades. it's like a bomb went off. literally like a bomb went off across these neighborhoods. joining us now, nbc news correspondent steve patterson who is also here in the palisades, steve, where exactly are you? >> we are close by, and as you can imagine, it must -- i haven't seen your shot, katy, but i can't imagine it looks any better than where you are. nothing is a great way to describe it, right? like, i mean, all of this meant

something to someone, but all of it is gone. there are no signs of life, and the reason why we're here and you're there is to show just how many neighborhoods like this there are. this goes on really, as far as the eye can see. you shouldn't be able to see that far. there should be three, four, five houses, all of them have been destroyed. seeing the mementos and people's lives here, this is staggering. right? you see the fire hose. or just a garden hose. somebody tried to do the best they could to put protection on it. some greenery exists somewhere. not a bird chirping, no sign of life. it's very eerie. it feels like something dramatic, like a bomb has gone off. it's what it feels like too. thankfully, we are also hearing aircraft above, and i know you've heard that as well, that signify that is air drops are happening, despite the fact that

we're still in red flag winds, they're able to get aircraft to put down suppression on this fire that is absolutely crucial. i wonder if we can walk downstairs here. you have to be careful of the nails here because they're everywhere. the studs of homes and roofs and shingles, all ripped off. the damage is everywhere. the cars on the street, just one of the most ominous things to me is seeing people have to leave everything. and then everywhere you look, all the way down the street, there's nothing left. we did also see some police not too long ago. i believe the unit i saw was lapd, appearing to let people probably grab things that are essential if there is anything left, from their neighborhoods or at least to see something that has -- that was there that is now gone. there was one unit, which appeared to have a relate who was able to come back and see this. we also spoke to another resident who was here not too long ago, and he was just fretting because it's the first

time that he's coming to his house and there's nothing there. and he had no time to grab anything, according to my producer who spoke to him. said he had to just leave. no time to grab anything. his entire house burned down. his entire life has changed and that's the same way for really everybody on this block. there's one house that i saw. it's around the corner. that is somehow still standingment standing. it looked like it had wood siding and nothing hit it. it's amazing to see what got torched and what didn't. for the most part, neighborhood to neighborhood, driving here, couldn't or not pch still, driving here where neighborhoods are bombed out, where the hole shopping center is gone. there's not much left of this community, and i think that bears repeating because it's so dramatic and so sad for so many people. first, the fire fighting operation has to continue and has to end, and then people will pick up the pieces, katy. >> yeah, part of the reason why

some people have been able to get back in here, and the roads are still, for the most part closed, although we have seen a few people who have managed to go through the road blocks, it's very dangerous. not only are there hot spots, there are downed power lines everywhere. and it's unclear which ones are live and which ones are not. i have seen water and power go through the neighborhood, a few, actually, quite a few trucks, they're trying to assess things, get things turned off so that work crews can start getting in here. before that, families can start getting in here to take a look at what's left, if there's anything left. i have seen, there's some places that do have, and i have been able to see it because, again, there's nothing left, what appear to be fire saves, fireproof saves, hopefully containing documents, mementos, important items that they're able to come back and retrieve. show me what you're seeing over there, steve. >> a fire safe, right back there in the corner. i mean, it's so burn scarred, i

wonder if it saved anything, but it's there. and you're seeing the remnants of people, the laundry room, yeah. who knows. >> the fire was burning so hot, are they capable of withstanding, they're advertised as fireproof, are they capable of withstanding the heat that tore through here. steve, if you don't mind, i want to show viewers a little bit more of the neighborhood. i was able to access an old home of mine on foot. i don't think anybody had been up there before. i don't think a single fire crew had been up there. and i'm sure that a car hadn't gone up there because the power lines were really heavily tangled. you had to be really careful when you were walking up the street. and i found one of the homes i lived in as a child. watch. a child. watch.

i don't even know what to say. this was my house. this was my house. it went straight up into the air. looks like it was in san francisco. it was a vertical house, and this right here was the garage. right above that living room and kitchen, above that were the bedrooms. my bedroom was right over there.

god, i went to high school here, i went to college from this house. i threw my first house party. the cops showed up. i lost my grandmother when i was living here to lung cancer. my parents lost their entire business. my dad almost died. my dog was eaten by a coyote. i'm thinking of all the bad memories, but there were a lot of good memories as well. we had a great big, grand piano my mom's pride and joy, in the living room, and she would play choppin, and i would play chop sticks. i was a teenager here. >> yeah, it's really difficult

to see this sort of stuff. and i'm removed from it, 20 years removed. i'm in new york. i have family out here, tons of friends. seeing the damage, and knowing that your memories, that you had memories connected to a place that is no longer standing. it felt raw for me, and if it feels raw for me, it's got to feel unbearable for thousands of people that are going to come back here in the coming days and weeks. it's not just the palisades, pasadena, altadena, hollywood hills. malibu has been severely impacted. an early estimate by the weather forecasting service for the damage and economic loss all around here at 52 billion to 57 billion. a sum that could certainly rise if the fires do continue to spread. malibu's iconic sea front has been devastated with once opulent homes, and iconic

restaurants, gone. just gone. the real inn is gone. if you know the real inn, it was a landmark, always put a smile on your face. they had great puns and jokes on the sign outside the tiny little fish shack. joining me now from malibu, councilman for the city of malibu, california, bruce silverstein, bruce, thanks for joining us. how are you doing right now? >> thank you for having me on, katy. i'm in tears here just watching your report. i don't know how to begin. i mean, i was on the phone this morning with the head of our building department, and i literally -- it takes a lot to make me cry. i have been a litigator for close to 40 years. we have just in malibu alone, we have lost unofficially 600 homes, which is pretty much, you're familiar with the area, the entirety of east malibu from the civic center area, actually

from an area called sarah, all the way up to topanga where the fire came in, and that's just the same as what's going on in the palisades and topanga, in altadena. this is a catastrophe, and it's really hard to take in. we had a fire six years ago, the woolsey fire which took out 400 homes in malibu and a thousand or so throughout the county, and that was like world war i to world war ii. this is now world war ii. this is even worse. >> those who don't live in malibu or are not from california, malibu burns all the time. they're used to seeing those images. is malibu any better at dealing with the fires because of the experience of it? i mean, does that make it any less devastating than what people out there are going through right now? >> i can say i think people in

malibu are pretty hearty, and, you know, nobody doesn't have emotion and trauma from this, but we're somewhat accustomed to it. there are fires regularly, and we are better at preparing for them, and hardening properties, but a fire of this nature, it's literally only nature could control it. the fire department can't do anything. the most hardening of a home, property can't do anything. you're showing film of the december trucks. it's just unreal. but, you know, i'll say, i was heavily involved in helping people after the woolsey fire, and my home burned partially four weeks ago in another fire called the franklin fire, which served as a fire break, believe it or not, for this fire, and had it not been for the fire break, this fire might have taken out the entire city of malibu, all 20 miles. i kind of was prepared for that, from having worked with so many

people who lost their homes six years ago. i would like to believe that the people who lost their homes this time had at least an intellectual if not an emotional understanding of what was coming and how to deal with it. it's a very tight town. we have less than 10,000 people. we'll band together, and we'll take care of each other, and support each other emotionally. >> how long, bruce, because you have so much experience in this, i'm sorry for interrupting, how long does it take to get people back to rebuild, to get a community moving again? >> just getting people literally, just physically getting them back into malibu to asset what can be done is going to take weeks because of the severity of the damage and the unhealthiness of the damage, but rebuilding, six years ago was the woolsey fire, there are still many people who have not broken ground on their rebuild, for both financial reasons, as well as difficulty in the

permitting process, as well as the actual environmental constraints to building in an area like this. so it's a long haul. going to do what we can to expedite the process. you know, i don't want to say cut corners because you need to be considerate of building safety issues, but we need to be able to be more flexible and nimble in this process because otherwise this just cannot be done. >> bruce silverstein, thank you very much for joining us. i have some unfortunate breaking news to deliver, the death toll has now risen to six people. still a low death toll, but they have found one w one fatality in the pacific palisades. officials did say they were skeptical of the current official death toll, and they thought it would potentially go up quite a bit just because of how fast moving these fires were and how hot they burned.

they're just worried that not everybody was able to make it out. joining me now, nbc news senior business correspondent, christine romans. christine, i just left off talking with bruce about what it's going to take to get people back. you have been doing some digging into how this process is going to unfold. what can you tell us? >> it's going to be slow, and it's going to be some pretty impossible math in many cases. i'm looking at these numbers that i wanted to tell you about, katy. over the past decade, california has had $70 billion in insured losses from 40 different wildfires. and when you look at it, that's a lot of money. this will rival all of that, probably, and when you look at every dollar of insurance premium that the insurers got from california, they paid out $1.08. people have bare bones insurance policy or may not have an insurance policy or they're

insured through the insurer of last resort through the state of california. there's been an insurance crisis in california and other parts of the country as well, with big insurers pulling out, and this will be a real test of what the rebuilding is going to look like. we have heard, katy, from state farm, all state, farm ers, they are ready to start talking to customers whenever they're ready to get down to brass tax, what are the next steps. i will say, this is still an active tragedy, and an active disaster, and it will be some time really before we're able to figure out next steps to building, and how to make this impossible math for so many families actually work, katy. >> and i will end this with this, there are a lot of folks in this town who are very wealthy. there are a lot of also just regular folks, and there's a lot of concern that those folks who have lived here for decades, who might not be the wealthiest among the palisades residents aren't going to be able to get

back. they're not going to have the insurance they need. they won't be able to afford it, and the quaint plots, especially on the alphabet streets will get beaten up by a big developer or somebody who's personally wealthy, and you will fundamentally lose the character of the neighborhood while also displacing quite a few a long time residents. christine romans, thank you very much for joining us. coming up next, we're going to talk to someone who says he's one of the lucky ones. what a palisades evacuee tells us he did to escape the raging fires. e the raging fires. go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah!

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just a moment ago, a lot of our phones started going off, and that's another evacuation order, a brand new one. this is for sunset mesa. it's not very far from where we are standing. it's just down the road in malibu. that does emphasize what we've been saying for the past few hours that the threat is still ongoing, the winds have died down, but they're worried those winds are going to start picking up as we get into the later hours of this day and into tomorrow. there are still hot spots. the fires are still very serious. 0% contained officially for the palisades fire, but i was speak to go that battalion chief a little bit earlier, because they have been able to do the water drops, that they are going to have some containment. they're able to get a little bit ahead of this thing, in these

hours, hopefully to make it easier to fight in the coming hours. my next guest is somebody who is a palisades native, and who said that he barely escaped the flames. let's bring in native joe jacobson. joe, thanks for being with us. just walk me through what happened. absolutely. thank you so much for having me. i really do appreciate it. the fire currently is about two, three blocks away from my apartment. i was really lucky to get out when i did. shout out to all the firefighters and alert systems on my phone, and everybody's phones. we have group chats in santa monica, palisades, letting people know how to get out. i'm currently in an office building in palm springs because i had an airbnb. they lost power, so i'm trying to figure out where to go next, but i appreciate you having me on. >> you have told us that you went as far east as you possibly could. where are you right now?

>> i was in joshua tree, the city of joshua tree for about a day or two, but i just lost power there so now i'm at a conference building in palm springs, and i might drive to phoenix to see my uncle. all my stuff is in my car too. i figured my house is going to burn down 50/50 chance. i loaded up with everything i thought was unburnable, sentimentally, you name it, and you know, i hear there's looting going on in l.a. and different parts because there's some bad actors out there. i might just travel to phoenix and figure out what to do, and hopefully i can come back to l.a. at some point. >> do you think you're going to be able to come back? as i understand it, your apartment complex did not burn. it's pretty smokey over there, and there's not a lot left surrounding it. >> yeah, seriously, it's tbd for me. it's about two to three blocks away from where my place is. i'm crossing my fingers. at the same time, i'm one of the lucky ones.

it's important that we recognize how many lives have been lost. there's probably going to be more as you mentioned before. i'm happy i got out. fortunately there's a lot of group chats out, folks like myself trying to communicate with each other and let each other know what's going on. it's important we communicate as much as we can, with each other to try to help out. >> i like that you were able to get out with what you consider unburnable. all the sentimental stuff. i'm happy that you were able to grab that as you left. so many people had no time whatsoever. and we saw that from the images day of, of all the cars stopped in the middle of the street because people just got out and started running for it. so many that the city had to take a bulldozer to move them out of the way to allow fire trucks to get through. joe jacobson, thank you so much for joining us. that's going to do it for me today on what has been just an emot overwhelming and

hard-to-process day. i appreciate you joining me, and i hope you stay for the next show. "deadline: white house" starts right after this quick break. ars right after this quick break si, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh!

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♪♪ hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. we start with what is already the most destructive fire los angeles has all -- ever seen. there's a long way to go yet. like on earth, five wildfires are now burning almost completely out of control across 45 square miles, at least six people are dead and that number is expected to rise. 180,000 people have been forced from their homes. 350,000 people are without power right now. the sheer scale of the destruction