Latest / The Bill Handel Show / The Latest Climate Forecast, Trump Touts Americans and Warding Off Wildfires

Transcript

The Latest Climate Forecast, Trump Touts Americans and Warding Off Wildfires · The Bill Handel Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM 640, the Bill Handel show
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: on demand on the I heart radio app. Some of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the big stories we're looking at is, uh, the president
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: day of, uh, the Soviet union, actually Soviet union doesn't
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: exist anymore. Russia, Vladimir Putin has just released an American. Um,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: his name is, uh, having a hard time seeing because
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of my sty, Stephen Hubbard. He'd been in prison, uh,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: for a whole number of months. And, uh, I think
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what Putin is doing is saying thank you to our
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: president because our president is now becoming more and more
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: allied with Putin, certainly over the war in Ukraine. Okay,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: climate change, a little bit about climate change, which I
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: have and we will talk about for a very long time.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: One of the aspects of climate change is those who
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: argue that the climatologists, the weather experts were wrong or
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: are wrong are absolutely correct. You know how they're wrong?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Because climate is changing more rapidly than they thought. The
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: global warming is moving at a faster rate than was expected.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: The melting of Antarctica, the ice sheets, North Pole, South Pole,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: are melting far faster, those glaciers, far faster than anticipated.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So what is going on? Well, now science gets involved, obviously.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And every few years, there is an assessment in California
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that's done based on, of course, the legislature asking for it.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And Southern California is on track to lose 30 to
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: 70 percent of the beaches over the next several decades.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Almost half of all beach cliffs are likely to retreat
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: by 30 to 80 feet by 2100. Going back 80
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: feet on these cliffs, that'll do it. That'll do it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: We're talking about the ports, Santa Monica, Venice, Redondo Beach,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: particularly vulnerable to floods and storms. And this is the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: fifth climate change assessment. It comes out every several years
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and how climate change is expected to affect everything. Public health,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: animal habitat, which the water, obviously, that we are getting,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: this affects our way of life. Abby Edwards, who is
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: senior deputy director for the governor's office of land use
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and climate innovation, didn't know that even existed, says there
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: are things in this report that are hard to digest,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: hard to wrap our heads around. I just hope this
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: can be a call to action. It won't be. Never is.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Never is. So the report updates our future. projected four
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: degrees Fahrenheit increase in average temperature, 50% longer heat waves
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: by the middle of the century. So we're talking, what,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: 25 years from now? And more warming is expected further inland,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: where temperatures are already the highest. And what they're talking about, well, L.A.,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Orange County, which about 43% of the entire state's population,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and then includes parts of Ventura and the Inland Empire.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: The areas are expected to see the hottest days of
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the year exceed 115 degrees on a regular basis by
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: mid-century within 25 years. And there are a whole lot
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of you that are going to be alive. Our kids
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: certainly are going to. And interestingly enough, the amount of
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: rainfall that comes into Southern California or in our area
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: is not going to change. The amount of rainfall, we
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: average 15 inches a year here in Los Angeles, Orange County.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: That's going to stay the same, basically. However, it's going
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: to become very sporadic and very skewed. And so you're
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: going to see wet years being very wet, dry years
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: being very dry. Far more. Droughts will last longer. And
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: here is a big problem. The city of L.A. brings
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: in water from outside of L.A., like the Colorado River,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: which already is declining. Look at the two biggest reservoirs
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in California, actually the country. You have Mead, Lake Mead,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Hoover Dam. which was created by Hoover Dam. And you
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: have Powell Lake. Those are the two biggest ones. Just
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: take a look. YouTube the photographs and see how low
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the water levels are. It is scary stuff. We're down
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: near Deadpool Zone, which means the water is going to
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: be so low that it's not going to be able
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: to be pumped to create the electricity that, for example,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Hoover Dam does or Boulder Dam. And then the politics
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: of it too are really getting a lot of attention now.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: The Eaton Fire set low-income black families really further way
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: back because that area, the Eaton Fire, where traditionally black
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: families could live, did live and owned homes because the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: redlining that went on was really affected big time. And
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what's going to happen in the Inland Empire,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: they are saying, is low-income people, particularly people of color,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: are going to get nailed over and over again. Here's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the other thing. Native chaparral. which is natural landscape and foothills,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: are becoming way overstressed and being replaced by grasses. And
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: that's invasive. And they are very fire prone. So as
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: miserable as it is and as depressing as it is,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it's worse. And there are still people out there that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: say climate change is a hoax. Man, I don't get it.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I just don't get it. It's just, it's astounding. And then,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: as I've said, if you spent or considering spending $ 15
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: million for a home along the beach, Malibu, Orange County,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Newport Beach, go ahead and spend your money. You might
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: as well, because you're going to be building your house
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: on stilts pretty soon. Okay, coming up. The president says
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: go to Canada, but not in moving. What he's saying
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: is go to Canada for cheaper drugs. Well, there's a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: new rule that the feds have now instituted that says, no,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: don't go. And I'll explain what's happening. There's a whole
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: thing here about elder Americans, particularly and drugs you get
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: from Canada. We'll be right back with that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Less than two weeks to go and to the midterms.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: And it's going to get really interesting. Republicans now that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: are running for office are backing away from the president
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: because it's turning out that he is more of a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: liability in many cases than he is of benefit to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: these candidates. So we'll talk a lot more about that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: next week. Voter guy time also. Now, first of all,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: let me start with a fact. And that is it
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: is more expensive to buy drugs in this country than
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: almost any place in the world. A lot of it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: has to do with the fact that we don't have
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: a universal pay system, which means that individual companies, for example,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Kaiser buys its drugs as a Kaiser organization. In other countries,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the entire government buys drugs from the drug manufacturer. And
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: so obviously they have a lot more power to negotiate
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: when you're doing it as a country. We just don't
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: do that. As a matter of fact, even Medicare, which
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: is socialized medicine for those of you that go, oh,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I don't want socialized medicine. Well, then don't take your
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Medicare at 65. All right. Give it up. Don't be
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a hypocrite. Just say I'm not interested in socialized medicine
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: because that's exactly what it is. In the world of Medicare,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: where the government does pay for medical care. Big Pharma
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: had exempted itself except for pharmaceuticals the government does not
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: pay for, except if you're buying an additional insurance policy.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: So Big Pharma has exempted itself. Why? Because it makes
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: so much damn money. The same drug that we buy
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: here can be bought for probably a third the price
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: or half the price in Canada. or far less in Mexico. Now,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: keep in mind, this is the same drug. We're not
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: talking about factories that have cockroaches and rats running through them.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: These are world-class factories. In many cases, it's the same factory.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: It's just labeled one for Mexico and one for the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: United States, and then drugs that are sold in the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: United States are so much more expensive. And When Big
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Pharma is asked, why is it so expensive to buy
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: drugs here than there, as in read over in Europe
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: or Latin America or Canada, the answer is because it
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: costs so much damn money to create a drug. It's
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in the billions of dollars to come up with a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: new drug, which is true, by the way. R & D,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: it's about 10 years to get it all going. I mean,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's really expensive. But then why is it so much
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: cheaper in Canada? Well, the reality is they can get
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it here. Because Canada is a socialized medicine country. And
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Canada buys its drugs as a country. And look at
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the negotiating power. Great story about France, by the way,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: which also, of course, is socialized medicine. Single payer, government pays.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And France, there's a great story. I don't know if
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: it's apocryphal or not, but I think it tends to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: be true under these circumstances. And that is, there was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a drug that was being manufactured by one of the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: big ones, Merck or Lilly or Novartis or whatever. And
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it was the only drug out there. And France was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: buying it for the patients that needed it in France.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And the company was charging full retail. And France said,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: we're not going to pay that much money. And the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: company basically said, too bad. You know, you can't get
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: it anyplace else. And this is what we're going to charge.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And what France did said, fine. OK, we won't buy it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And by the way, we're not going to buy anything
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: from your company. You've just lost the French market. Oops.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: That is the kind of power that you can buy
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: when there is a program like a nationalized program. And
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: by the way, the United States, I think South Africa
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: are the only two developed countries in the world that
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: don't have a single payer national health plan. So where
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: do Americans go, particularly elder Americans, when they can't afford
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: drugs to keep them going? Well, they go to Canada.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: That's where they go. Matter of fact, there are junkets
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: where the elderly people jump on buses. And instead of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: going to Las Vegas, where junkets occur, they go up
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to Canada. And buy drugs, buy their drugs, because it's
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: at least half the price, in some cases, way less
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: than half the price. And even though it is illegal
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: under the law, except since 2003, the government has made
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it legal for someone to go into Canada and or
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: another country and to buy drugs for own personal use.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: But no one pays attention because these parcels are not
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: looked at. The FDA doesn't look at them. But here's
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: what's going to happen. What the Trump administration did and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: has delayed this until January 20th, there is a new
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: customs rule that threatened the supply of these cheaper prescription
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: drugs that are imported by millions of Americans. Why? What
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: does the rule cover? Well, here's what it says. The
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: rule says that package data tariffs added paperwork that has
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to be put on all this packaging, raising certainly uncertainty
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: for patients who rely on these overseas pharmacies just to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: afford these essential medications. It's that simple. People who cannot
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: afford to buy medicine here, particularly the elderly, and go
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to Canada, well, those drugs now are going to be
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: It brought in the United States, which are allowed to do,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: are now going to have more paperwork than you could
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: ever imagine, including tariffs on the packaging and all kinds
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of details and added paperwork, which effectively means that it's
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: going to be far, far, far more difficult to get
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: these drugs. effectively what the Trump administration said, we're going
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to make it more difficult for you. And boy, is
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: there a backlash going on that one? There are a
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: lot of people who are on drugs that can't afford
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: them here in the United States. Well, this was supposed
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to kick in already, and the administration delayed it until
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: January 20th. And the rule may disappear. But and the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: president said when he ran for his first term is
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make drugs accessible and cheaper than what
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: is being paid now. And it's going to go exactly
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the other way. And so we'll see how long that
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that actually is going to happen, by the way. What
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the president did say is I am going to make
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it cheaper for Americans to buy. Go to Canada to
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: buy these drugs. OK, let's go to Canada. But wait
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a second. You're making it more difficult to bring the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: drugs in. Well, OK, now what? All right. Coming up. Oh,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: this is one. Dean Sharp talks about this quite often,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and that is warding off wildfires around the house. And
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: if you've listened to his show, he gives you some
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: very good advice on what to do. Well, there's something
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: else going on because the government and insurance companies have
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: taken this to what many people say are extreme. I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: don't think so. It just makes sense. And I'll share
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: that with you when we come back.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel On Demand from KFI AM640.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Some of the stories we're looking at. France's President Macron.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: has slammed what he called stupid comments coming from foreign
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: leaders over the protests that are sweeping the country. The president,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: our president, claimed that migrants were fueling the unrest. And, well,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: certainly migrants are part of the issue with the French students,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: but I think most of it has to do with
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the cost of living. And the corruption, not migrants. But
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: so be it. Okay. Now, something regarding living in Southern California.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: And while there are really some big advantages of living
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: in Southern California, there are also disadvantages. For example, if
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: someone is coming here and you're saying, hey, why don't
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you come to Southern California? What's good about it? Weather
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: is great. No question about it. If you're a liberal,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the culture is great. Lots of great restaurants. It's a
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: pretty neat place to live. How about the negative? Well,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the taxes. How about the crowded roads? Well, yeah,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: there's that. Let's talk about the politics. Well, there's that.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you something else that is a real negative here.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: And this is something we all have to deal with,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: whether you're coming in or not coming in, and that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: is the wildfires. Not just wildfires up in the mountains
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that we normally look at or wildfire areas, but look
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: what happened to the Palisades. 16,000 homes came down or
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: were burnt up. So let's talk for a moment what
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: is going on. Now, science is involved with this. Whenever
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: you have this kind of event or events that affect
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: that affect this many people to this extent, what ends
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: up happening is governments, insurance companies, this case, throw science
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: at it and say, let's figure out what's going on.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: In the case of wildfires, there is something that Dean
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Sharp has talked about. for a very long time. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: listening to him, I've done some stuff listening to him.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: One of the things is I've changed the louvers, which
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: is a French museum, and I've made my attic into
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: a French museum with louvers. See, let me explain that,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: how that works. That's sort of a play on words.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And why am I doing that? These are little vents
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that happen in all the ceilings or all the roofs
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that you have. that allow embers in. And what these
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: vents that Dean Sharp says, you want to replace, you'll
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: replace those with vents that do not allow embers to
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: come in. Why? Because the majority of homes that are
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: lost to fire is not this massive fire roaring up
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the hill or roaring down the hill or where you live.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: It's the embers from the fires half a mile away
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: or a quarter of a mile away that can fly
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: through the air. They're hot embers. And if they land,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: if they go into your attic, well, what's your attic
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: made out of? It's all wood. It doesn't have, maybe
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the roof is going to be tile or concrete. Certainly
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the side of the house is going to either be
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: stucco or which is concrete or some kind of fire-resistant
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: material like siding, but you don't have that kind of
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: fireproofing or the fire resistance in your attic. Okay, so
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that's one, and that's really important. The other one I'm
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: going to talk about, which is not quite as inexpensive
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: as just replacing vents in your attic or from the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: attic to the outside because you need circulation, It's something
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that is we've been talking about it and it's just
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: gotten more and more important, more specific and more mandatory.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And I'll share that with you when we come back.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Continuing on with the story of wildfires and what is
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: happening here in Southern California. And as I said before
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the break, I talked about Dean Sharp and one of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the things he talks about, which I certainly have paid
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: attention to and followed his advice, is those vents in
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the attic make them effectively ember-proof because embers cause the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: majority of the fires. Your home's going to burn up
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: because there's a fire a couple of miles away or
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: a mile away. It's not that the flames are going
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to hit you. It's those embers, those hot embers are
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: going to go into your attic. So that's one thing.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The other thing that has become very, very important and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is now– hold on. I'm trying to mute here. Where's
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: my icon? Here we go. The other thing that has
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: become very important is the shrubbery and what's around the house.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And there is something called a zero zone that has
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: been established. A zero zone is five feet around the house.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Five feet in which effectively it's fireproof. If you have
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: a tree right next to your home and a fire
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: comes around, it doesn't take much of a fire to
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: ignite the tree. Or brush, bushes that are dry, because
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: we obviously have a lot of dry season up there,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: or plants that burn. Or structures, wooden structures. overhangs, for example,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: that are made out of wood. I had one of those,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and if I had to redo it again, I would
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: have replaced it with aluminum. And so instead of plants...
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: What does a zero zone do within five feet? Well,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: it effectively is fireproof, and that decreases the likelihood of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: your home catching on fire pretty dramatically. Now, if you
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: have a fire like the Palisades fire that's coming in,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: roaring in the way it did, winds at 100 miles
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: an hour, nothing is going to stop your home from burning.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: There isn't a damn thing you're going to be able
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to do about it. There was nothing that the fire
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: people could do about it. The firefighters. However, that's normally
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: not the case. Normally what happens is when you see
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: structures that are burnt during the course of a fire,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: for example, the fire just happened in Orange County. And
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: by the way, a quarter mile I was evacuated. And
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: it was a quarter mile from me. And it was
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: there's a hill right behind me. The fire was going
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: up the hill. And the cops came come around door
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: to door and said, get the hell out, making sure
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: people weren't there. Had it turned the corner, it would
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: have come down the hill and our house would have
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: been tagged. Thank goodness that the wind went the other
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: way as the fire hit the top of the hill.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: And the point is, as I look around, do I
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: have well, I have olive trees everywhere. I have bushes.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I have succulents around the house, all of which can
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: burn not as easily as trees, for example, a birch tree.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I guess even olive trees can explode pretty quickly with flames.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And so what am I doing? Well, what I should
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: be doing is really paying attention to zone zero and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Zone zero, that five feet of space, and a lot
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of people are going to zone 100, and that can
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: be done either very inexpensively, where you just tear out
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the bushes that you have around, or more expensively, or
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: very expensive, where you redo structures, where you tear up landscaping,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and you replace all of it, and you'd be pretty pricey.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: And there are companies that do exactly that. And why
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: is it so important? Well, if you live in the hills,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: for example, which are considered high fire zone areas, you're
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: not getting insurance. They just say, no, we're not selling
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you home insurance.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: So can you still get insurance, fire insurance? You can
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: under the fair plan. The fair plan being that California
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: plan that is only for fire insurance, no liability, nothing
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: like that. No leaks that destroy floors, nothing. It's just
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: straight fire insurance. limited to I think a couple of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: million dollars Now, keep in mind, a couple of million dollars. Wow,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that's a big house. That's a lot of house. Not
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in Southern California. How many homes that were more than
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: $ 2 million that you think existed in Palisades? A whole
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: bunch of them. And so you're really limited in many
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: cases because of insurance companies and the law. Because now
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: municipalities and counties all over California are enforcing Zone Zero
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: by law. And that five foot buffer zone. And so
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: there's a couple that was written up about, and this
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: is Wall Street Journal. I happen to live in Solano County.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And they lost their house to a wildfire in 2020.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: So they rebuilt the house, a steel fence, aluminum patio pergola,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: 10-foot concrete and rock buffer around the new house. That's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: why they're getting reasonable home insurance. Reasonable? Well, let me
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: tell you home insurance. Remember, of course, I've talked about
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the Persian Palace that just prior to selling the place,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: my insurance lapsed. They go, okay, big deal. Insurance laps,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: you just get a new policy. I couldn't get a
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: home insurance policy. Couldn't get one. They weren't available. And
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I was bare for two and a half weeks. I mean,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: did I get a lot of sleep? No, because I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: had no home insurance. And I finally got a policy
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: two and a half weeks later at exactly double what
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I was paying. Twice the cost and less insurance and
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a higher deduction. So you're going to hear a whole
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: lot about zone zero coming up and even bigger zones
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: than that. Now, home insurers and government fire agencies operate independently,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: but their zone zero guidelines align almost perfectly. So be
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: prepared for that. If you're a homeowner, you better look
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: at this thing twice or three times. All right. Coming up. Oh,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: it's a story about the Internet. And this is kind
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: of fun. How can you make passive income? I hear
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: those ads all the time. Passive income. There's a story
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: about one industry. And I don't think he's heard about
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: it or talked about it or thought about it, but
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: it's sort of a poster child for what the Internet
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: is telling you what to do. We'll be back with that.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: KFI AM 640. You've been listening to The Bill Handel Show.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Catch my show Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.