New Fire Warnings and Evacuations in California; What You Need to Know Before Buying a Hybrid
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning once again, everybody. Top of the hour now, 10:00 Eastern time. I'm Heidi Collins.</s>TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed all day at the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown - a new wildfire sent thousands of families packing this morning. A developing story out of northern California.</s>COLLINS: A father accused of killing his own adult daughter. We explore what's known as honor killings with our guests.</s>ROBERTS: Washers. dryers and the fridge. How to make pig big- ticket appliances last longer. Personal finance editor Gerri Willis shows us today, July 8th. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. So a lot of fire news to get to. Bear with me her. New fire warnings and immediate evacuations in California. Those evacuations under way right now in a couple of communities in Butte county. Firefighters called in to rescue residents trapped by a shifting wildfires pushed by what officials are calling substantial winds. Thousands of homes are threatened, As many as 5,000 people may be forced to get out. There are 330 active fires in the state right now. The most destructive are in Big Sur and Goleta. In Big Sur, crews are beefing up the fire line and cooler temperatures have been helping fire fighting efforts but warmer temperatures could start to turn the tide again. And some homeowners are expected to be allowed to return home later today. That fire is now 18 percent contained, compare that to the gap fire in Santa Barbara county near Goleta. That fire, there is now 35 percent contained. The fire there is burning through brush in the mountains. Some residents are being warned to be ready to go at a moment's notice. Our Kara Finnstrom is there covering the fire. And we will hear from her a little later in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: A 150-mile-an-hour gusts from Hurricane Bertha. It is now a category 3. Bertha is not expected to come close to the east coast. Instead, shifting north. Bermuda could get hit by the storm this weekend, but the National Hurricane Center expects it to start losing strength over the next few days as it moves over those cooler waters. Meanwhile, preparing for the storm, Bertha isn't going to hit the east coast, but that shouldn't stop residents from getting ready right now. CNN's John Zarrella is in Southwest Ranches, Florida this morning. So, John, you've got a whole basket full of goodies there that I can see. How much, on average, do you think it would cost everybody?</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, what, in our basket here, it's going to cost you $239. And we've got some things that you may already have. You may already have your weather radio, you may already have your flashlights. We've got a couple of flashlights. We've got one case of water. Of course, you're going to need more water than that because you need three days supply of food and water. We've got rope. We've got some extension cords. Of course, you've got to have a tarp in case you have holes in the roof. And certainly you need to have some sort of a first aid kit with you. Now, you know, a lot of times what we see, Heidi, at the last minute are people rushing into the stores to get their plywood to put up on their windows. Well, that's great. You get the plywood, you're ready to protect the windows. But if you don't put the plywood up right, it's not going to help you either. So we went out and have an expert show us how to do it right.</s>ZARRELLA (voice-over): This impact test shows what happens when a projectile hits a sheet of 1/2-inch thick plywood. A 2 x 4 goes right through it. Bottom line - if you plan using plywood to cover your windows, experts say try to get 5/8 inch thickness. That should work. And to do it right, you need to get started now.</s>MIKE RIMOLDI, BUILDER: By the time you cut you plywood, you get it sized, you get all your holes marked, you're still looking at an hour per window.</s>ZARRELLA: To do it right.</s>RIMOLDI: Right. Exactly.</s>ZARRELLA: Builder Mike Rimoldi, a consultant for the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, demonstrate for us the proper way to board up. For this window, Rimoldi drilled studs into the masonry around the window.</s>RIMOLDI: We need to stay at least two inches in from the exterior side of the wall, and that prevents blowing out the concrete wall or the masonry. And a minimum or maximum I should say of 12-inch intervals.</s>ZARRELLA: Those are critical points. Again, the anchors need to be two inches off the edge of the frame. And you've got to have enough of them.</s>RIMOLDI: If you just have ones in the corner like a lot of people do, that's not going to provide you any strength.</s>ZARRELLA: There are anchor kits for wood-frame homes as well. Installation is basically the same. There's one is simple way to lessen the risk something will hit your windows. Bring all loose objects inside, hanging baskets, bird baths, lawn furniture. And if you've got extra time and attic access, you can reinforce your roof.</s>RIMOLDI: We're just going to put a liberal amount here and run it the whole way down.</s>ZARRELLA: Using constructive adhesive, run a bead along the joint where the thrust meets the decking. Tests have shown this can significantly strengthen your roof but keep this in mind -</s>RIMOLDI: When the storm is already off the coast of Miami or the coast of Cape Canaveral, it's too late.</s>ZARRELLA: You know, one of the hottest selling items here at this Lowe's, Heidi, is this, which is a way to secure your garage door. If you have an existing garage door, $149 you can reinforce your garage door with this. it's basically a vertical metal beam. The garage door is the most vulnerable part of your house. That will fail before anything else in your house fails, your roof, your windows. When that fails, then the roof comes off. This is one of the hottest selling items. Along with aluminum shutters.</s>COLLINS: Don't forget the aluminum because it will make a lot of noise if you forget it. Interesting though. I like what you say about the garage door because I don't think people really think about that. Certainly if it's blowing up and down and it's made of a flimsier material than your home. Certainly.</s>ZARRELLA: Yes, absolutely.</s>COLLINS: CNN's John Zarrella. Thank you, John. Some helpful information there.</s>ZARRELLA: My pleasure.</s>COLLINS: Meanwhile, Rob Marciano standing by now in the severe weather center. Some great advice there because you know what? A lot of times I bet people are very well intentioned and they want to go out and try to save their homes but they start too late. I mean, it takes a while.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: You've got to get ready now or before even hurricane season starts. You know, Miami and Broward County down there in south Florida, they have some of the strictest building codes in the country. In Bermuda, even more so. I mean, Bermuda, that island is built like a fortress because they get a lot of these. This is Hurricane Bertha, it's a cat 3, it went from 1 to 3 in about five hours yesterday afternoon, winds of 120 miles an hour, gusting to 150. But you can see here, the eye wall, the eye itself is kind of gone now, just in the last few hours, certainly take on some weakening characteristics. I wouldn't be surprised if the 11:00 advisory they downgrade this significantly. The forecast is for it to weaken. It is getting into cooler waters and going a little farther to the north so winds are interacting with it. That's another shot of the track of it. But it looks like now that Bermuda is out of the path of certainty. So that's the good news. Off to the west we go, high pressure control here. This is going to bake California. They are under a heat warning and watches now. Red flag warnings as well. A good chunk of California. As you know, a lot of the state is burning. L.A., here's a live shot for you. Take a look. Temps there right now 50s, get up into the 70s, even lower 80s. There will be a bit of a sea breeze there near LAX. But it's not going to get inland too much. It's really going to get warmer, especially in northern California. We've got red flag warnings up through southern Oregon as well. We go down to Sacramento where temps today could get to 110, even 115. And that will be as measured in the shade, doesn't include humidity. So firefighters certainly suffering there. Around the rest of the country, this front going to be driving to the east, could spark some showers and thunderstorms that could become severe from St. Louis to Chicago. And then pressing further off to the east everywhere, east of that front actually just look for storms to bubble up in the kind of heat of the day. Typical July weather for places like D.C. and New York, 90, 89 degrees in New York, 87 degrees in Boston. 111 in Vegas and 112 in Phoenix.</s>HARRIS: Aren't you heading out that way?</s>COLLINS: No, I'm waiting for it too cool off. I don't think there's enough time.</s>MARCIANO: Are you going to Vegas? Again?</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>MARCIANO: Man, what are they paying her, Tony? You know. I mean unless she's real good at gambling.</s>HARRIS: She gets lucky when she gets out there. That's what it is. The next trip.</s>COLLINS: Lucky at the table.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>HARRIS: Oh, Heidi!</s>COLLINS: You said it.</s>MARCIANO: You are just, you know -</s>HARRIS: You know -</s>MARCIANO: You're ruining our image of you.</s>HARRIS: Oh, my.</s>MARCIANO: Bet 5 bucks on red for me.</s>COLLINS: 5 bucks on red when you go there.</s>MARCIANO: Yes.</s>COLLINS: OK.</s>HARRIS: Thanks, Rob. Well, the pulse of the economy from Wall Street to your corner gas station, let's begin at the New York Stock Exchange. Markets were expected to start the day deep in the red. Take a live look at the big board now, plus 17. May have a reason for that in just a moment. Earlier today oil futures dropped to their lowest level in two weeks that's after yesterday's plunge of nearly 4 bucks a barrel. And just about an hour ago, crude down another $3.50 per barrel. So, encouraging news on the oil front, with the prices there. Yet worries still deepening over the health of the U.S. mortgage. Lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have to raise different cash to weather the housing crisis. A new CNN research opinion poll shows three out of four Americans believe we are now in a recession and gas holds steady at yesterday's record high. Here's a pretty startling number. Each day Americans pay $1 billion more for gas than they did just five years ago.</s>COLLINS: The soaring cost of fuel forcing a couple of airlines to trim cost and pay rolls. Air Tran Airways says it will cut 180 pilots and 300 flight attendants. The layoffs are expected to save about $16 million a year. Other Air Tran employees face pay cuts of about 10 percent. Frontier Airlines eliminating more than 450 jobs. It too blaming high fuel costs. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection back in April.</s>ROBERTS: The FAA now disputing claims of a near-miss over JFK Airport in New York. The incident happened Saturday. Controllers say two planes came within 100 feet of each other. A Cayman Airlines plane was landing but instead pulled away coming close to another plane taking off. The FAA says there was no danger, that the planes were 300 feet apart. The usual safe altitude separation is 1,000 feet.</s>COLLINS: When family tradition and modern ideas collide, some parents kill their children in the name of honor. A look at the culture clash in the NEWSROOM.