LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Hazardous material removal continues Friday in fire- damaged areas of the Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, a day after former Vice President Kamala Harris -- a Brentwood resident -- toured the devastation left by the Palisades Fire and greeted firefighters, elected leaders and other local officials in Westwood to offer her thanks for their efforts in response to the blaze.

Mudslides and debris covered parts of Pacific Coast Highway Friday morning. Caltrans and county workers installed k-rails and sandbags at the base of hillsides to help divert the mudslides from the highway. The mudslides started shortly after midnight.

Pacific Coast Highway was reopened between Santa Monica and Malibu on Monday, but a stretch of the roadway was closed again Monday due to fears of possible debris or mud flows caused by two storms bearing down on the region. PCH was to remain closed until at least Friday between Chautauqua Boulevard in Los Angeles and Carbon Beach Terrace in Malibu, but after the mudslides, that portion of PCH will be closed indefinitely.

Meanwhile, Harris said she was impressed how the community is coming together to recover from the fires and destruction.

"I do believe that in these moments of crisis, the heroes and the angels among us are revealed," Harris said at a relief center established at the Westwood Recreation Center. "When I think about the work that is happening because of the leaders who are here and the folks who work with them, it truly is the best of who we are as a country -- which is individuals understanding the power that they have to lift up the condition of other people. Individuals who understand that in these moments of crisis, so many of the survivors of these crises feel alone, and just need to have a safe place to go, where they are treated with dignity and a sense of community. That they have a place to go where a perfect stranger sees in them a neighbor, sees in them someone who is worthy of their attention and their care and their love.

"That is happening at this facility. It's happening in many other places because of the wildfires we experienced here in California, but it is happening around the country as a result of these extreme weather conditions. ... These extreme weather conditions have become far more frequent than we have historically been used to, and highlight the importance of not only very meaningful and robust federal, state and local partnership among agencies and individuals, but really also highlight the fact that here in California, for example, we no longer talk about wildfire season. Any month of the year we are likely to see these wildfires occur and the damage that they cause, which means we must also look forward in a way that we are building up resources and priorities around not only responding after an extreme weather occurrence, but what we can do to build up resilience and adaptation to these extreme weather events."

Harris previously toured the Eaton Fire burn area in Altadena on Jan. 20, after she officially left office and returned to Los Angeles from Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, recently appointed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin was also in the L.A. area Thursday, touring both the Eaton and Palisades fire burn zones.

"It's impossible to fathom," Zeldin told KNX News after viewing the Eaton Fire area. "No American has ever seen anything like this ever before, and hopefully no American will ever have to see something like this ever again."

He said his agency "has been proudly doing everything in our power" to complete the Phase 1 clearance of hazardous materials from the burn zones, with the agency trying to meet a goal of finishing the work in 30 days.

"We set a 30-day goal. We're doing everything we can to possibly meet it."

Once the Phase 1 hazardous materials work is finished on individual properties, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will expand its Phase 2 clearance of fire debris from properties, clearing the way for residents and businesses to begin rebuilding efforts.

The corps officially began Phase 2 work earlier this work, starting with five Pasadena Unified School District campuses destroyed or damaged in the Eaton Fire.

EPA officials said Wednesday there were more than 1,000 people working on the hazardous waste removal effort, but only about 5% of affected properties had been cleared so far.

But the start of Phase 2 work marked a major advancement in the clearance work, which is expected to take at least a year to fully complete.

"Beginning Phase 2 means we're making tangible progress toward recovery," Col. Eric Swenson, the Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles Wildfires Recovery Field Office commander, said in a statement Tuesday. "Our teams are working with urgency and care to remove hazardous debris while ensuring the safety of the community, workers and the environment."

Phase 2 involves clearing fire-damaged properties of hazardous ash and debris.

Corps of Engineer officials said the Phase 2 operations will expand in the coming weeks to include residential properties destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

County officials on Wednesday again urged fire-affected residents to fill out "Right of Entry" forms to either opt in or out of the free Phase 2 debris-clearance program offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Residents have until March 31 to complete the forms, which are available online at recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/ or at any FEMA Disaster Recovery Center.

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said Wednesday about half of affected residents in the Eaton and Palisades fire areas had filled out the forms to opt in to the clearance program. Residents also have the option of opting out of the program and hiring their own private contractors to perform the work. But that work cannot proceed until the EPA completes its waste- removal program, which is expected to take at least a month.

Status updates on the EPA's work, including an interactive map of individual fire-affected properties, are available online at epa.gov/ca/2025- california-wildfires.

The cleanup efforts have sparked criticism from some residents concerned about the sites being used to process hazardous materials being removed from destroyed properties by the EPA.

Residents, however, are being allowed to return to their properties, along with contractors and utility workers, as they assess damage and determine how to move forward. A nightly curfew for the burn areas remains in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Checkpoints restricting access to the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades remain in place. Returning residents and authorized contractors are being given access to the Palisades Fire burn area with access passes, which are being distributed by law enforcement at the Disaster Recovery Center in West Los Angeles, 10850 Pico Blvd., and at the West Los Angeles Civic Center, 1645 Corinth Ave. Passes can be obtained daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Red Cross and county health officials have been distributing personal protective equipment to people heading for the burn area, and authorities urged people to wear protection as they sift through the potentially hazardous debris.

Both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in the Altadena and Pasadena areas, which erupted on Jan. 7, are now fully contained, according to Cal Fire.

Another Southland blaze that broke out later in January, the Hughes Fire in the Castaic Lake area, burned 10,425 acres and was also fully contained.

The Eaton Fire caused at least 17 deaths, destroyed 9,418 structures and damaged 1,073 more while burning 14,021 acres.

At least 12 people were killed in the Palisades Fire, which burned 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,837 structures and damaged 1,017 others.

The cause of both fires, which began while the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire danger due to a historic wind event that saw gusts of 80 to 100 mph, remains under investigation.

The Los Angeles County Office of Medical Examiner has positively identified 18 of the 29 people confirmed dead in the two wildfires. The list can be found at me.lacounty.gov/2025/press-releases/wildfire-update-18-victims- identified-by-medical- examiner/?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_te rm=.

FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers are open at UCLA Research Park West, 10850 W. Pico Blvd., and in Altadena at 540 W. Woodbury Road, to assist homeowners with applying for aid. The center's are open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

FEMA is also operating two other centers to provide assistance to fire victims, including those from the Hurst, Sunset and Hughes fires. Those centers are at:

-- Sherman Oaks East Valley Adult Center, 5056 Van Nuys Blvd., building B, operating 9:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; and

-- Ritchie Valens Recreation Center, 10736 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Pacoima, operating from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 1 to 6 p.m. Saturdays.

The deadline for fire victims to apply for FEMA financial relief is March 10. According to the county, FEMA has already approved more than $54 million in housing and other assistance for 24,575 households. More than 117,200 individuals have registered for FEMA assistance.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast released a report Tuesday estimated that the two fires caused property damage and capital losses ranging between $95 billion and $164 billion, with insured losses at $75 billion.

AccuWeather last month issued a revised estimate putting the damage and economic losses at between $250 billion and $275 billion.

Gary and Shannon

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