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Healthcare leaders told The Bee that they are confronting a level of disruption to delivering care and running their businesses that they have never seen in their careers as a result of the California wildfires and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s planned blackouts. (Anderson, 10/30)

The downsloping gusts that begin inland and blow toward the ocean in autumn and winter bring with them warmth and dread in equal measure. They howl through the canyons of Santa Monica and whip the palm trees that line the streets of Los Angeles, driving up dust and fraying nerves. The winds, known as the Santa Anas, loom large over the collective psyche of Southern California. They have also been the defining antagonist in this season of fire, a sinister reminder that wind has the power to provoke fear and present danger in an instant. (Arango, 10/30)

For Theodore Hiner Jr. and his crew of Grizzly Firefighters, the mission of the day was to fight any re-ignitions of the Kincade Fire literally by hand, chain-sawing brush, digging out underground flames and hand-pumping water into fresh ditches. To find underground fires amid an unseen labyrinth of roots, the 20-person crew used the backs of their bare hands to gauge the ashen earth’s temperature. “Hot spot!” they cried when an underground fire was found, and the digging began. (Lazo, 10/30)

The biggest battle Wednesday was in Ventura County, where 800 firefighters trying to control the wind-whipped fire surrounding the presidential library were stymied by intense gusts that sent embers flying far beyond the body of the blaze. Helicopters repeatedly dropped loads of water around the Reagan complex, which is perched atop a hill blanketed in dense brush, amid 60-mph winds that were strong enough to knock a person off balance. (Winton, Cosgrove, Miller and Fry, 10/30)

As Pacific Gas & Electric deliberately shut off power to homes and businesses to prevent wildfires, it has failed to communicate with California officials, given conflicting accounts about when the lights would go out and advised people to get information “the old-fashioned way, through calling on a landline.” (Cooper and Williams, 10/30)