Evacuation orders lifted for some as chemical leak fears ease | Right Now

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Good morning and thank you so much for watching right now on the CBS 8 app. I am Chris Crow joined as always here by Jack Hull. Today is May 26th. It's a Tuesday. Uh we're just one day removed from Memorial Day. Many of you just now starting your work week. We want to thank you so much for being here with us. We have a lot of news >> to get to, including obviously one that has taken California uh all of the attention really as we have seen a lot of eyes paid uh just to north of where we are. a place you spent some time uh in there, Jack Road, uh Garden Grove, not too far from uh some old college stomping grounds. So, we were having an off the off the camera conversation about my like internal frustration about some of the reporting on it. Not not anything bad, but it's just I find it funny that national geographically it's it is easiest to say by Disneyland, but I'm like, you know, if you're from the area, it's not. But, I mean, all jokes aside, this is a really serious situation. We have in the past 24 hours we have had some great updates and we're seeing these updates continue to be more optimistic but nonetheless you know a scary situation for those who know the area and just know Orange County uh in general it is very dense you know there's not a lot of open spaces throughout a lot of it especially if you're in that area that's uh west of the Anaheim Hills so you go from Orange to Anaheim Garden Grove Westminster uh um Fullerton among a bunch of these other places. Not a whole lot of room for people in this situation. If you see something like this, and we've had this map, and we'll pull it up periodically as we go through, and I'll pull it up here one more time, but I mean, you take a look at that. That doesn't look that big compared to perhaps even some neighborhoods here in San Diego for those who might not be familiar, but it, you know, that is a large swath of residents. It it really is. Um, >> yeah, the initial estimates were 50,000 people to evacuate. That number has obviously since changed uh since we've now learned that it won't not be as large of an explosion if there is an explosion. Um but yeah, Jack, a very densely populated area. You have a lot of those um uh master build construction type neighborhoods there, especially like in Irvine and in and around, as you said, just west of Anaheim Hills. Yeah.

[00:02:15]Densely populated. Okay. All right. Uh well, uh Jonathan Vigliotti with CBS News has been updating portions of this story. We have his latest report as he joins um or excuse me as he files this one from an emergency command post.

[00:02:31]After 4 days of fear this morning, relief.

[00:02:34]>> The most catastrophic and worst case scenario was mitigated and resolved.

[00:02:41]>> The risk of a blevy, a disastrous explosion of toxic chemicals has been averted. On Monday, officials said they have the upper hand on a chemical storage tank that was overheating at the GKN aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California.

[00:02:56]>> I'm going to go to my car.

[00:02:58]>> It's a major victory for many of the 50,000 displaced residents across six cities.

[00:03:03]>> Roughly 65% is going home. That's a huge win.

[00:03:08]>> Officials say a crack in the tank had actually released builtup pressure and heat, but warn other dangers remain. We still have to mitigate a fire and very small explosion concern and also a spill potential.

[00:03:24]>> Outside of food truck feeding evacuees, we met Jaclyn Ryos and her dog Jericho >> were scrambling to get what we need.

[00:03:33]>> They had been sleeping in her car for three nights because shelters separate pets from owners, but on Monday she had no choice. It looked like it was going to be a very hot day and I can't have him having a heat stroke.

[00:03:47]>> Officials saying they're hopeful that the worst case scenario will not materialize. What goes on in your mind when you hear that news?

[00:03:54]>> Praise the Lord.

[00:03:56]>> And officials say a faulty valve impacted the tank's cooling system. The aerospace company is now working with authorities here on the ground and President Trump releasing federal funding to assist with the recovery.

[00:04:08]John Deleliotti, CBS News, Cypress, California.

[00:04:12]>> Chris, I don't know if you have the official number. It said 60%. So, just doing some quick math off the top of my head. You're looking at about 30,000 people roughly.

[00:04:20]>> The number is around 34,000,000.

[00:04:23]Yeah. So, um this was this was great news. In fact, uh this was something that was my assignment here uh for this morning. And I'll pull up the uh the notes that I have here right now. 34,000 evacuees were told that they could go home.

[00:04:36]um 50,000 obviously given the evacuation order to to to leave their home and you you know you heard from from that woman there who was who was talking about we can just start with the human element of this which I think sometimes often gets sort of um looked past is you know she is choosing to sleep in her car in a safe area uh you know presumably away from the blast radius but she's doing that because the the the shelters are overwhelmed um you know again it's not very often that that you have a scenario like this other than like maybe when there's a wildfire that you have thousands upon thousands of people that have been evacuated, but she wanted to stay with her dog. She didn't want to get separated from her dog >> as you heard Jonathan Vigliotti uh explained there. And so she um obviously is choosing to evacuate but do so um and maybe not the best way, but then at the same time you do have people who are coming to these shelters or or had been and they're overwhelmed. Uh they're not maybe uh able to get space. Hotels there are overwhelmed. Um, so it is great news to hear that yes, 34,000 people uh were told that they could go home because 50,000 uh evacuation. I mean that I I was >> it it just made me sort of do like a you know kind of a check where you're just like how many people live in my neighborhood, right? Like if something like this happened like >> you know it seems like such a large number but then you know when you consider you know there's you know I think it's like 1.4 million people live in the city of San Diego alone. Yeah. it starts to make sense obviously.

[00:06:02]>> Yeah. A lot of uh the other reports that we've seen here, not just from CBS, but uh from uh our reporters here locally, uh yeah, it's a lot of images of people in their cars and vans. You see blankets posted up. You see sun shades up to to cool it down. uh unfortunate the hotel element I think what you mentioned is a good point because I'm going to sound like a little bit of a hypocrite but it's close enough to Disneyland to where when you're looking at rates and you know anyone you know like I said I I you know my the school that I went to for college was right there Chapman University and I remember those instances where uh you would have uh family members come to visit for either you know a parents week or a graduation or stuff like that and yeah those costs are high especially in times where the demand is high and if you have such a huge price surge, you know, that's something that people there's there's people there that can't do it anyways, right? So, you're adding another stress of not only do you have to do this, but so does everyone else. So, >> and remember, Disneyland stayed open as well as Knottberry Farm. So, like those are two major tourist attractions where people may have already been staying.

[00:07:03]Yeah. At at those places >> and and and if anyone, you know, I'm sure everyone here and most people who are listening are aware, there's no, you know, there's no offseason. No, for for those places, deny that. So, uh yeah, interesting situation for sure.

[00:07:16]something that has uh really captured a lot of people. I'm sure that uh you know obviously we uh we both know people who are from that area as do a lot of other people here, family members, friends, whatnot. So uh you know good to see some progress on it. Uh one of the things that we had a conversation with Alex Lie about this yesterday more specifically narrowing in on the chemical itself.

[00:07:37]It's called MMA is the shorthand term for it. Uh she mentioned something that was interesting which uh I'll break down the short-term symptoms really quick of exposure. A lot of it has to do with certain uh neurological disorders like headaches, lightadedness, there's respiratory problems, coughing, trouble breathing, skin irritation is one and that's you know that's if it's inhaled.

[00:07:58]Uh but she makes the point to where uh there was and to a certain extent still is a risk of this long-term exposure.

[00:08:06]What's going to happen if you're living in this area? The evacuation order is lifted. They said that there is a spill.

[00:08:11]What are potential unforeseen runoff events? And I think that's something that um I I'm not going to I'm not going to judge what the actual concern level is at that time. I'm not, you know, I'm not qualified to make an assumption as to whether or not, you know, we're basing off of this off of what you're hearing from these emergency command posts. But, uh she did make the point that there is unknowns. Yeah. In there.

[00:08:33]and and at the very least it it it requires uh a careful eye uh in the in the months and the weeks that follow what we're seeing from here because you know it's something that's used to make resins, something that's used to make uh certain plastics. Of course, it is a toxic chemical but uh the toxicity and what it means whether in certain amounts over a long period of time still a lot of unknowns. She called it unprecedented.

[00:08:57]>> Yeah. Yeah, it really is. I I I can't remember ever having reported on uh something like this. And the other thing that we need to keep in mind here is that the blevy that that's the word that we keep hearing, right?

[00:09:09]>> Um essentially it's a very uh it's it's an acronym for what will is a large chemical explosion. I I I have the definition right here, but I just feel um this is another conversation we were having off camera where I I feel like that is maybe not doing the the the true um description of what it can be. And I understand that sometimes with first responders they get they get sort of stuck into that talk, but large chemical explosion, but it stands for boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.

[00:09:36]>> Is that quick question? Is that something that they just quickly made a shorthand off of based on technical term? Is that something >> that's like a hazmat term?

[00:09:45]>> It's like a hazmat like a because they they are trained. While we're sitting here saying, "Wow, this is this is crazy. Unheard of." um a lot of the first responders are are are trained in how to respond to a chemical tank leak or or something that might happen like this. So that's why they have that term sort of, you know, ready to go, if you will. Um I I will say one of the things that that is still obviously a possibility. We heard from OC Fire Authority about this and that's the fact that smaller or maybe even several smaller explosions are still possible.

[00:10:15]Obviously, that means that that would not be an immediate threat to those 34,000 people who were just told that they could go home. But there is still a potential for a chemical leak and or an explosion. A chemical leak. believe they have said that they have cut off um any potential entryway for the chemicals to make their way into um you know the uh um to the sewer system to waterways to you know any estuaries anything where that might eventually make its way to the ocean so forth they've set up a large like uh barrier and and surrounding with sandbags and so forth but um one of the interesting things there is you see that constant stream of water that they've been having on that to to lower or try to maintain the temperature of the the internal temperature of the tank. So, um, think about when you're cooking a roast. Um, you're trying to bring the temperature up, right? Well, they're trying to bring the temperature down. They're they're basting the roast, if you will, to to try to control it. They have it at about 93° that they got it down from 100. That that's what eliminated the >> They want to get it to a 60 to 70°. So, that's still quite a bit of away. So, think about it. it took Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and and a lot of that maybe the crack in the pressure kind of helped with that as well, too. That got it down maybe 7°.

[00:11:32]>> Yeah. And and >> we're still talking about an extra 20 to 30° that they would like to see it get down to where they say that is safe. No go or a go zone like we are. We're in the clear >> cuz like you mentioned that's that's nearly 50% higher than what is recommended to be safe. and and I mean you you think about the risks substantial risks uh that are associated with that. I know uh another thing that we talked about and we'll probably end up talking about this with Jenny Day uh on Thursday. She's going to join us here on the show. Um >> this company uh has a footprint that expands far outside of Orange County.

[00:12:08]They have facilities across the world.

[00:12:10]More specifically, they have one here in El Cahone. This has of course been a very fastm moving uh story. uh one of those things that you know if you're enjoying the long Memorial Day weekend and and trust us we do too in this industry. We we decide we we unplug for a little bit um we take your mind off of things for you know sometimes it's hard to get into the news all the time. This is one of those stories to be completely honest with you. It was where I like was really not plugged into it and it was like that Sunday night Monday morning where I'm I'm really starting to look into it and to see all of the details in such a small amount of time. So obviously a lot of questions and especially uh that there's a local angle here that was explored yesterday by Jenny Day. Uh she did an excellent story about that. We're going to break down that further most likely on Thursday.

[00:12:58]We've already seen two uh lawsuits that have been filed as a result of this.

[00:13:02]>> I think they've been combined into a class action now. Is that correct? And then the OC district attorney announced that they they're going to be doing an investigation into into the cause of this as well too.

[00:13:10]>> They said that they they they've gotten fines before in the past. some uh I'm not entirely sure of the context.

[00:13:16]>> I think they were environmental fines.

[00:13:18]Um and again um different states, different rules, things like that. So it doesn't necessarily mean nefarious behavior that that that's not what we're inferring here, but but there is a record at at least of of this happening or not this happening before, but there being um potential violations in the past.

[00:13:34]>> Yeah. So uh good news. Hopefully uh I'm sure uh you know obviously everyone is hoping that the good news continues to come and it gets better and better as time goes on. Um I could say the trend line right now we only have two real uh points of updates to compare to which was yesterday's updates right before we actually had Alex on which was when uh they officially said that the threat of a massive explosion had been eliminated.

[00:13:59]Um and now we're starting to see some of that be lifted. So just from almost exactly 24 hours ago from when we got that first announcement to start off the week, uh great news.

[00:14:08]>> Yeah, you know, a lot of good things to think about. So I if that's something that if you have family that's around there who had been evacuated, uh caution is still 100% the name of the game. But if anything, you know, rest a little bit easier because I think I I think again for for a lot of people, they they you know, they hear large explosion and and what can that mean? I I think it's also the that is then sending the chemicals and and I don't want to speak for the for the fire authority or anybody who's working in hazmat, but essentially what I interpreted that as yes, the explosion would do damage. It would be a large explosion, but it would also jettison those chemicals to places that they can't contain. If there's a chemical spill, they feel like they can contain that. That would be a rupture. But in the event of an explosion, it could potentially send those chemicals to places that, you know, they lose containment.

[00:14:57]>> Cuz what's cuz what's the that evacuation zone? I'll throw it up one more time. What are we looking at there?

[00:15:01]Like a mile radius or something like that. Um >> yeah, they they've since Yeah. minimized that.

[00:15:06]>> Yeah. And this has been updated since we put it up yesterday. So this is the initial one. So >> Oh, that's the initial 50,000.

[00:15:11]>> Yes. We want to make that clear that this is not the updated AC uh evacuation zone. We want to give you an idea of what that 50,000 looks like at that point. like you've said uh we have seen that number go down dramatically there but you know that was but that was one of the thoughts that I had too was okay >> you're looking at a mileish radius what is an explosion like that look like you know it's I find it was very difficult to to believe you know at first instinct that this is going to be an explosion that's that big of course I'm you know we don't know for sure >> the combustion element of the chemicals >> a lot of unknowns on that pressure yes that that is not something that you and I got degrees in. Uh so, you know, we we all we can do is speculate and and that's what we don't like to do in this industry. But, you know, it but it does speak to that idea of, you know, what what does that mean? You know, it's it's a thing where it's it's a little bit difficult to visualize the actual risk and whether it's is it an immediate effect? Is it an immediate danger? Is it >> I'm trying I actually had there was a good article that I read on Yeah. Um, so this is the New York Times. They spoke with the head of chemical engineering at Texas&M.

[00:16:22]>> This was the worstc case scenario.

[00:16:24]Again, uh, would be a rupture of the tank that launches fire and debris into the air and it would be similar to a car collision in which the gas from the vehicle vaporizes and causes a mushroom of destructive fire. In those cases, however, the fireball tends to stay close to the ground. Here, the fireball would fly upward and cause damage elsewhere.

[00:16:43]>> Wow.

[00:16:44]If about half of the material in the tank is released, the fireball from the explosion could be about the size of a house.

[00:16:50]>> Okay. So, so is small in scale but in in runoff effects is where you're starting to see that danger. Okay, that's uh that's good to know and to see that that is a worst case scenario. something that of course has been uh eliminated according to >> and uh just in order to get there to find that I had to go New York Times mushroom garden grove because I remember the the mushroom but I didn't want to say mushroom cloud obviously because what that could be inferred to mean but it's just simply the shape of the of of what the explosion would look like and and for those who have seen those explosions as he alluded to here with with cars when they you know they have a head-on collision or they're involved in those very serious ones that that sort of like slow build up but boom up. Yeah, that's what they're referring to.

[00:17:33]>> The good news is is that uh the what was being described there is is very likely it's not going to happen.

[00:17:39]>> You said the levy not going to happen.

[00:17:41]So So it and and to to just kind of put a bow on it that crack that you mentioned is really a godsend for this.

[00:17:48]Yeah. It provided a way where there was no human intervention that needed to take place in order to you know in a way just solve the problem for them. It's really been more of a monitor and and prepare kind of situation, right?

[00:18:02]>> Yeah. And again, this was something where they they saw that crack and and they had this like overnight mission to to sort of see exactly >> what was going on with this is is monitoring the the temperature and all that.

[00:18:15]>> Is it helpful? Is it not helping? And then there was also some weathering. A lot of people thought that there was maybe a second crack and it actually ended up just being some like weathering is is sort of the way that they described it. wear and tear or maybe even just from the pressure being released that it sort of >> um maybe caused some damage to the outside of the tank, but it was not a second crack. So, they they it's good because they know they have the one crack so they can track to see the EPA did a did an analysis and they they did not see any type of spill of the chemical from there as well too because again, yeah, there's a crack in the tank. Well, the the tank's not supposed to be cracked for a number of reasons.

[00:18:52]Obviously, pressure, you want to keep things stabilized, but also you don't want a chemical spill. So the EPA did say that there was no sign of a chemical spill. So as of right now, again, everything's contained, pressure is being released, temperatures going down, the the idea or excuse me, the possibility of a large chemical explosion has essentially been eliminated, and now it's really just this wait and see game.

[00:19:12]>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh hopefully here's to seeing the good news keep coming. We appreciate all the work that you've done over the past 48 hours. uh really getting a grasp on the issue uh uh getting an assessment on uh the risk really because I think that you know you hear the you hear the numbers of the evacuation you see the map but what does that really look like? So uh thank you for uh uh you know bringing that to