Justin Freer, 38, idled in his Chevy Volt by the Arco station at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, waiting to see whether Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies would let him back to a property of his near Big Rock Drive.

Officials had begun repopulation efforts Wednesday afternoon, setting up a checkpoint to screen residents coming through the area. Malibu residents who live between the ocean and the northern city limit and in the neighborhoods of Serra Retreat and Sweet Water Mesa were allowed back home starting at 2 p.m. 

The Malibu Colony neighborhood and Civic Center area remained closed.

Freer, who also has a home in Thousand Oaks, had to flee the Woolsey fire on Thursday night and had not been able to get through to Malibu until Wednesday. His car was filled with luggage, Brawny paper towels and more.

While Laura Whitaker’s daughter took her 8-year-old son for a donated haircut, Whitaker hung out with her dog Sadie outside her tent.

Whitaker couldn’t go to a shelter with her large dog, a rescued Rottweiler, so here she was, camping instead.

“I love her to death,” Whitaker said of her dog. “I’m not going to put her in a kennel.”

The Camp fire — the deadliest wildfire in California history, with at least 48 dead and hundreds missing — haphazardly visited the buildings in Paradise.

The town’s high school is still standing, physically, though its fate remains uncertain now that up to 90% of its students have lost their homes in the fire.

The low-slung campus, with its green-and-white buildings situated among the pine trees, was unscathed in the fire. Gray smoke filled the air around it Wednesday afternoon, and power lines dangled over sidewalks.

DeAnn “Dee” Miller, 57, was homeless on the streets of Chico for a year and a half until this May, when her uncle got her a 16-foot travel trailer and parked it in Magalia.

Miller took care of her uncle, who has health problems, and she lived in the trailer, parked in the Paradise Pines RV park, until the fire.

Now, Miller fears, she’s homeless again with only the clothing she was wearing when she evacuated from the area.

Some residents returning to their homes after evacuating from the Woolsey fire are being warned to prepare for potential mud flows, a deadly threat that will continue to loom over the region as the rainy season approaches.

Authorities told Malibu residents during a town hall meeting Tuesday that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s watershed emergency response team will try to determine what areas of the city are most at risk for mud flows in the event of a strong storm.

Officials announced Wednesday that several mandatory evacuation orders are lifted for those displaced by the Woolsey fire. 

The City of Calabasas tweeted Wednesday morning that evacuation orders for the entire city had been lifted. Later, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said evacuation orders for several areas of Malibu would be lifted at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

In Malibu, only residents will be able to access the following areas: 

The Malibu Colony neighborhood and Civic Center area are still under evacuation, the Sheriff’s Department said.  

Communities north of Lake Sherwood are also able to return to their homes, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials said.

Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for the communities south of Potrero Road, including homes on Lake Sherwood Drive, Stone Creek Court, Baybrook Court, David Lane, Ravensbury Street, Cricketfield Court and Trentham Road. 

The remainder of Lake Sherwood, Hidden Valley and Carlisle Canyon Road are still under mandatory evacuation, Cal Fire said. 
 

In a grim sign for the Northern California utility giant, Pacific Gas & Electric said Wednesday that if it is deemed responsible for the fire that destroyed much of Paradise, the liability would exceed its insurance coverage.

The cause of California’s most destructive and deadly wildfire has not yet been determined. But PG&E said a transmission line in the area went offline 15 minutes before the fire was first reported, and the company found a damaged transmission tower near where investigators said the fire began. Investigations are underway on the cause of the Camp fire, which has destroyed more than 7,000 homes and killed at least 48 people.

Tens of thousands of people in Northern California are without power and gas as a result of the deadly Camp fire, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Wednesday. 

Since Monday, the utility has sent hundreds of crew members into the field and they have restored electricity to 2,200 homes. Still, 23,000 customers are without power and 12,000 others don’t have gas, the utility said. 

“In many cases, immediate restoration may not be possible,” the utility said in a statement. “In those instances, PG&E is looking at a longer term rebuild of the system wherever and whenever customers rebuild their homes, and supporting our communities as they recover and rebuild.”

Weather conditions will improve for firefighters in the next few days, and the National Weather Service says rain could be on the way for burn areas in Southern California.

Jayme Laber, a hydrologist with the Oxnard branch of the weather service, said the wind direction is expected to shift 180 degree, which means the strong, dry winds from the desert that have fanned flames across the region will shift onshore, bringing more moisture.

“We’re going to see those offshore winds relaxing and tapering off, and we’re going to start seeing our typically afternoon sea breeze and that will last until tomorrow,” Laber said.

Butte County officials Wednesday released a list of the names of more than 100 people who have been reported missing in the Camp fire and asked the public’s help in identifying residents who are safe.

Between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., people can call the missing persons task force at the following numbers: (530) 538-6570, (530) 538-7544 and (530) 538-7671. 

The Sheriff’s Office is also accepting emails at infosheriff@buttecounty.net.