Palisades Fire - Los Angeles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These homes start at $2.5M and go up rapidly from there. I bet most of these folks were self-insured.

This represents a huge, extremely wealthy chunk of the Los Angeles county tax base. Lots of families with young kids. It's as if a wild fire completely destroyed CCMD and adjacent neighborhoods in upper NW DC.

This disaster will upend Los Angeles's budget - lots of costs to clean up but also lots of these people will move away. It will only be partially rebuilt, likely with multi-family housing. The entire area will be rebuilt much differently.

No. They will remain single family homes. People rebuild. There’s no way pacific palisades, Malibu or anywhere near the Ocean front will be anything less than multimillion dollar property. This will not affect anything. These people love their lifestyle and paradise there.

If anything, the mildly rich will be replaced by the very rich.

Exactly. My family was never uber rich but comfortable upper middle class and wouldn’t be able to start over in the same place. Many neighbors were regular jobs like electricians and teachers who bought in the 70s, 80s, paid off home and continued on. They will never be able to rebuild and live in the same communities. It’s sad.

My friend in Palisades lost his home. It was a multimillion dollar home but that was his main asset. He doesn't have millions squirreled away to rebuild. A lot of people end up in the position that they could never afford to buy their own home even 5 years later with the way real estate prices increase. I don't know what these people will do, there are millions of them.

Same in FL. People just won’t come back or will sell at a loss.

They will leave. It will take years to rebuild. People will go to Orange County or out of state. They won’t wait around. Their kids need s school and the schools are gone in Palisades.

RE prices are going to skyrocket. Which is insane given the current prices in LA and OC.

There is not nearly enough inventory so people will have to leave.

Some people will probably leave. Others will buy or rent nearby or live with friends and relatives.

[Anonymous]

If Chicago can reverse the flow of its river (1900), then more very clever engineering can be done to rebuild in a safer and more sustainable manner. Add more access roads. Limit the type of vegetation and yes, regulate where it can be placed. Via homeowners association(s), stipulate the types of enhancements that can be made (eg, roof top sprinklers).

But it won't be cost effective for more than the billionaire dollar group of buyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up i this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

This is insane. I agree about people, pets, important documents, and chargers. Laterns/batteries is a good idea too. The kids have a few favorite toys/stuffies. But I don’t care about anything else you mentioned - even if I had a week to prepare I wouldn’t bring China or Christmas decorations or kids artwork. Now if Google and Amazon photo BOTH lose all my digital storage, THEN I’d be devastated. But the stuff is just stuff.

You do you. You have no right to judge anyone else. I had to leave grabbing what I could with no planning the first time. Then we watched and waited for three days. It sucked beyond belief and yes, if I can safely prevent my family from going through what our friends have, I will do it. Now we’re prepared. My best friends lost every single thing. It’s all “just stuff” until it happens to you. Make your own decisions and don’t judge other people as long as they are obeying safety orders.

+1 I’m so sick of people coming for this woman after they ASKED HER how she organizes to get out with all her stuff.

+2

This woman answered a question and shared her process. It’s not anyone’s job to tell her that her choices for what to save are wrong.

The idea about the trash bags is especially smart.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone measuring the toxins in the air. There are so many synthetic things burning in this fire. TVs, carpet, sofas, cars.

Right! I saw these reports standing out there in the smoke and fire and all I could think of was if their career was worth what they were breathing. Building material, rubber, synthetics, chemicals and they were out there for hours.

Same. I felt my momness strongly. This young woman is standing in the middle of the fire with a mask from Home Depot! Anderson Cooper has a nice respirator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These homes start at $2.5M and go up rapidly from there. I bet most of these folks were self-insured.

This represents a huge, extremely wealthy chunk of the Los Angeles county tax base. Lots of families with young kids. It's as if a wild fire completely destroyed CCMD and adjacent neighborhoods in upper NW DC.

This disaster will upend Los Angeles's budget - lots of costs to clean up but also lots of these people will move away. It will only be partially rebuilt, likely with multi-family housing. The entire area will be rebuilt much differently.

No. They will remain single family homes. People rebuild. There’s no way pacific palisades, Malibu or anywhere near the Ocean front will be anything less than multimillion dollar property. This will not affect anything. These people love their lifestyle and paradise there.

If anything, the mildly rich will be replaced by the very rich.

Exactly. My family was never uber rich but comfortable upper middle class and wouldn’t be able to start over in the same place. Many neighbors were regular jobs like electricians and teachers who bought in the 70s, 80s, paid off home and continued on. They will never be able to rebuild and live in the same communities. It’s sad.

My friend in Palisades lost his home. It was a multimillion dollar home but that was his main asset. He doesn't have millions squirreled away to rebuild. A lot of people end up in the position that they could never afford to buy their own home even 5 years later with the way real estate prices increase. I don't know what these people will do, there are millions of them.

Same in FL. People just won’t come back or will sell at a loss.

They will leave. It will take years to rebuild. People will go to Orange County or out of state. They won’t wait around. Their kids need s school and the schools are gone in Palisades.

RE prices are going to skyrocket. Which is insane given the current prices in LA and OC.

There is not nearly enough inventory so people will have to leave.

Some people will probably leave. Others will buy or rent nearby or live with friends and relatives.

For years? Not very feasible and not necessary for people with means. They may rebuild but in the meantime they will leave and not deal with the lack of infrastructure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up in SoCal and this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

This is insane. I agree about people, pets, important documents, and chargers. Laterns/batteries is a good idea too. The kids have a few favorite toys/stuffies. But I don’t care about anything else you mentioned - even if I had a week to prepare I wouldn’t bring China or Christmas decorations or kids artwork. Now if Google and Amazon photo BOTH lose all my digital storage, THEN I’d be devastated. But the stuff is just stuff.

You do you. You have no right to judge anyone else. I had to leave grabbing what I could with no planning the first time. Then we watched and waited for three days. It sucked beyond belief and yes, if I can safely prevent my family from going through what our friends have, I will do it. Now we’re prepared. My best friends lost every single thing. It’s all “just stuff” until it happens to you. Make your own decisions and don’t judge other people as long as they are obeying safety orders.

+1 I’m so sick of people coming for this woman after they ASKED HER how she organizes to get out with all her stuff.

NP. I think the PP is amazing and am so grateful she took the time to post at length. It gave me ideas I wouldn't have even thought of, i.e. Christmas ornaments.

I'm inspired to not just put together a "go" bag with essentials/docs but also a box of most treasured items.

I'm also going to use the snow day tomorrow to have my teenager scan the photos from old photo albums so we have everything in the cloud. I have all my children's photos saved digitally but not the ones from my own childhood.

Thank you, I appreciate you and other PPs who have been kind and supportive. I hope none of you ever have to evacuate, but for those that find peace in making a plan, I’m glad I could help a little bit.

My heart is with all who are suffering from these fires, the road ahead is long.

Thanks pp. I'm sure there are a lot of us who got some good insight into things that could help us, fire or no. I found your post very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up in SoCal and this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

This is insane. I agree about people, pets, important documents, and chargers. Laterns/batteries is a good idea too. The kids have a few favorite toys/stuffies. But I don’t care about anything else you mentioned - even if I had a week to prepare I wouldn’t bring China or Christmas decorations or kids artwork. Now if Google and Amazon photo BOTH lose all my digital storage, THEN I’d be devastated. But the stuff is just stuff.

You do you. You have no right to judge anyone else. I had to leave grabbing what I could with no planning the first time. Then we watched and waited for three days. It sucked beyond belief and yes, if I can safely prevent my family from going through what our friends have, I will do it. Now we’re prepared. My best friends lost every single thing. It’s all “just stuff” until it happens to you. Make your own decisions and don’t judge other people as long as they are obeying safety orders.

+1 I’m so sick of people coming for this woman after they ASKED HER how she organizes to get out with all her stuff.

+2

This woman answered a question and shared her process. It’s not anyone’s job to tell her that her choices for what to save are wrong.

The idea about the trash bags is especially smart.

I agree. Very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has this thread been colonized with people who are non-functional? Are you all incapable of basic skills like “using Google”?

The information about the deadly wildfires in Europe is easily available with a very, very basic Google search.

For some reason this thread has attracted a lot of trolls and/or terrible people.

These fires are awful and devastating. I am very sorry for the people who have lost their houses and their businesses, not to mention those who have lost their lives. This thread is one of the worst I've seen on here. No one should be snarking on the loss of whole communities and livelihoods. It's not good for us as people and it's not good for your soul as a human.

Praying the winds die down and these fires can be brought under control.

That's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop buying/rebuilding homes in very disaster prone areas.

Pro Tip - need the home is uninsurable or the rates are unaffordable, don’t buy there. Insurers are telling you something. You just don’t want to hear it.

We're talking about a lot of people who are older, been there generations, couldn't afford to buy right now without leaving their home state. The lack of compassion is astounding. I don't think anyone on this board is currently home shopping in LA.

True, but this is a typical East Coast response to any disaster in California. We are fairly hardened to it. East Coasters only believe their disasters matter.

NP. I wish people here would please stop the crass generalizing about and stereotyping of both East Coasters and Californians. I'm in VA and of course I, and everyone here I've bern talking with today, believes this disaster "matters." More than that, many of us have friends, family, colleagues in the LA area and we're extremely concerned. Im sitting here just having read that a friend whose area had been safe is now preparing to evacuate. And we've heard nothing for days about another friend who is disabled and would need extra time to get out. There are other friends and acquaintances out there who are likely to lose their homes--one has already said his house of many years is gone.

Just stop the self-centered blame games and get some perspective. Posts about how "all East Coasters think X" or "all Calfornians deserve this just for living there" are immature and arrogant in the face of this tragedy.

Amen. Everyone I know is sad about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

What place is safe? People live in Tornado Alley, in hurricane zones, in tsunami risk zones, beside volcanoes, in earthquake risk zones, in flood zones, in wildfire and mudslide risk zones, in avalanche zones and in terrorism/war target/crime zones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These homes start at $2.5M and go up rapidly from there. I bet most of these folks were self-insured.

This represents a huge, extremely wealthy chunk of the Los Angeles county tax base. Lots of families with young kids. It's as if a wild fire completely destroyed CCMD and adjacent neighborhoods in upper NW DC.

This disaster will upend Los Angeles's budget - lots of costs to clean up but also lots of these people will move away. It will only be partially rebuilt, likely with multi-family housing. The entire area will be rebuilt much differently.

No. They will remain single family homes. People rebuild. There’s no way pacific palisades, Malibu or anywhere near the Ocean front will be anything less than multimillion dollar property. This will not affect anything. These people love their lifestyle and paradise there.

If anything, the mildly rich will be replaced by the very rich.

Exactly. My family was never uber rich but comfortable upper middle class and wouldn’t be able to start over in the same place. Many neighbors were regular jobs like electricians and teachers who bought in the 70s, 80s, paid off home and continued on. They will never be able to rebuild and live in the same communities. It’s sad.

My friend in Palisades lost his home. It was a multimillion dollar home but that was his main asset. He doesn't have millions squirreled away to rebuild. A lot of people end up in the position that they could never afford to buy their own home even 5 years later with the way real estate prices increase. I don't know what these people will do, there are millions of them.

Same in FL. People just won’t come back or will sell at a loss.

What about insurance, won't it be covered? Or is there an exclusion because it's in a fire zone.

Insurance can also be kind of a trap in this situation - you can rebuild but if you can't re-insure you also can't sell because nobody will buy from you. That's probably not going to happen in Pacific Palisades, but it's possible. This is the case in some parts of Houston with flooding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop buying/rebuilding homes in very disaster prone areas.

Pro Tip - need the home is uninsurable or the rates are unaffordable, don’t buy there. Insurers are telling you something. You just don’t want to hear it.

We're talking about a lot of people who are older, been there generations, couldn't afford to buy right now without leaving their home state. The lack of compassion is astounding. I don't think anyone on this board is currently home shopping in LA.

True, but this is a typical East Coast response to any disaster in California. We are fairly hardened to it. East Coasters only believe their disasters matter.

NP. I wish people here would please stop the crass generalizing about and stereotyping of both East Coasters and Californians. I'm in VA and of course I, and everyone here I've bern talking with today, believes this disaster "matters." More than that, many of us have friends, family, colleagues in the LA area and we're extremely concerned. Im sitting here just having read that a friend whose area had been safe is now preparing to evacuate. And we've heard nothing for days about another friend who is disabled and would need extra time to get out. There are other friends and acquaintances out there who are likely to lose their homes--one has already said his house of many years is gone.

Just stop the self-centered blame games and get some perspective. Posts about how "all East Coasters think X" or "all Calfornians deserve this just for living there" are immature and arrogant in the face of this tragedy.

Amen. Everyone I know is sad about this.

You can't measure something like this. PP is just gone. Here one day and gone the next. To watch the fire spread and not not know where it will spread to next must feel incomprehensible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

What place is safe? People live in Tornado Alley, in hurricane zones, in tsunami risk zones, beside volcanoes, in earthquake risk zones, in flood zones, in wildfire and mudslide risk zones, in avalanche zones and in terrorism/war target/crime zones.

Wildfires are scary. I’m still living in one of the safest places in the US. You know where I got assaulted? In the middle of one of the world’s largest airports crawling with law enforcement. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question from somebody who hasn't had to evacuate - when do you decide to go? My impulse would be to just leave now if I was anywhere near, but I can understand it requires a place to stay, missing work, etc. Do you wait for the order? or go sooner if you can?

I am pp who has been through it three times. We have a system that warns us to prepare to evacuate, and we all are watching location, wind speed/direction, and of course literally watching, communicating with neighbors, and paying attention to our guts. I want to be out before the order so that there is no chance of being stuck in gridlock.

Coordinating with neighbors is a must. We have some teens on the block that aren’t old enough to drive. There are plans A, B, and C for them to get out. We all have keys or codes for multiple neighbors and we know who has which pets. We have a couple of elderly neighbors that are pretty fit but we have designated people to make sure they are ok and help them if needed. We let each other know when we’re going out of town, etc.

Curious, PP: Why do you keep living in such a fire-prone area? Why not move away to a safer place?

What place is safe? People live in Tornado Alley, in hurricane zones, in tsunami risk zones, beside volcanoes, in earthquake risk zones, in flood zones, in wildfire and mudslide risk zones, in avalanche zones and in terrorism/war target/crime zones.

DMV!

[Anonymous]

^ meant to quote the why don’t you move guy. I think I need some sleep!