Los Angeles, From Hollywood to the Pacific Palisades, is having its “Helene” moment. The fires rushing through parts of the city are an unexpected disaster that is already being the considered the worst of its kind ever. I feel for the residents more today than I would a year ago.
Just as I had friends who evacuated their houses and ran uphill to escape the rising water, 80,000 people in California are being evacuated, forced to abandon their homes and sometimes their cars to escape the flames. Five are known dead and at least a thousand homes destroyed, but I expect it will get worse.
My wife said to me. “All the news coverage is about the L.A. fires. It must have been like this during Helene, except we couldn’t watch TV.” Yet another example about the importance of local threats versus global ones, and why you need to have a bug out bag.
Meanwhile, we’re experiencing single digit temperatures with windchills around -16. I will admit that my fingers got cold the last time I walked the dog. She didn’t seem bothered by it, but she is happy to sit in front of the fire when we get home. Me too!
Good luck to any readers in the Los Angeles area. I hope insurance covers fire better than it does flooding and landslides.
Published 1/9/2025. Read full article and view photos.
