My nephew Michael LoSchiavo and his young family (wife, children under age 5, cats, a dog) are based in the Highland Park area of L.A. (very near the totally devastated Altadena) and were forced to evacuate. Fortunately, his wife has relatives in Santa Monica and they were able to shelter there. And, most fortunately, they returned to a house still standing - - unlike many of their colleagues, coworkers, and friends. Due to L.A. power outages, etc., my brother and I were often cut off from communicating with them and we were pretty frantic during these news black-outs.
Even for residents whose homes were spared, toxic smoke got into everything. Another problem.
As a native New Yorker who lives in a fire-proof building made of steel and reinforced concrete, I found it astonishing to see multi-million dollar mansions disintegrate like dollhouses.
What were these flimsy McMansions made of anyway?
And will L.A. subsequently establish a city-wide building code on par with New York?
The terrifying newspaper images from Los Angeles will stay with me for a long time.
What a heartbreaking conflagration. Condolences to all who were affected.
I feel very deeply grateful to the firefighters who worked hard to save my community. Last Saturday I thought we were going to lose our house. Our canyon is essentially indefensible - once the fire gets down into the canyon, we were told the firefighters would leave. I am still processing this as well as the fact that almost everyone my kids know who live in the palisades ( they went to palisades high) lost their houses. My first job was in the palisades. My doctor was there. It’s unbelievable.
I am deeply affected. L.A. was so good to me for years. I am very very saddened by all the loss, the heartbreak, the residual trauma...words fail me. What we can do: give. But vet the charity with Charity Navigator. My blog has three suggestions: www.wisesculpture.com/blog. We all own this awful circumstance. Take heart--Maui is recovering, Los Angeles will also. With our help, however small a gift, or two or three. Thank you.
This continued devastation caused by climate change leaves me speechless. Words do not suffice. But thank you, Becky, for collecting some charities and reputable places to donate. The loss and displacement of so many people on top of an affordable housing shortage...it makes me imagine inviting strangers to live in my home. Maybe someday that will become a necessity, something we're all forced to do. God, who knows in this crazy world? My prayers are ongoing.
We live in the desert but have family and friends in LA. Thankfully our family members are not displaced, but friends lost not only their home, but their entire neighborhood. It is surreal to try to comprehend that sort of loss, and now all the finger pointing. So many ways to give, but cynicism causes me to wonder which resource will be the least corrupt and what % of money collected will go to the victims. I wrote a poem about this at my Substack "Briefly" here: https://ashleykaiser.substack.com/p/the-albatross
Alas, I've been very conscious of wildfire for the last ten years (though honestly it's been more like twenty--in 2004 when I was prepping for my first year of teaching in a mountain school, firefighting helicopters were dipping water from a pool on school grounds). We've either been coping with wildfire smoke, nervously watching lightning storms, or dealing with local wildfires during that time. I was at the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, which was notorious for being smoked out by wildfire. We had to leave early because my horse's barn was under Level 1 evacuation--and could not take the most direct route back due to another wildfire.
A big chunk of the Columbia River Gorge near Multnomah Falls burned in 2017, thanks to a kid's stupidity with fireworks during red flag warning weather. Last summer here in Oregon we had a lot of big grassland wildfires--and those can be even more scary than in a forest because the brush and grass fires move faster than in a forest. But it all depends on the wind. The 2020 fires in the Oregon Cascades were driven by winds much like what's happening now in LA. Hard downslope east winds.
I've included wildfire in a few of my books. In the first book of The Cost of Power, Return, my characters are driven out of their honeymoon camp by a wildfire pushed by a vengeful water spirit. In A Different Life: What If?, wildfire is mentioned as part of the events leading to the climax. In Netwalker Uprising, the smell of smoke from wildfires is part of the summer settings.
Then again, come to think of it, it's been longer than that. I reviewed Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire (which left quite an impression on me because we were camping in country like he describes). The review came out just before the horror that killed those young men in 1948 was repeated in the 1994 South Canyon Fire. We were driving through Prineville (home of the Hotshots who died) and wondered why the town was so quiet (we had been camping). It wasn't until then that we heard the news.
Okay. Make that over thirty years that I've been thinking about wildfires. And actually longer than that. I live in the West.
Becky, thank you for referencing my resource page at bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters. I just wanted to alert everyone that the LA Arts Community Relief Fund opened *today* for applications for grants of up to $10,000. The announced deadline is February 18. I've updated the corresponding link on my resource page; to access this fund directly, go to https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
What kept the LA catastrophe on my mind was the odd similarity between it and the devastation in the Middle East. Tragically, so many here in the States have lost their homes, but many continue to be wealthy, and some even have insurance to start anew. The people of Gaza have no such positive channels for moving forward. And over 40,000 have died. Whether it is Israeli bombers or Santa Ana winds, the devastation is appalling and complete.
I've come late to Becky's post this week and, as I read it just now, my first thought was "I have to say something about Gaza", but you've beaten me to it, B.A.
I will add that, while I followed the news about the LA fires with horror, empathise with the many people who have lost everything, not all of whom are wealthy, I, too, contrast that with the situation of over two million displaced Gazans, most of whom have nothing but ruins to go back to and have little or no hope of anything else for the foreseeable future: no shelter, no schools for their childrens, little healthcare, almost nothing in the way of other basic needs and, most importantly, no hope.
Let me say also, that I share the general horror at the plight of the Israeli hostages and their families and the families of those killed on 7 October, but the plight of the people of the West Bank and Gaza - and the thousands of Palestinians in the huge refugee camps in Lebanon, have largely been ignored for decades. One of the more nauseating "diplomatic" spectacles in recent decades was the conclusion of the "Abraham Accords" between Israel and certain Arab states, which set conditions regarding Palestine and the Palestinians.
My nephew Michael LoSchiavo and his young family (wife, children under age 5, cats, a dog) are based in the Highland Park area of L.A. (very near the totally devastated Altadena) and were forced to evacuate. Fortunately, his wife has relatives in Santa Monica and they were able to shelter there. And, most fortunately, they returned to a house still standing - - unlike many of their colleagues, coworkers, and friends. Due to L.A. power outages, etc., my brother and I were often cut off from communicating with them and we were pretty frantic during these news black-outs.
Even for residents whose homes were spared, toxic smoke got into everything. Another problem.
As a native New Yorker who lives in a fire-proof building made of steel and reinforced concrete, I found it astonishing to see multi-million dollar mansions disintegrate like dollhouses.
What were these flimsy McMansions made of anyway?
And will L.A. subsequently establish a city-wide building code on par with New York?
The terrifying newspaper images from Los Angeles will stay with me for a long time.
What a heartbreaking conflagration. Condolences to all who were affected.
Steel and reinforced concrete isn't a good idea in the land of earthquakes, which are more likely to happen more frequently than wildfire.
Joyce, the way these homes melted, it seemed as though marshmallows were used in the construction.
One house standing in Malibu (at the shoreline) stood up very well - - 3 stories - - yes, made of steel and concrete - - just like The Getty Museum.
I don't know how my California family members manage: mudslides, tremors, wildfires.
And I say this as an Italian-American whose four grandparents grew up on ACTIVE VOLCANOES!
Those wildfires get really really hot. Especially when they reach the point of spinning off fire tornadoes.
Joyce, what a nightmare for those residents - - and the courageous fire-fighters!!!! OMG!
Thank you, Becky, for all. Thank you, Erika Dreifus, for the list of Emergency Grants and Resources for Writers! Very helpful.
Lisa, please see my update (in another comment) about the grant application period for this: https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html.
I feel very deeply grateful to the firefighters who worked hard to save my community. Last Saturday I thought we were going to lose our house. Our canyon is essentially indefensible - once the fire gets down into the canyon, we were told the firefighters would leave. I am still processing this as well as the fact that almost everyone my kids know who live in the palisades ( they went to palisades high) lost their houses. My first job was in the palisades. My doctor was there. It’s unbelievable.
I am deeply affected. L.A. was so good to me for years. I am very very saddened by all the loss, the heartbreak, the residual trauma...words fail me. What we can do: give. But vet the charity with Charity Navigator. My blog has three suggestions: www.wisesculpture.com/blog. We all own this awful circumstance. Take heart--Maui is recovering, Los Angeles will also. With our help, however small a gift, or two or three. Thank you.
Published today: The Seven Books I Took With Me When Evacuating Los Angeles
Carolyn Kellogg on Realizing the Value of the Irreplaceable
https://lithub.com/the-seven-books-i-took-with-me-when-evacuating-los-angeles/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Weekly:%20January%2018%2C%202024&utm_term=lithub_weekly_master_list
This continued devastation caused by climate change leaves me speechless. Words do not suffice. But thank you, Becky, for collecting some charities and reputable places to donate. The loss and displacement of so many people on top of an affordable housing shortage...it makes me imagine inviting strangers to live in my home. Maybe someday that will become a necessity, something we're all forced to do. God, who knows in this crazy world? My prayers are ongoing.
We live in the desert but have family and friends in LA. Thankfully our family members are not displaced, but friends lost not only their home, but their entire neighborhood. It is surreal to try to comprehend that sort of loss, and now all the finger pointing. So many ways to give, but cynicism causes me to wonder which resource will be the least corrupt and what % of money collected will go to the victims. I wrote a poem about this at my Substack "Briefly" here: https://ashleykaiser.substack.com/p/the-albatross
Yes, which donation bank will be the least corrupt? That's a valid point and thank you for the timely reminder.
Alas, I've been very conscious of wildfire for the last ten years (though honestly it's been more like twenty--in 2004 when I was prepping for my first year of teaching in a mountain school, firefighting helicopters were dipping water from a pool on school grounds). We've either been coping with wildfire smoke, nervously watching lightning storms, or dealing with local wildfires during that time. I was at the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, which was notorious for being smoked out by wildfire. We had to leave early because my horse's barn was under Level 1 evacuation--and could not take the most direct route back due to another wildfire.
A big chunk of the Columbia River Gorge near Multnomah Falls burned in 2017, thanks to a kid's stupidity with fireworks during red flag warning weather. Last summer here in Oregon we had a lot of big grassland wildfires--and those can be even more scary than in a forest because the brush and grass fires move faster than in a forest. But it all depends on the wind. The 2020 fires in the Oregon Cascades were driven by winds much like what's happening now in LA. Hard downslope east winds.
I've included wildfire in a few of my books. In the first book of The Cost of Power, Return, my characters are driven out of their honeymoon camp by a wildfire pushed by a vengeful water spirit. In A Different Life: What If?, wildfire is mentioned as part of the events leading to the climax. In Netwalker Uprising, the smell of smoke from wildfires is part of the summer settings.
Then again, come to think of it, it's been longer than that. I reviewed Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire (which left quite an impression on me because we were camping in country like he describes). The review came out just before the horror that killed those young men in 1948 was repeated in the 1994 South Canyon Fire. We were driving through Prineville (home of the Hotshots who died) and wondered why the town was so quiet (we had been camping). It wasn't until then that we heard the news.
Okay. Make that over thirty years that I've been thinking about wildfires. And actually longer than that. I live in the West.
Becky, thank you for referencing my resource page at bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters. I just wanted to alert everyone that the LA Arts Community Relief Fund opened *today* for applications for grants of up to $10,000. The announced deadline is February 18. I've updated the corresponding link on my resource page; to access this fund directly, go to https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
This too...
https://melissafitz.substack.com/p/all-this-loss
What kept the LA catastrophe on my mind was the odd similarity between it and the devastation in the Middle East. Tragically, so many here in the States have lost their homes, but many continue to be wealthy, and some even have insurance to start anew. The people of Gaza have no such positive channels for moving forward. And over 40,000 have died. Whether it is Israeli bombers or Santa Ana winds, the devastation is appalling and complete.
I've come late to Becky's post this week and, as I read it just now, my first thought was "I have to say something about Gaza", but you've beaten me to it, B.A.
I will add that, while I followed the news about the LA fires with horror, empathise with the many people who have lost everything, not all of whom are wealthy, I, too, contrast that with the situation of over two million displaced Gazans, most of whom have nothing but ruins to go back to and have little or no hope of anything else for the foreseeable future: no shelter, no schools for their childrens, little healthcare, almost nothing in the way of other basic needs and, most importantly, no hope.
Let me say also, that I share the general horror at the plight of the Israeli hostages and their families and the families of those killed on 7 October, but the plight of the people of the West Bank and Gaza - and the thousands of Palestinians in the huge refugee camps in Lebanon, have largely been ignored for decades. One of the more nauseating "diplomatic" spectacles in recent decades was the conclusion of the "Abraham Accords" between Israel and certain Arab states, which set conditions regarding Palestine and the Palestinians.
Devastating.