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I am just absolutely stunned by the level of destruction. We’ve hiked in all the areas that are devastated, except for the Sylmar fire. I’m seeing so many posts on FB from friends who live there. Thankfully our son-in-law is safe (our daughter is away right now), but he said the winds were beyond anything he’d experienced.

It’s hard to imagine how only five people have died so far.

I’m glad he’s safe. I’m so sorry for anybody experiencing this. Absolutely heartbreaking!

.. I just can't believe what I'm seeing on the news stations! Hell on earth...100 mph winds ,neighborhoods reduced to ashes,..no water in some cases to fight the fires??? Prayers go out to the people of California. Can't believe it!!

smy

it is simply heart breaking to see lives lost and so many homes, memories gone. the winds died down a bit over night, but it is howling this morning again, at least where I'm at. it is relentless

I’ve been through this and hell is an apt description. The road to recovery will be long for those that lost their homes but also the entire communities. It will take a month or more to contain these fires and years to get back to normal. So horribly sad. I hope people evacuate when notified — that makes a huge difference in death counts.

Scary last night when the Hollywood Hills fire and Studio City fire broke out, but thankfully they were gotten under control quickly. Those are areas where, had they not gotten them under control quickly, would have grown out of control, equaling the size of the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires. The daughter of a good friend lives in Santa Monica. They evacuated the first night before it was mandatory, but last night said the fire was within four blocks of their apt and all their belongings.

One friend in Altadena lived in a neighborhood where she had to evacuate yesterday morning at 3AM. She made it back this morning to find most of the houses in her neighborhood gone, except for hers. She is incredibly grateful but at a loss for words as to how this sort of randomness occurs.

They're saying 50-70% of Pacific Palisades is gone. One bright side is the Getty Villa survived.

We continue to watch the local LA ABC news station on YouTube TV and maybe it's been said, but I haven't heard it... what is going to happen when the rains DO come - mudslides will be incredibly destructive. Houses that escaped flames could be consumed by mud.

I am just heartbroken for them. And at a loss to know what to do to help…

No matter how much money someone does or does not have, it’s heartbreaking to lose memories.

You can’t help with the memories and irreplaceable things. And **hopefully** they will be able to replace the "stuff" with insurance payouts. But that takes time. (It took me 3 years to settle with my insurance company).

Money helps right away b/c you literally have nothing. I remember going to Target and picking up a few things to wear, some deodorant, soap, etc. Got them to where I was staying, and didn’t have scissors to open those hideous plastic clamshell packaging things. So back out to the store to get scissors. A friend gave me a cheap printer/scanner/fax and it was so helpful for all the stuff you need to print out and deal with.

FEMA was VERY helpful in replacing things like car title, deed, Social security card, passport etc. But right away I needed a filing system and notebooks to track the 10,000 things you need to track for insurance purposes. (No reimbursements with our receipts, etc.)

So getting cash through an equitable organization like the Red Cross will help many. (I am not a fan of GoFund Me’s - -they help the popular and those on social media, not necessarily everyone. Also they tend to raise a TON of money for a few instead of spreading it around better).

(And take this tragedy as a reminder to put all of your important documents and photographs on the cloud where it is backed up and accessible from anywhere. Have a "go bag" if you are anywhere this kind of fast-moving thing happens. )

It’s a long road ahead for those without the resources to rebuild. (Well, everyone. But longer for those with fewer resources.)

I am not a fan of GoFund Me’s - -they help the popular and those on social media, not necessarily everyone. Also they tend to raise a TON of money for a few instead of spreading it around better

So I just saw my first GoFundMe request - it's the best friend of my former Pilates teacher, who I got to be very close with over the five years we lived there.

Craziness tonight when the Kenneth fire broke out - LA sent out an erroneous alert to everyone in LA that there was an evacuation warning. Our son-in-law got it right about the time the fire broke out, so he panicked. Thankfully it was remedied immediately and he didn't have to go. He does have a 'go' bag ready, but they've got a menagerie of animals which would make things interesting. For the people who haven't had a direct impact, I don't know how they sleep at night. I'd be terrified, despite knowing there was an alert system in place. When we lived there, I never slept very well on the 4th of July, always wondering if fireworks that idiots were shooting off would land on the ground and start a fire.

I'm also thinking about the smoke. The air quality indicators are an issue for everyone in the county and a particular nightmare for people who have compromised lungs. We had smoke blow down from Canada in 2023, and it made it hard to breathe hundreds of miles from the actual fire.

I remember HeHadADoubleLife as an LA resident. I hope she's doing ok. ❤️

So sorry for what you want through Bearly

Just heard on the radio that the devastated areas are equivalent of 27,000 football fields. It will take decades to recover. 153,000 people are evacuated. I mean, where do you place all those people?