I’ve never been to Los Angeles.
The closest I came was on a coast-to-coast trip many decades ago – when I was driving from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Vallejo, California, where I was to attend Navy Nuclear Power School.
The Trip-Tik from AAA (fondly remembered spiral-bound paper strip maps that highlighted locations of food, lodging, and gas) had me enter California at Needles, pass through Barstow and Bakersfield, where I would pick up I-5.
I remember gassing up in Barstow and thinking – for a moment – that I should deter down I-15, go across I-210 and then pick up I-5. I figured I could at least say I saw the outskirts of LA.
But I was on a relatively tight schedule where I needed to get to Vallejo, report-in, and find a place to live – as the Navy wouldn’t wait. Even back then, the horror stories about LA traffic were a thing. And I figured I’d see LA sometime.
So, I stuck with the Trip-Tik, which as it turned out, dropped me into a Friday evening rush hour in San Francisco. It was the first time I’d seen six to eight lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic all headed in the same direction.
I only mention the above because I never got an up close view of the geography and landforms of LA.
Of course, I’d seen it as background in many movies and television shows through the years.
I knew LA was basically a set of valleys – surrounded by hills and smaller mountain ranges; with many canyons like Laurel Canyon – former home of many rock and roll legends.
But it took watching the news videos over the last week to really understand how deep some of the canyons were – canyons in which there were narrow roads and houses; and how the alignment and positioning of the mountains created the fires of Hell this past week.
And I never felt or saw the Santa Ana winds.
The initial televised and written coverage – at least from the usual suspects – was a mix of skepticism and snark. This was LA after all. The land of celebrities, million-dollar real estate, and ground zero for DEI. And it has seemed as if California was always having fires – some quite destructive.
Then the images of what was once Pacific Palisades spoke of an unimagined disaster – at least to those of us in the U.S.
Much was immediately made of the losses of houses and possessions. And those are understandable. But to say they were only things fails to describe their actual value in people’s lives.
A house provides a sense of place – where someone belongs and where most have their sense of comfort and security.
A house and possessions provide the personal history and treasured memories for many people – they anchor most people’s lives.
Maybe that’s why people call where they live their home – not simply their house.
When everything owned is in ashes, there is no tangible past or present. There is nothing to be reminded of past events and people; or something to pass on to children or to be treasured as a memory by a future generation.
And now there are issues of where to live – not for a day or a week, but months and years. And how to afford housing that is limited and is subject to bidding wars if at times not outright extortion.
Where will someone work if their place of employment is gone?
And what of friends and relationships? Both can be maintained or reestablished once some stability is regained – but there will be costs as different individuals have different experiences.
Where will young children and teenagers go to school?
And how does all of it affect their development at this critical stage of their lives. There are already assessments of the damage done to many children whose lives were disrupted by the COVID lockdowns. Now, their houses that were sanctuaries during COVID may be no more.
There may be thousands of LA children who will carry the trauma of their young lives for decades.
Already there are the brave comments of civic leaders about rebuilding everything back to what it was.
It seems unrealistic to me as only the expected statements of those nominally in charge.
Many, perhaps most, homeowners will find their insurance policies will not cover the cost of construction with modern building codes and the inflating costs of materials.
Others who lost their coverage when insurance companies bailed on LA will have mortgages on a pile of ashes with no money to rebuild.
In both cases, the owners of those properties may rightfully determine that a legal obligation to pay a mortgage is meaningless given the circumstances. But how does that decision affect and follow them into the future as they attempt to rebuild their lives?
There has been discussion of FEMA disaster assistance in the news, but that assistance doesn’t duplicate coverage for those with insurance. For those without insurance, they may directly apply. But in both cases, it is a long difficult process with no guarantee of assistance.
It can be assumed that federal disaster relief will be insufficient to make anyone whole, as FEMA explicitly states.
Banks and insurance companies will face serious challenges in the face of billions of dollars in losses – the early estimates are already over $250 billion (and with the fires still burning and other neighborhoods at risk). There will be bankruptcies, and calls for government relief to save key banks and companies.
At a minimum, there will be attempts to spread the costs far beyond the LA area – certainly to the rest of California and likely beyond.
Even for those able to afford rebuilding where are the building plans? Where are the building materials? And where are the skilled building trades?
Many of those whose houses were not destroyed certainly have family or friends who lost their homes. Do they decide that it’s time to move elsewhere to avoid becoming the casualty in the next firestorm? If so, who will want to buy an expensive house (as is most LA real estate) that can’t be insured?
And the small to medium businesses including restaurants and small shops. How long before those elements of the commons in most areas return? They may have owners who have lost both their business and their house.
This is a disaster that will be measured in many years to decades. (I would like to be wrong about that – but I fear I’m not).
But as with most events in our lives, the fires of LA will soon be forgotten in televised coverage, along with most of our attention – unless we have a personal connection to someone affected.
There are few if any reports anymore about the damage or rebuilding efforts in Florida and the Carolinas from Hurricane Helene in 2024 or the Lahaina fire of 2023. Older major disasters recede from memory – recall Hurricane Ian from 2022 (Florida’s west coast) or Hurricane Harvey in 2017 (Texas), or the Camp fire that destroyed Paradise California in 2018?
In all of these disasters, some (hopefully many) have and will find the resiliency to build better lives; others will struggle to get by. And a few will be lost forever.
And there are others around the world who would be familiar with the loss of everything. As a reminder, recall the earthquake in Haiti in 2020 and the Indonesian tsunami of 2004.
Those in Gaza or eastern Ukraine would understand from their own experiences, obviously from different causes, the images of the destruction of Pacific Palisades. However, it would be inappropriate to imply that the degree of loss is equal – given the amount of destruction and deaths that have occurred in both of those conflict zones.
My only point is that much like those natural disasters mentioned above, those suffering are all mostly forgotten.
In all of the above disasters, it came down to individuals dealing with their own challenges of life and death for themselves, for their families and friends, and for their communities.
They are all us, for each of us is one disaster from similar circumstances.
Whether earthquake, hurricane, tornado – or any other “Act of God”, anyone could be literally seconds to minutes away from a loss of one’s life, or a loss of everything they own and their sense of place.
If we do not give a thought to all these victims every day (and that is not to be expected), maybe we should look to be a bit more understanding to those around us.
Our hyper-partisan society is driven by images and speech meant to keep us separate and fighting with each other over trivial or contrived issues.
But in times of disaster or tragedy, everyone learns that everyone else is just a scared human being with an uncertain future.
The most inspiring things over the last week were watching the first responders (some who lost their own homes) fighting to protect the lives and property of strangers; seeing the images of volunteers rushing to offer assistance and comfort to victims; and watching the dignity and courage of those whose lives were shattered discussing their losses.
It’s said the best qualities of people emerge in the tough times.
Maybe it’s time to get ahead of all that and treat people with understanding – no matter their views on any subject or who they are; where they live; or what some self-serving political ‘leader’ claims about what their government is doing.
Before the fire comes.
