Hurricane force winds sparked an unprecedented weather disaster in Los Angeles County, California on Tuesday January 7th, 2025. Since then five major firestorms have impacted communities throughout the County and has sadly claimed the lives of five people.
The disaster started in Pacific Palisades, the largest community impacted, that has now spread to over 17,000 acres of land, destroying thousands of structures including homes, businesses, schools, and churches. This firestorm impacted entire communities in Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The Eaton Fire, is the second largest community hit by the firestorm in Altadena, impacting over 10,000 acres of land including over a thousand homes, businesses, schools, and Houses of Worship. The Hurst Fire in Sylmar impacted 855 acres, the Lidia Fire impacted 350 acres, and the Sunset Fire impacted 40 acres of land in Hollywood Hills. The fires called for mandatory evacuations in all of these cities impacting over three hundred thousand families, and power outages impacting over hundreds of thousands customers. The Altadena community is on a boil water alert, and Los Angeles County is on an Air Advisory Alert due to the smoke and poor air quality.
The Palisade and Eaton Fires are at zero percent contained at this time. There are still fires destroying homes and businesses. Earlier today the fires even threated Mount Wilson and the communication centers there. Although the winds were quieter today, an increase in wind speeds are expected over the next two days. Los Angeles County is still in a crisis.
The Los Angeles County Emergency website provides resources for those impacted by this disaster including evacuations, shelters, alerts, and community donation information. The Los Angeles community is coming together to help each other, as communities look forward in hope to rebuild. UBER and Lyft are providing free and/or discounted rides for families, and many businesses are providing housing and/or rental discounts including Air BNB, The Queen Mary, and hotels throughout the Big Bear Community. Metro has suspended fare collection systemwide. Gyms are providing access to showers and changing to first responders and storm victims. ATT and Verizon are offering free data in affected areas.
Although this was an unprecedented event, there are unfortunately those who are erroneously blaming Governor Newsom and President Biden for the firestorm, not taking into account the hurricane force and early Santa Ana winds, or the existence of climate change. Others are blaming the energy and water depletion to fight the fires on local municipality leadership failure, not taking into account that this event was bigger than any one than has ever happened before, the drain that caused on supply, or that the utility companies had to shut down power in order to not create additional fires impacting pumps and supply. Municipalities are now bringing in generators to offset the power drain. Regardless of why the response was not perfect, our communities will have to prepare for more severe weather anomalies impacting larger geographical areas and greater numbers of people at one time as we learn how to better manage these increasing anomalies. These events are inevitable now and everyone must prepare the best that they can to be more prepared, self-sustainable, and resilient in emergencies and disasters.
Hurricane force winds sparked an unprecedented weather disaster in Los Angeles County, California on Tuesday January 7th, 2025. Since then five major firestorms have impacted communities throughout the County and has sadly claimed the lives of five people. The disaster started in Pacific Palisades, the largest community impacted, that has now spread to over 17,000