LA's 100,000 Evacuees Flee Fires For Shelters, Second Homes

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- Robyn Johnson, a retired teacher, fled the deadly Los Angeles fires on foot.

She walked 20 minutes through smoke-filled streets from her Pacific Palisades apartment to Will Rogers State Beach after mandatory evacuation orders were issued Tuesday. Along the way, she ran into California Governor Gavin Newsom at a command post, and he helped her find emergency contacts before she got transportation to a shelter in Westwood.

“The apocalyptic walk from my apartment to the command post - I'll carry that with me forever,” Johnson said, recalling gridlocked traffic and frantic neighbors piling into cars.

“I was probably one of the rare people in the Palisades who didn't have transportation or a place to go,” she said, adding that she's on a fixed income and doesn't own a car.

The fires, the worst natural disaster in Los Angeles since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, left at least five people dead and forced more than 100,000 from their homes. Many ended up scattered in shelters, hotel rooms, second homes or on the couch with friends and relatives.

Residents fleeing the rapidly advancing fire in the Palisades on Tuesday abandoned their cars on congested roads, obstructing access for emergency vehicles. To clear a way through, authorities used bulldozers to move the deserted automobiles.

The abandoned vehicles underscored the desperation of many people in Los Angeles, which is preparing for mass influxes of tourists when it hosts the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics.

The infernos also touched celebrities. Actress Mandy Moore said Wednesday on Instagram that she and her family, dog and cats evacuated their Altadena home to a friend's house. She expressed grief over the loss of her children's school, favorite restaurants, and the devastation experienced by friends and loved ones.

“Absolutely numb,” she posted.“Our community is broken but we will be here to rebuild together.”

It was the first evacuation in decades for Peggy Holter, an award-winning TV news producer who lives in Pacific Palisades. She fled Tuesday evening from a situation she described as significantly more harrowing than her last forced escape, which was in 1978 when she'd just moved to the area and was pregnant.

There's only one way out along the gridlocked Pacific Coast Highway, and she knew it wouldn't be a quick route.
She grabbed some cosmetics, medications and three days of underwear.

She left everything else behind.

“This morning I woke up and I thought about all of my photo albums and all of my Emmys and all that stuff, which are still there,” she said by phone from a friend's home in the Silverlake district where she's staying.“I didn't bother with any of it. I just couldn't imagine never coming back home.”

Other Angelenos left before they were ordered to evacuate, booking rooms in Palm Springs or retreating to second homes in Joshua Tree.

Janaina Devieira, who lives in Benedict Canyon east of the mandatory evacuation area, decided Wednesday morning to retreat to her second home near Pioneertown, more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. She said she'd been talking to friends who lost their houses.

“This is apocalyptic,” Devieira said.“I feel so sad for so many families that don't have insurance and lost everything in the wildlife. It's like a scene from The Terminator.”

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