Fire Update:
The huge fires, primarily the Eaton and Palisades, are still active but largely contained. New fires have started to the north of Los Angeles, closing down the 5 Freeway and threatening more homes and evacuations. The Relative Humidity on Thursday, when the new fires started was 8% (this is the rainy season for California). From May, 2024 to December 2024, Los Angeles has received only 0.16 inches of rain.
An antidotal story. Jay and Aimee, with their two young children, live in Altadena. Aimee is an engineer at JPL (a true rocket scientist and a photographer). She was on the design team for Ingenuity - the helicopter which flew on Mars. During the time of the fire, Aimee was traveling for JPL administrating collaboration endeavors between JPL and other like companies.
The evening before the fire, Jay was home with the children and lost power (most likely the 100 mph winds snapped power lines). Jay and kids moved to a motel to avoid dealing with the lack of power. The next day Jay discovered his home was in the evacuation zone and extended his motel stay. A week+ later, when Jay and Aimee could return to their home, the only structure which remained was the steel gate where the driveway entered/exited their property. They lost everything except what was taken to the motel. Fortunately, Jay and Aimee have insurance and come from reasonably well off families and should be able to bridge this catastrophe and over the course of years will rebuild their lives. But none of it will be quick or easy. I cannot fathom the difficulties for those of lesser means.
A mutual friend, who lives next door in Pasadena, told me the first thing Jay wanted for Aimee, was to replace her camera equipment. The mutual friend, also a photographer, provided Jay with a shopping list of equipment for Aimee as they start the reconstruction process.
(FYI- Jay and Aimee not only lost their home, but their children's school, church, markets, restaurants, entire neighborhood ... all destroyed.)
