So last week was a doozy. Monday night I was putting Max to bed and kept hearing the Hubs's phone buzzing over and over again in the living room. In my mind I was like, "OMG you guys and your group texts are getting out of control!" Well it was a group text, but when I finally came out and took a look (Aaron was putting Cadence to bed and I'm unabashedly nosy), that's when I learned about the fire. And it moved so fast, by the time I skimmed the messages - which had been going back and forth for like 20 minutes - the fire had already made it from one end of town to the other. When Aaron came out we turned on the scanner, texted our families, and got on social media to see what was happening. Meanwhile, the power went out all over the city and didn't come back on until the next morning.
My parents live adjacent to the neighborhoods that were worst off, and I spent the entire next day watching their house on the news while they were evacuated. The houses directly behind theirs went up but theirs, and amazingly their whole neighborhood, stayed safe. Also amazingly, only one person died in the fires. Even though there was very little time to escape, people left as soon as they were told and saved their lives as a result.
Now we're starting to deal with the aftermath. Most of the evacuations have been lifted. Hundreds of homes are completely gone in our city alone (the fire is still burning and has hit at least 4 cities now, ours was just the first and hardest hit). So many people are displaced and lost everything. For most, insurance will pay for them to rebuild of course, but I feel for the people who were renting and weren't insured. Not to mention just the thought of losing all your possessions. Some friends of my family who lost their house also lost all of the photos they had of their daughter who passed away several years ago. There was just no time to even think about what to bring with them when they had to flee. Hubs works at a bank and has been talking to lots of people who fall into that category and he says it's really emotional. I can only imagine. It's bad enough just watching these neighborhoods that I've known my entire life disintegrate overnight and seeing friends go through this incredible loss. I'm suddenly very grateful for my tiny house that is still standing.
So we're all trying to get back on track now that it's been a week since the worst has passed. The air quality here is horrific though. You can't go outside without a mask and schools have been closed going on two weeks. At first the east winds were pushing the smoke out to sea (let me tell you that was the first time I truly appreciated the Santa Ana winds!), but now the winds have died down and we're all just living under a huge cloud of smoke, with ash raining down. Here in our house, the kids have had colds and coughs, and Max seems particularly sensitive to the smoke. We were able to borrow an air purifier from my parents and that helps. But boy does it suck being stuck indoors all the time! Aaron and I have been meaning to drive around town and survey the wreckage but it just hasn't worked out. Even being in the car you can still smell and taste the smoke.
Nevertheless, we're trying to get into the Christmas spirit. Our tree and lights have been up since right before the fire, decorations are out, and I'm mostly done shopping. I'm looking forward to the festivities even though it's lots of running around! It's been too quiet this past week or so. I will say it's been amazing to see our community come together, and so, SO many people helping out. I wish I could do more but at least was able to bring some clothes and toys by for an old friend who lost the home she and her family were renting, along with all their stuff. I hadn't seen her since high school, and although the circumstances suck, it was nice to reconnect.
I have all the confidence in the world that our city will recover just fine. I know there are people already making plans to rebuild. It's going to look a lot different around here I'm sure, but this tragedy actually brought our community closer, so I really think it will be even better than ever once it's behind us.
