An apocalypse is unfolding right now in Los Angeles with unprecedented wildfires. Please send healing thoughts to all. Anyone with friends in the area, please let us know how you are. @thehappymedium aka Andrew Posey, one of our community members has sent some photos and updates. As of this moment, one would think it could not get worse, but they are predicting it will get worse. Winds at 100 mph. @lovendures @Andrew @bluebelle @Jude @tonyaw
Apocalyptic is appropriate Jeanne.
Even those mile from the flames have ash reigning down on them, some still glowing embers.
NBC in LA (channel 4 ) has been carrying live news coverage non stop online. Nobody has seen anything like it. The hurricane force winds alone are knocking over trees, downing power lines and knocking out traffic signals. Even lifeguard stations surrounded by sand are burning down.
Add poor visibility and the literal fire storm…
It is an apocalypse.
If anyone has a moment, please email the President and California governor and demand housing vouchers for displaced residents, mental health care vouchers or free mental health care to buffer the toll and burden of the incoming leadership. Please request double the normal fema funds so we can prepare for the future.
NYC provided free counseling post 9-11. There is no reason we cant locally push for this as well.
Gratitude.
@anya, thank you for sharing this information.
These fires are very hard to witness. It breaks my heart. In these situations we’re reminded how we’re all connected.
I’ve been lighting candles and praying for everyone and all living creatures in the path of these fires. May you all be protected and safe. Thinking especially of those of you in our community and your loved ones who have been affected. Please let us know how you all are doing.
God bless the firefighters. I can’t even imagine the monumental job they are facing. May the hand of Spirit give them continued strength, guidance and protection.
I visited the area for the first time in 2014 and just love it, all of it. I could have moved there I loved it so much. Prayers to all who live there and those who love the area. What a terrible turn of events.
Please send healing and protection for @Andy, @Andrew, who both live in the area—that fire wont reach them. And healing for @lovendures and her mother who have seen their childhood homes destroyed. And all who are going through hell as these fires burn out of control and at lightening speed.
We all know people who have lost childhood homes and neighborhoods at this point. The climate calamity is becoming so real for so many.
Sending healing. Requesting multitudes of Angels. May their unseen but powerful Energy help save people, pets, as much property as is still possible, keep the firefighters safe and strong, and help with any mitigation to Mother Earth's pain as is possible.
----- as I typed, I saw the tears of Angels, gentle, healing, cooling moisture that envelops All. Protecting, holding, comforting. Teardrops of Lighted healing, enhancing rescue, aiding and protecting Firefighters, First Responders. Tears that reach in comfort and cooling to all who are caught within this maelstrom of fear and pain, those in the areas and those loved ones watching from afar in fear and horror. Angelic tears soak Mother Earth--in Healing..
It is not lost to me that The City of Angels is burning.🔥
I don't currently live in L.A. as many of you know, but my family still does and the fires that have broken out in the greater L.A. area have impacted every friend and relative I know living there in some way or another. Impacted me as well because we love our friends and family and we all hold treasured memories of the people and experiences we have had in the places we have lived and loved.
If I may share with you some of what my "remote " experience with this devastation has been like these last few days, perhaps it can give some perspective on what has been happening in the Los Angeles area, the City of Angeles.
My mother grew up in Altadena. She lived in 3 homes there and one in Pasadena until she moved to another area of Los Angeles after college. My grandfather built by hand one of those homes. Based upon news reports, she believes 2 of them have now have been destroyed though it is too early to know for certain. Losing 2 childhood homes at once and the memories of your youth in them while in your 80's, well, this is definitely impacting her.
I grew up in the canyons not far from Pacific Palisades. When I was growing up, these areas were affordable for the middle class. In fact my parents were teachers when they bought their first canyon home in Laurel Canyon in the early 60's. I was was 5 when we moved a few canyons west over to a new development. There were many teachers living in this community too as well as young professionals.
Fires and floods were always a danger in our Souther California canyons. During one particularly rainy season in the late 70's, I remember my father and others, sandbagging the hillside of a neighbor's house in the attempt to preview a catastrophic mudslide. A friend lost her home to a mudslide a few years later. I also had friends who had to evacuate their homes due to wildfires in the particular canyon area they lived in. I had a collapsible escape ladder under my bed which I could hook -up to a bar under my window to escape my home if a fire came and I was trapped upstairs. It was scary at times.
Yet still, there is something almost spiritual about living in a Southern California canyon. Ask any creative arts person from the 60's and 70's. Some of their best work was created in a canyon location. For many, this is still true today.
Many of my schools were in these canyons, even my College.
But I digress.
Last night was simply surreal for me. As I watched a local LA news station live on the internet I couldn't believe my eyes. A new fire in the Hollywood Hills was consuming the community farm my Great Uncle helped tend ( even at age 104) and spearhead for decades. A new round of family and friends were under evacuation orders. My childhood home now threatened. And not an hour later another a new fire, this time in Studio City, dangerously close to the business my father ( of blessed memory) owned for 35 years before his death, just up the hill a few neighborhood blocks. Yet another place I hold dear to my heart.
My childhood home ended up surviving. As did my father's old shop which has now transferred into something new. Those family members and friends who evacuated or prepared to evacuate last night from the Hollywood Hills are safe. I have a dear friend whose mom lost her home in Pacific Palisades, a retired teacher in her 80's. My mom had friends who fled their home as that fire raged with only the clothes on their backs and lost their home. A friend of mine is buying clothes for them as we speak and delivering them to their son's house where they evacuated to.
As you read and view reports of this historic 3 day (so far) event of fires raging in the L.A. area ( and yes, NOBDOY has seen anything like this there EVER) please keep this thought in mind. We are all connected. These fires have impacted everyone in the greater L.A. area. The smoke has been horrible. Ash flying everywhere. People have lost their lives. People have lost their homes. People have lost their employment.
People.
Rich people in mansions. Middle class people in middle class homes, people living in mobile home parks and even the homeless in their makeshift shelters. People have lost everything.
We are all people.
Social media (and others) will attempt to make this a "wealthy person's" disaster.
Don't let them.
Don't let them divide humanity and make this event a "them" vs "us" event.
My friend is buying clothes for "rich" people who lost everything. People who entered the country illegally are taking in family members who have lost the little they had.
There are scores (yes scores) of children who went to school one morning and then evacuated their schools only to discover there is neither school nor home left to go back to. What great trauma they're now needing to heal. Will they see their friends and teachers again? They lost their entire community in one day.
Collective trauma. Like Covid in many ways, this event is a great equalizer.
It continues to equalize as I write.
And there are miracles. So many miracles. Some of which we are unaware of at the moment.
Truly the City of Angels is flowing with the best of what humanity can give right now.
May God bless our fireman and officers who are doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times. May blessings flow to all of those helping and volunteering, those taking in others and those fleeing toward safety. May everyone feel the care and love of others during their time of grief. May hope fill them and guide them forward. May our creative artists create healing, educational and positive impactful art from this experience. May new gardens grow and safer future neighborhoods manifest. May the best also flow forth from our politicians who govern during these times, both locally and nationally.
May Los Angeles overflow with Angels.
@lovendures I am so sorry for the loss of these communities that you and your family know so well. Thank you for giving us a peek into what they mean to you.
What you said about these events being the great equalizer really resonated. May all the blessings you listed above be true. And may our compassion for one another grow and remain.