Almost nine months after Eaton Fire destroyed something unique, something loved, something even more appreciated in death, the mountains remain scars and dusty streets intersect the missing neighborhoods of what is still, essentially, a ghost city.
If it is true that the time heals all wounds, the clock moves slowly in Altadena, where 9,400 structures were destroyed and 19 lives were lost.
There will be a resurrection, without a doubt. Construction permits move slowly through bureaucracy, hammers swing and a new Altadena one day will rise from ashes.
I know an owner who hopes to be at home recently built in a month or two. Victoria Knapp, from the City of Altadena, told me that she meets people who sold their lots immediately after the fire and now regret it. And the Los Angeles County supervisor, Kathryn Barger, said the permit process has been renewed and does not feel that many people are rescuing Altadena.
But when we go to Halloween and Thanksgiving and in the corner of one year to the next, approximately two thirds of the owners have not yet requested construction permits, and there is a generalized frustration, exhaustion and uncertainty.
People who were completely committed to reconstruction immediately after destruction are now rethinking it, having tired of work.
“It could be years of living in a construction zone, and that has awakened me in the middle of the night with some panic attacks,” said Kelly Etter, who lost the house where she lived with her husband and directed a Pilates study.
“When I go up there every week,” said Elisa Nixon, whose house was damaged by smoke and needs a detention interior, “I think it's really sad and very depressing. I'm trying to imagine living there, and it's really difficult.”
Taylor Feltner, who lived with his wife in a house in Pasadena damaged by smoke on the edge of Altadena, would like to stay in the area because his wife's Altadena family is a large part of their lives. But they are no longer sure to do or how to decide.
“We have hesitated so much throughout this process, because every time we are fighting with the insurance company is how to revive the trauma of that night again and again,” said Feltner.
An aerial view of clear properties and a house under construction this month in Altadena.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He and his wife are in his eighth temporal home from the fire. His mother -in -law, whose Altadena's house survived the fire, uses a garden mask in the backyard. Feltner said he and his wife planted fruit trees in their own patio, but I wonder if it will be safe to eat the fruit when they return home, given generalized pollution and casual tests.
“Everything feels broken now,” said Feltner.
I understand it, and I honestly don't know if I could endure what people in the areas of Altadena and Palisades are happening. I impatient if a problem is not solved in one day. Fire survivors are in Limbo, even so, without having an idea of how many years of agitation they are.
Joy Chen, co -founder of the Eaton Fire Surevels network, has been tracking the feeling of the community for months. She said an initial sense of “almost challenging” pride, with t -shirts and property signs that declare that “Altadena is not on sale”, he still persists. But “a dose of reality” has been established.
This is what people are qualifying, Chen said:
How long will you take home? Can we allow ourselves to rebuild? Will our children be sure, given persistent pollution? Is an Edison settlement proposal of Southern California a fair agreement or a ploy to avoid larger payments? Will the new Altadena seem remotely the place we love? And we will ever sleep well in an area that has not seen the latest forest fires and frightful winds?
Even for those who can see their way beyond all that, Chen said, there is a gap between its insurance settlement and the cost of reconstruction.
“There are about $ 300,000 on average,” said Chen, “and that is a great obstacle.”
Barger said Edison's settlement proposal could help close that gap for some people. But research on the cause of the fire is not yet complete, and some lawyers have advised customers not to accept what they consider a lowball offer. And yet, for those who let the offer pass, it could take years when the demands take place in court.
Chen, former vice president of Los Angeles, has demanded that insurance companies deliver what their clients paid and implore the state insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara to get difficult with them. According to the non -profit organization Angeles department, 70% of the approximately 2,000 fire survivors of Eaton and Palisades de Eaton and Palisades who were surveyed said delays, denials and insufficient payments are “actively derailing recovery.”
“These delays and denials are not only devastating for families, they are illegal according to California's law,” Chen said. “It is the work of Commissioner Lara to stop them. His refusal to act is to stop all the recovery of Los Angeles. The families who spent decades building stability for their children are seeing that these future escape.”
The demands are pending Against multiple insurance companies, including Felientser's carrier: Mercury.
“They are fighting us against everything,” said Feltner, who has filed complaints to what the state insurance commission “without teeth.”
For an Altadena family, whose house survived with minimal damage, was not a problem of surely exhausted its resolution. Initially committed to move back, they later sold their home and moved to another area. They asked me to retain their names for privacy reasons.
“It was reduced to risk,” said the husband, citing concerns about pollution, years of construction and dust noise, and the impossibility of knowing if the new Altadena will look like the one that attracted them there first.
A sign adorns the owner's ownership ownership.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“It was a main decision and not a heart decision,” said his wife, who still feels attached to his house, his street already Altadena. “I don't think that disappears. Obviously, this trauma is part of us now, but our hearts and memories will always be there.”
Tim Kawahara, executive director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, grew up in Altadena and her mother still lives there in a house that survived the fire. The reconstruction of Altadena is found in the early stages, he said. With thousands of separate projects to boost the permissions process, and a shortage of the construction force composed of immigration raids, the new Altadena is not yet on the horizon.
“You are talking about three years to start seeing a considerable building, and probably more like five years for something that happens at a high level. But it could take up to 10 years,” Kawahara said. “And they are not just homes. They are also schools, parks, libraries, police and infrastructure stations.”
It could be argued that there is something exciting in the opportunity to attract a new community on the old man in the old man. But that is a lot to withstand if the dust breathes, already measure that the speculators move and the properties turn, who will be in charge, what will cost the owners' insurance and survive character and history?
“People are suffering and struggling to find their way, and they no longer trust anyone,” said Nixon. “And with all that comes this feeling of, this is too much. It has kidnapped my life, I can tell you that. It is overwhelming, the amount of work that is needed to keep up of this and also maintain the balance of your life.”
“Having so many unknowns is simply incredibly exhausting and limits the ability to enjoy other areas of life,” Etter said. “The connection with the community, with the neighbors and other survivors has really been a lifeguard. There are shared resources, hugs and text messages of midnight in the middle of the night when they panic you for whatever it is.”
In the coming weeks, I will explore different angles of the recovery history of Eaton Fire, so feel free to share your thoughts with me.
What can be done to accelerate the process?
What should Governor Gavin Newsom and legislators do to accelerate the right resolution of insurance disputes?
Given climate change and natural geography prone to fire, would you consider a movement to Altadena?
What will Altadena be in five years, in 10, in 20?
Who should decide?
Who will decide?
