January 19
Everyone slept in after our first homemade meal this week, so were feeling pretty good (all things considered). Laura's dad checked the perimeter this morning, and was told that we would be allowed back to the property after 12pm. We split up and went to collect supplies, while Laura's dad and niece helped to get us set up in our new housing and Laura's mom took Autumn out of the area and helped collect more supplies and information. One of the volunteers we had met at the La Crescenta relief space two day ago let us know she had already found most of the things on our list, which has helped us get settled quickly.
After lunch, Laura and William went to see the property, where we were able to park in our driveway and walk around. Wearing appropriate PPE, including bunny suits, goggles, and respirators, we examined the site from the yard, taking a lot of photos of the house, garage, and outside space. The fire had clearly been out at our house and the surrounding area for several days, and work crews from utilities and LA county were doing repairs and cleanup. The damage was extensive, as we had expected from the earlier visit and photos/imagery we were able to find. Not much was recognizable, mainly large pieces of metal from furniture, appliances, and kitchen items. The layout of the house was still fairly obvious, but it was filled with debris and lots of nails everywhere. We plan to go back and look to see if there is anything we can retrieve without disturbing the heavily polluted site, but are not expecting to find much. If anyone reading is also in this situation, and would like advice on PPE or to borrow tools, let us know.
After decontaminating ourselves, we did another home depot run and had dinner with Laura's family, then visited the Disaster Relief Center set up in Pasadena. This contained representatives from FEMA, Red Cross, a multitude of LA County departments, and others, who provided information on various aspects of the recovery. We got some good information and a long to-do list.
