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Douglas

My friends' house survived the as did one immediate neighbor but the rest of the block is just foundations and chimneys. They shared a video with me of a walk through the neighborhood and it's straight up apocalyptic. It'll be weeks or months before they'll be able to live there. Plus dealing with the smoke damage and all of the toxic crap around them. Plus years of construction to rebuild all of the houses around them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they sell and move.

@douglasvb Sorry to hear that. Such a huge impact on so many people.

@douglasvb Glad they are safe, but it will be terribly depressing to try to continue living in that neighborhood.

@douglasvb I'm sure the answer is 'no chance' but what's the likelihood of state buyouts and not rebuilding?

My vague understanding is that lots of these aren't what would be considered 'dangerous' areas...but is that something that needs to be changed or adjusted?

Just thinking about SE coastal building that we *also* aren't pulling back from. At some point rebuilding is just, ahem, lighting money on fire

@pixelpusher220 @douglasvb I hope that the house remains intact. The Eaton Fire is a jumper.

@pixelpusher220 @douglasvb I don’t know about current policy. I didn’t see a lot of buyouts back when I was in CA. That was a long time ago.

@fuzzface @pixelpusher220 their neighborhood was one of the first to be hit so hopefully the fire front is far enough away that there won't be new embers coming their way.

I don't know why I'm always surprised by this but each foundation my friend walked by had a small fire in them where the gas services were burning. Lots of utility wires down everywhere, too.

I'm surprised they were let in today when it only all burned yesterday.

@douglasvb @pixelpusher220 Hearing that downtown Altadena has been destroyed. The lack of basic services will make it difficult to go back as well.

@douglasvb @pixelpusher220 Is that just leftover gas in the lines? Or did the gas company neglect to turn the gas off?

@fuzzface @pixelpusher220 the gas company hasn't made it in yet to turn off the gas at each house. I don't know if they've turned off the mains or not.

Every major fire the videos directly after an area gets burned show the little fires in the foundations from the gas lines.

@pixelpusher220 they're 10 blocks (about 3/4 of a mile) from what's considered the wildland urban interface. Their neighborhood was built just after WW2 and never had burned before. I highly doubt there'll be any retreat from this area.

Maybe some of the very expensive houses up the canyons and ridges above them won't be rebuilt but I bet they'll be back, too. Those are $$$$$ houses.

Their neighborhood is only $1-2m houses so it's a very middle class part of greater LA.

@douglasvb @pixelpusher220

Leaving aside the whole "only $1-2m houses so it's a very middle class" part.... 😬

@douglasvb @pixelpusher220

Oh yeah, where I live, too. Just—when the fuck did this become "normal"? HOW!?

@cavyherd @pixelpusher220 well hey when the money printer goea brrrrr there's consequences

@douglasvb @pixelpusher220

Just not to them's behind the trigger....

@douglasvb It wouldn't be shocking if they can't afford to sell and move. The value of the one house in the burnt street is probably pretty low :(

@LovesTha I guess we'll find out in the weeks to come!

@douglasvb

Great argument for managed retreat and significant building code change.

@Arapalla I hope there are some building codes that change. Certainly their neighborhood will see a big building code change because it was built in the late 1940s and codes have come very far since then. But there won't be a managed retreat in their area because they're 3/4 of a mile from where the wildland urban interface is.

This image gives an idea of what happened. Their house is towards the bottom middle.

@Christo_459 this image tells the story pretty well. Their place is in the lower center of the image. It's in the middle of a city in the greater Los Angeles area. This is like if Greenwich burned outside of London.

Sell to whom exactly? What clear eyed buyer would buy? What properly functioning market would place value on these actuarially worthless properties?

@Space6host people have to live somewhere and every other time a large swath of houses in the greater Los Angeles area has burned, they've all been rebuilt. I suspect this time will be a new record though. It reminds me a bit of the Berkeley Firestorm in the 90s.

My friends live in the lower center of this image to give some indication of scale. And this is only the Eaton Fire which is one of several burning around LA.

@douglasvb From the link to NASA Resource from www.jpl.nasa.gov/topics/climate-change/ "Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring"

I feel
💔 for those who have lost so much and yes people have to live somewhere. Perhaps peeps will choose more wisely by listening to what climate scientists have warned about for almost half a century and the markets for doomed places will in turn shrivel. It starts by not "rebuilding better" in the same doomed places especially if subsidized by insurance...

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)Understanding Climate ChangeAn overview of climate change missions and research at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

@douglasvb the properties involved have some of the highest value density in the country. I'm sure they'll be fine in the end, though the immediate shock must be a lot to cope with.

@Crow yeah we'll see how it unfolds. I think the Pacific Palisades area that burned is a higher cost area than their part of Altadena although the home values in their area almost doubled in the last decade.