Why one veteran of Southern California's terrifying wildfires is finding the Palisades Fire more unnerving than the rest.
This week, CALocal brings you two scary but clear-eyed reports from disaster areas.
Below, a report from CEO Chris Neklason, who has been contemplating the disastrous circumstances faced by news publishers due to the "enshitification" of Google and Facebook.
But first, a call with former Managing Editor Sharan Street (now an editor with Metro Publishing),who has evacuated her Malibu home to escape the raging Palisades Fire.
Sharan Street, CALocal's founding Managing Editor, lives in a modest home in Malibu's Point Dume neighborhood that has been in her family for a couple of generations. We spoke Sunday afternoon. (This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)
You've lived in Malibu on and off for much of your life, and you’ve seen plenty of wildfires. In a text earlier today you called this a “next-level disaster.” How is it different?
It spread so fast. The Woolsey Fire, six years ago, was crazy fast. When those winds were blowing, you knew it was bad. It was like, “Wow, this is really scary.” But this one was—I've never seen winds so strong.
The Woolsey Fire started in the San Fernando Valley and burned at least 35 miles overnight. It went from there to Malibu. But this one, it started in Pacific Palisades, and the winds were blowing it towards Santa Monica, and then it tore up Sunset Boulevard and all through the most beautiful parts of LA—this epic, beautiful place.
And how much damage did it do?
Oh … it flattened it. It looks like it was carpet bombed. And what's really weird is the way these fires have burned into really populous areas that don't have all that much fuel. They burned into the valley floor.
One fire, the Eaton Fire they're calling it, started across the hill, across the county, over in Pasadena. It burned Altadena, which is next to Pasadena, and it burned up into the hills, and then it burned about three miles into the valley, into places where you think you're safe. Where people are thinking, “I'm not gonna get burned out here. I'm not in the mountains.”
It seems that there isn't anything like significant containment yet.
No, it's still not contained. The winds have been making things difficult, and there's more winds coming, and they're really not dying down until Wednesday. There's a small chance that there might be rain on Thursday. That’s the problem—there's been no rain, nothing significant, nothing more than a drizzle, since March or April.
What are your family’s plans?
You never know what's gonna come Monday or Tuesday. We're not planning to go back home until Wednesday. We'll see how things go. If we have another wind event—you just never know.
