“There will be moments when you become stronger and see a path forward, and then there will be moments when you feel lost, helpless, anxious, and sometimes overwhelmed,” he said.
Even after the evacuation order is lifted, many families do not have a home to return to.
Raymond Serkis, 32, has been returning to his Altadena neighborhood almost every day for the past nine days to see what's left of the house he and his wife bought in 2021 after saving money for nearly a decade. The couple spent months fixing it up with “sweat and tears” and tied the knot in their backyard that same year.
An insurance agent and a neighbor told Serkis the house had burned down and showed them several photos. But he wants to see it for himself.
“You just have to stand there and take it,” he said. “Looking at yourself, finding something.”
Furthermore, he added: “I'm going to take half of the kids' toys. I'm going to take necklaces. I'm going to take anything that I think will remind us, 'Wow, this happened.'” Masu. ”
So far he hasn't been able to get it.
“I went to every street corner, every road opening, and there was more than one police officer, a military vehicle, sometimes two,” he said.
Eric Escott, 62, has managed to sneak into the charred remains of Altadena twice since being evacuated. His house was still there and he was able to leave with a few essentials. But the two times he came back, he left food for his cat, Rosie.
Mr. Escott hasn't seen Rosie since he was evacuated, but the wet food he left behind on Thursday was gone when he returned on Sunday for the last time.
Rosie was a stray cat that was adopted by his wife, and although he was gradually tamed and came to trust her, he was capricious and surly and had little interaction with Mr. Escott. He said there was no way he would have allowed her to show up or be removed from the neighborhood while he was there.
