At Los Angeles emergency shelters, wildfire evacuees turn to community help amid uncertainty
Emergency shelters have become refuges for many whose lives have been upended by the unprecedented fires that continue to ravage the Los Angeles area.
LOS ANGELES — Ash trickled down from a gray sky and the smell of smoke lingered in the air Thursday as Angelenos made phone calls to loved ones.
The common refrain: We’re OK. We’re safe. We’re at a shelter.
The evacuees paced outside the grounds of the Westwood Recreation Center in West Los Angeles on Thursday. It is one of four makeshift spaces for wildfire evacuees run by the Red Cross in the affected areas.
“Westwood Rec,” as some locals call it, is just off Interstate 405, less than 2 miles outside the immediate evacuation zone around the still-raging Palisades Fire. Over 240 people were being housed there Thursday, a Red Cross spokesperson said. Just two days ago, the number was closer to 20.
“The devastation, the destruction, I never thought this would happen,” said Johnnie Burman, 64, an evacuee from Santa Monica who went to the shelter in hope of finding his elderly neighbor and friend.
Rating: 5