Mandatory evacuation orders were issued Tuesday, and she walked 20 minutes from her Pacific Palisades condo to Will Rogers State Beach via smoke-filled streets. Before being transported to a shelter in Westwood, she encountered California Governor Gavin Newsom at a command station along the route, and he assisted her in locating emergency contacts.
Johnson stated by recalling the gridlocked traffic and the frantic neighbors pilling into the cars
“The apocalyptic walk from my apartment to the command post — I’ll carry that with me forever,”
“I was probably one of the rare people in the Palisades who didn’t have transportation or a place to go,”
Los Angeles experienced its worst natural disaster since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, leaving at least five dead and forcing over 100,000 people from their homes. Residents abandoned their cars, obstructing emergency vehicles and using bulldozers to clear them.
Los Angeles is getting ready for huge tourist influxes when it hosts the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics, and the abandoned cars highlight the desperation of many residents.
Celebrities were also impacted by the infernos. On Wednesday, actress Mandy Moore posted on Instagram that she and her family, dog, and kittens had moved to a friend’s house in Altadena. She lamented the loss of her favorite eateries, her children’s school, and the destruction endured by friends and family.
She posted
“Absolutely numb,”
“Our community is broken but we will be here to rebuild together.”
It was the first evacuation in decades for Peggy Holter, an award-winning TV news producer who lives in Pacific Palisades. She fled Tuesday evening from a situation she described as significantly more harrowing than her last forced escape, which was in 1978 when she’d just moved to the area and was pregnant.
There’s only one way out along the gridlocked Pacific Coast Highway, and she knew it wouldn’t be a quick route. She grabbed some cosmetics, medications, and three days of underwear. She left every other thing behind.
“This morning I woke up and I thought about all of my photo albums and all of my Emmys and all that stuff, which are still there,” she said by phone from a friend’s home in the Silverlake district where she’s staying. “I didn’t bother with any of it. I just couldn’t imagine never coming back home.”
Other Angelenos left before they were ordered to evacuate, booking rooms in Palm Springs or retreating to second homes in Joshua Tree. Janaina Devieira, who lives in Benedict Canyon east of the mandatory evacuation area, decided Wednesday morning to retreat to her second home near Pioneertown, more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. She said she’d been talking to friends who lost their houses.
Devieira stated
“This is apocalyptic,”. “I feel so sad for so many families that don’t have insurance and lost everything in the wildlife. It’s like a scene from The Terminator.”
