A year ago today my town of Pacific Palisades was on fire. I will never fully be able to describe what it is like to have your entire town on fire.
1 year later of 6,000 homes burned only 184 have started construction. Even many standing buildings in my neighborhood are still largely unoccupied as people deal with toxins / cleanup.
I am one of the 184. I will be back this summer. But there is still a lot of pain and suffering in our community.
Wishing everybody affected love, compassion, and healing
And a huge thank you to @jessecdraper for the most thoughtful text message that arrived this morning at 6 AM
The first two photos should give you a feel for what my neighborhood looked like. And the second two are construction of my house. I can feel the finish line but also acknowledge the pain & time suck that has come to my wife this year. We have lived in three temporary houses. And two hotels. She could practically teach a course now on the complexities of dealing with insurance claims. And it is clear to me that nobody has strong advice on how to deal with toxic cleanup.
What can you preserve? What do you throw out? How do you clean stuff? What substances are acceptable and which are too toxic?
#palisadesfire
