Southern California Disasters

When you move to Southern California, you need to be prepared to deal with disasters, minor and not so minor, as part of your daily life.

In July, I was rear ended on the freeway on my way home from work.   A small woman, barely able to speak English, got out of her brand-new (big) BMW to give me her insurance information.  I dutifully called the insurance companies, hers and mine, and didn’t think anything more of it; after all, it was only minor damage and nobody was hurt.

My insurance company assessed zero liability for me—after all, she hit me coming from behind.  Then, this very same woman obtains a lawyer (for minor bumper damage!) and, a week later, files an injury claim with my insurance company.  Only in California, is what I am thinking.  I am still awaiting the conclusion of this minor disaster.

Collisions, fires, mud slides, earth quakes

Recently, I have rediscovered my enthusiasm for jigsaw puzzles.  They are a fun way to relax your mind and exercise the eyes.  My current endeavor is a 2000-piece photo of Las Vegas at night.  Every day I spend an hour or two at it.  On a recent afternoon, as I was working on a particularly tricky section, I heard a loud boom and the whole house shook for a short while.  Funny, I didn’t think that the space shuttle was supposed to land at Edwards Air Force base in the desert.  When it breaks the sound barrier, this same boom-and-shake effect takes place.

Well, this time it was not the space shuttle.  Instead, we experienced a 2.9 earthquake, with the epicenter about two miles from my house.   Such small earthquakes usually go unnoticed but having it centered almost under one’s house does make a difference.  It made me think of the 1994 Northridge quake.  Epicentered about 20 miles away, it felt and sounded like a freight train going through my living room.  And some of the aftershocks made the earth move in waves—something that I actually found unbelievably fascinating.

As I was driving home from work on Tuesday afternoon, I noticed a plume of smoke coming from the San Gabriel Mountains.  The news announced that a fire had broken out in the dry brush and the fire crews were on their way to the scene.   But this one is far away; nothing to worry about too much, especially since the weather is calm.

By Wednesday afternoon, we had our own local fire burning in the mountains above our house.  As I took my dogs for a walk Thursday morning, I saw the fire trying to make it over the ridge of the mountains and watched the planes diving into the smoke to drop fire retardant.  Those pilots are truly amazing!  By the evening, the fire was out of control and spreading, causing voluntary evacuations in the mountain areas of the neighboring town.

I woke up this morning gagging on the thick smoke.  The sun, rising above the horizon, was a blazing orange ball.   The air was completely still, ashes were raining on the cars parked in the driveway, the sky was grey and visibility pretty much zero.  As I am writing this blog, I hear the airplanes flying over constantly; we are directly on the path of the planes dropping the fire retardant.  It sounds like a war zone!  From our front yard, we can see the grey-and-black smoke billowing over the mountains against a backdrop of orangey glow.

Welcome to life in Southern California!  And what are we going to do about it all?  Nothing, really.  The only thing you can do is to go with the flow—and be prepared.

Päivi Hoikkala
La Crescenta, California