Our coverage continues on the wildfires that have taken out
thousands of acres and thousands of homes, leaving most people
with next to nothing.
Tori Hayden has been out in Altadena all day near
the Eaton Fire.
Tori, what do you have for us?
So we've been talking a lot at the macro level,
right?
Neighborhoods, cities taken out.
But I want to bring us down if I can
to more of a micro level and have you think
about what it's like to lose everything.
So we're, again, we're being very respectful.
This home, we're just going right up this driveway here.
But I want a shoe when a fire comes through.
I mean, this is what's left.
There's just nothing in there.
It's just ash.
And you can see right there.
There's even a pot on top of the stove, but
that's not usable at all.
So when that happens, what do you do?
Well, fortunately, a lot of people came through today in
a very unexpected and generous way.
Take a look.
This is just incredible.
I mean, look at this turn out here.
We've talked about so much darkness over the past couple
of days and now some light.
All these people have come together to help out those
who've either lost their homes or have been evacuated.
And look what they brought.
They brought shoes.
They've got different clothes that are all categorized, men, women's,
children's.
You can see they've got dresses, skirts, women's pants, men's
jackets.
Over here, there's a big pile of bedding with blankets
and sheets and things like that.
Exactly what people need during this time.
And the people who've been evacuated and who have lost
their homes, they are very happy to see this, trying
to see if we can survive 5 for a couple
of days.
We don't have anything and we only have what, people's
handouts and I don't know, it's just survival, I guess.
We have a 12 year old daughter and our two
sons are a little bit older, but that we wanted
to get them some snacks and stuff so they can
have something, you know, overwhelming and so amazing that I
didn't expect to see all this.
Usually all of us, we're on the other side of
this trying to help out and donate and to be
on this side of it.
It's really hard for us, but we feel like it's
a blessing.
I mean, it's really a blessing.
So that couple fortunately is able to be with some
friends.
But you know, again, when you look at the enormity
of what's going on here, there's not a four month
restoration.
I don't think this is a six month or even
a year long restoration.
I mean, at what point if this is your home,
you know, I've heard this neighborhood is very generational.
Tram, I know you come from Southern California, maybe know
more about Altadena than I do.
But they're saying that this is not some rich neighborhood.
A lot of these people live here because these are
their parents homes and they've lived here for generations.
So how long is it going to take to rebuild
some of these neighborhoods?
It's just overwhelming for a lot of people.
But they got some help today.
Yeah.
You know, Altadena, it's near Sedina.
And yes, I mean, let's face it, very few neighborhoods
are like Pacific Palisades.
That has gotten the most attention because of the fire
has destroyed so much square footage in that area.
But we're talking just, you know, regular, like you were
saying earlier, working class neighborhoods like that where these homes,
you know, their parents lived in and their parents before
that or they were raised in that home.
And it's just been, you know, traditions and so many
memories.
You know, we see so many images that have been
coming out of this.
And you know, what's so eerie, Troy, is that when
you look through and I'm sure you're seeing a lot
of this, all that ash, it almost looks like snow.
It's like winter.
I mean, there's just so much destruction that it's just,
it's so eerie.
It's so quiet.
It's unfathomable.
And you know, it just, I, I think it would
take years to just from the clean up to the
rebuilding.
I mean, what do you do?
There's so much recovery after all of that.
Yeah.
I mean, and, you know, right here, so we've seen
this.
Some of the power crews are already coming through every
single power pole.
Actually, that's an exaggeration.
I'd say 70% of the power poles we've seen in
this neighborhood are burned to some degree and will have
to be taken out.
Think about every telephone line, every power pole, you know,
every line itself is melted.
I mean, just to get electricity back in this neighborhood,
what's that going to take when you pull every single
pole out of this entire huge neighborhood?
I, you know, and, and the cleanup, what do you
do to bring a bulldozer in here?
How else do you clean this up?
I mean, do you just scrape the whole lot?
There's a pool back there that's full of ash again,
you, you talked about the enormity, Trami, you know, and
I've been here for a couple of days now and
I don't, I don't think it's even sunk in with
me.
When you look from block and, you know, as far
back as I can see block to block to block.
It's just it's just burned to the ground, square miles.
So I don't know, I'm hopefully the pictures are doing
some kind of justice.
Absolutely no.
You've brought it home, you know, so well.
And you've just given us the gravity of the situation
and how dire it is.
But I love that you showed people coming together and
a community truly with their hearts coming together to those
who have just lost everything.
And even down to the snacks, you know, snacks that
matter for these people's kids.
But really what they're going to have to do is
really just rebuild entire cities.
So it's just, it's a Herculean effort, truly.
All right, Troy, I know you're going to have more
for us coming up at 5:00 and 6:00.
We certainly appreciate all your, you know, all your reporting.
It's just really, really hit home.
Thank you.