In the last 48 hours or so that famed City of Angels from which so many dreams have been spun has been visited upon from the other side; by darker angels with devilish wings of fire rather than of fairy gossamer.
An unseasonable and radical Santa Ana wind event colliding with a tinder dry landmass has ignited the most horrific wildfires in LA County.
In the parlance of the day, this is an on-going event, and the extent of the destruction will remain unknown for some time, but great swathes of the coastal area between Santa Monica and Malibu and the famous hills and canyons beyond have been decimated, especially the Pacific Palisades community. In fact, the Palisades Fire already bears the title of the most destructive in Los Angeles history. And the so-called Eaton Fire affecting the Altadena and Pasadena continues to cause incalculable damage.
As I write, a new fire has ignited in the Hollywood Hills overnight. I mean to say this catastrophe is all playing out just a bare few miles from central LA!
All the above links are from Wikipedia – lazy I know, but with a “developing story” so to speak, the better option. But I will take the time to direct to a favorite source for all-things Californian: CalMatters – non-profit and non-partisan, or so they say and (with the exception of the Trump aversion) I am inclined to believe them. Here, for instance, is a wildfire explainer that doesn’t shy from the science and policy decisions, and here a wildfire tracker and database.
I watched La La Land over the holidays. Had the Gosling and Stone characters been romancing last night at the Griffith Observatory, as they do in that charming film, the outlook below would have been something other – and terrifyingly so. Of course, the ‘dream factory’ has always had its nightmarish side.