Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garland. Hy, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. I wanted to hop on
Speaker 1: and just give you guys an update because we've been
Speaker 1: flooded with you know, text messages and dms, people worrying
Speaker 1: about us, wondering how we're managing. So I just want
Speaker 1: to give you an update on these horrific fires that
Speaker 1: are happening here in southern California, and an update also
Speaker 1: on the I Choose Me Live event. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have my husband join me now because I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just need them buy me right now. Hey baby, Hi.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a it's been a weird week, a
Speaker 2: weird start to twenty five, right, let's say the least.
Speaker 1: I thought this was going to be a good year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are jumping into it, all the resolutions and
Speaker 2: new beginnings and all that.
Speaker 1: We thought this was going to be a great year.
Speaker 1: We were going in strong and so excited for what
Speaker 1: was to come, and then this just came out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mother Nature, has you pivot on your normally scheduled program? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been in a situation like this, like
Speaker 1: a natural disaster? No, no, make you've been in hurricanes before.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia and we went
Speaker 2: through some hurricanes, but you know, I was you sleep
Speaker 2: through them or you know nothing? Nothing this like, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's catastrophic. It's almost like biblical like what's happening? And
Speaker 2: it's still happening right now. It's you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not over. We have another windstorm coming next week,
Speaker 2: and I think everyone's on edge.
Speaker 1: Yeah hopefully. Why don't we start like, how did this
Speaker 1: whole thing come into our life? Like on our radar?
Speaker 1: I don't even remember what was the how it started?
Speaker 2: Well, so, I you know, I know the news and
Speaker 2: this was being predicted on Monday, and they were telling
Speaker 2: us that it's going to be extreme winds and especially.
Speaker 1: Where we live, and we were getting prepared for all
Speaker 1: the strong wind warnings that we.
Speaker 2: Were just we are remodeling, so we have some stuff
Speaker 2: outside that we needed to tie down and kind of
Speaker 2: get a hold of. And Tuesday afternoon, the winds were
Speaker 2: picking up strong, and obviously the Palisades Fire had started,
Speaker 2: and we were all kind of glued to that watching that,
Speaker 2: not knowing I mean, I was reaching out to friends
Speaker 2: that I know. I know you were as well and
Speaker 2: giving us updates on Oh my children in school just
Speaker 2: burned down. And then it was so far away but
Speaker 2: so close, and it was about six o'clock. We had,
Speaker 2: I think, we just ate kind of sitting around watching
Speaker 2: the news, and then a chair flew by outside and
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, wow, I didn't really tie down
Speaker 2: everything sufficiently, and I walked outside. I looked up and
Speaker 2: there was a fire and this was the Eating Canyon fire,
Speaker 2: and which at the time, you know, probably five miles away.
Speaker 1: We could see the flames though from our house it
Speaker 1: was like one range, one hill over.
Speaker 2: It felt like it felt like it was right next door.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really scary, and so I think that's
Speaker 1: when panic like set in.
Speaker 2: Definitely panic set in. Came back in.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, I thought the fire was in
Speaker 1: the Palisads. We're not close to the Palistads, so we're fine.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, and all of.
Speaker 2: A sudden, Eating Kenyon broke out, which if anyone doesn't know,
Speaker 2: it's close to Altadena. My business partner has a house
Speaker 2: in Altadena. So I saw on the news that it
Speaker 2: was Eating Canyon I immediately called him. He did not answer.
Speaker 2: He sent me a text him and his wife or
Speaker 2: literally down the street we are getting bags and we
Speaker 2: will call you when we're safe. And so then that
Speaker 2: caused us to kind of go into heightened right.
Speaker 1: You know, what is wild is that all of our
Speaker 1: daughters were here with us under this roof, because well
Speaker 1: two of them live with us, but Luca had flown
Speaker 1: in to help me with the I Choose Me Live event.
Speaker 1: So it just happened that we were all here, which
Speaker 1: is never I know, but that's it was such a
Speaker 1: good thing. I think I felt a little secure, more
Speaker 1: secure just knowing that they were all near me and
Speaker 1: I could protect them.
Speaker 2: We could protect them, and we hadn't been like that
Speaker 2: since COVID.
Speaker 1: When did we realize everything is such a blur, like
Speaker 1: a timeline.
Speaker 2: I can't, I think everybody because this is so fresh.
Speaker 2: I think for everybody. I think we're all as a
Speaker 2: city in a state of trauma, shock, shock, drama.
Speaker 1: I feel numb. Everybody I have talked to you says
Speaker 1: they just feel numb. And I can so relate because
Speaker 1: you're so shocked, and then you just feel immobilized, and
Speaker 1: like with fear.
Speaker 2: And you want to help, and how can I help?
Speaker 2: And so after I called my business partner, he told me,
Speaker 2: we have a friend that lives another like probably on
Speaker 2: another ridge that we are close to, and he was
Speaker 2: given us updates. So basically he was a little closer.
Speaker 2: He was a little closer. He could see it. He
Speaker 2: saw that the wind direction was moving away from us.
Speaker 2: But then later on at night, we know that it switched.
Speaker 1: It switched. That's the thing that's so wild about these fires.
Speaker 1: You're on one side of it, and you're a mile away,
Speaker 1: two miles away, three miles away, and then all the
Speaker 1: sudden the wind will swirl or switch and the wind
Speaker 1: is just insane.
Speaker 2: And on Tuesday night we had wind guts up to
Speaker 2: eighty to ninety miles an hour.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I felt like our house was going to
Speaker 1: fly away, crumble, break every wall.
Speaker 2: I thought all of our windows were going to explode.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So the kids were terrified.
Speaker 2: Everybody was terrified. But we weren't getting We didn't get
Speaker 2: an evacuation notice yet.
Speaker 1: We were just sitting tight.
Speaker 2: But we did start to prepare, so we did start
Speaker 2: making bags. I got all the cars.
Speaker 1: Well, you I think you were the first one to
Speaker 1: start packing bags. Like I just was just like I
Speaker 1: couldn't function. I was so freaked out.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I had some people calling me and then
Speaker 2: talking to you know, Johnny, and then you got all
Speaker 2: our friend Kevin, and by that time it was you know,
Speaker 2: a thirty nine, So we had grad we could gradually
Speaker 2: start to prepare. We did, got to be around one o'clock.
Speaker 2: The family, the girls, you everybody was getting pretty nervous. Still,
Speaker 2: no evacuation we had had, like I don't know at
Speaker 2: that time if we had a warning, but we were
Speaker 2: definitely smelling smoke. You could see the fire warning. We
Speaker 2: had a warning.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like evacuation mandatory.
Speaker 2: By yeah, that's right. And so you could start to
Speaker 2: smell the smoke. You could start, you could definitely you
Speaker 2: could see it the whole time. So we all made
Speaker 2: a decision. We called Peter and we all made a
Speaker 2: decision to go over there. I made a decision to
Speaker 2: stay back and stay the night here because we do
Speaker 2: have a sick dog, she's fourteen. We didn't want to
Speaker 2: move her. So you and the girls, you all drove
Speaker 2: separate and you went to Peter's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we took all the cards that we could and
Speaker 1: left you one because you had filled up both of
Speaker 1: the trucks.
Speaker 2: I had both the trucks filled.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was like ripping pictures off the walls.
Speaker 1: Our walls are all still bare.
Speaker 2: Hours later when we had we were fortunate to come
Speaker 2: back to the house in the morning, but you all
Speaker 2: spent the night at Peter's. I stayed here. I tried
Speaker 2: to set an alarm for every two hours to keep updated.
Speaker 2: I woke up at four o'clock in the morning and
Speaker 2: seeing that, oh, from our window, I couldn't see any
Speaker 2: actual fire. I could just see smoke. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a good thing because it was gone. And then
Speaker 2: six point thirty in the morning I got a notification.
Speaker 2: My friend reached out to me, who was on the
Speaker 2: other side. He was like, we are leaving, We are
Speaker 2: getting out of here. It's a little it's very close.
Speaker 2: In my then we had had a full on evacuation.
Speaker 2: Where we were that morning was a blur, just trying
Speaker 2: to get everything situated and get everything out and get
Speaker 2: to you while also, you know, it's surreal thinking that
Speaker 2: you're not going to see your place ever again. And
Speaker 2: that's why it's so it's so difficult because our house
Speaker 2: did survive, and yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like I feel kind of like guilty,
Speaker 1: a little bit of survivor guilt like that my house,
Speaker 1: that our house survived. I feel so bad for everybody
Speaker 1: who doesn't have a home now and everything is gone,
Speaker 1: and I feel like, how can I possibly even be
Speaker 1: happy again?
Speaker 2: Like I feel terrible for you know, the Palisades, the
Speaker 2: people that lost their home, but also the people that
Speaker 2: maintained that home, and the plumbers, the pool people, the
Speaker 2: cleaning services that now don't you know, they don't have
Speaker 2: a job. So it's a trickle down effect that that
Speaker 2: has just hit everybody in the city. And like I said,
Speaker 2: it's it's still not done. It's a it's slow and
Speaker 2: luckily right now this is Friday and we don't have
Speaker 2: wind like we did.
Speaker 1: But it's still so scary because new fires keep just
Speaker 1: popping up in the most random places around the city.
Speaker 1: When when that one in Hollywood on the Hollywood Hills
Speaker 1: came up, that was terrifying because that is like Palisades,
Speaker 1: another very very like densely populated area.
Speaker 2: Because we had evacuated in the valley to Peters and so.
Speaker 1: Now we once we were yeah, we were evacuated Peters,
Speaker 1: and we thought, okay.
Speaker 2: We're the next morning, and then.
Speaker 1: And then and then it changed, like all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: We were like, wait, we need to evacuate from our evacuated.
Speaker 2: Right And then we you know, that morning, which was
Speaker 2: Wednesday morning, around eleven, when I was back at Peters,
Speaker 2: said hello, and we had watched the news and it
Speaker 2: was still over by us, but it was you know,
Speaker 2: they were getting they were switching the direction. So I said,
Speaker 2: we have time to go come over here and get
Speaker 2: some more stuff. That's when we came over here around
Speaker 2: eleven thirty twelve.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's when I read that's.
Speaker 2: When you ripped off everything on the walls. And then
Speaker 2: we got pictures in big chests and we loaded up
Speaker 2: the truck and basically took I.
Speaker 1: Mean what I want. There were some strange things like
Speaker 1: what I was thinking in those moments because I was
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to take when we.
Speaker 2: First initially shocked, because we were trying to get everything
Speaker 2: kind of going. I was doing sprinklers and stuff just
Speaker 2: to kind of you know, embers were flying five miles
Speaker 2: and we were a mile away from where this flame
Speaker 2: was so you know, tried to saturate that, and you
Speaker 2: were inside watering the plants.
Speaker 1: I thought, if the plants they they're going to feel
Speaker 1: sad from the fire and it's going to dry them out.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I wasn't even thinking.
Speaker 2: I just think that that is another It's it's so
Speaker 2: surreal what's happening, and you just.
Speaker 1: In the in the panic moment, you know, you're.
Speaker 2: In a house where you look outside and it's a
Speaker 2: ominous glow of like fire and smoke, and it feels
Speaker 2: like the fire's like right next to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's when I think I just start shaking
Speaker 1: like uncontrollably. I could barely rip things off the walls.
Speaker 1: My hands were trembling like so much, and I and
Speaker 1: it was full blown sweating and panicking.
Speaker 2: Also, it's just so odd that, you know, when we're
Speaker 2: loading up the car, it's so quiet outside and.
Speaker 1: It's just still, and it's just eerie, ash falling, so eery, soery.
Speaker 1: I think I even went to the to the orange
Speaker 1: tree and tried to take off oranges to save them.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Some the girls were like when we were loading the
Speaker 2: truck and everybody was helping it was like, what are
Speaker 2: those oranges in the back of the truck. I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't My mom just picked like four oranges and
Speaker 2: threw them in the back of the truck.
Speaker 1: What did you think to take because it was kind
Speaker 1: of like every man for himself. And I saw that
Speaker 1: you had packed up some inches items as well.
Speaker 2: What like what was interesting, like.
Speaker 1: Your vintage Eagles sweatshirts and hats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, like you throw oranges in the back of
Speaker 2: the truck. I your brain is like, I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I know that I don't want to lose this.
Speaker 2: I don't want to lose this, and I don't want
Speaker 2: to lose that.
Speaker 1: And I took all our family pictures and memories, and
Speaker 1: you took your your sweatshirts in.
Speaker 2: Your head some vintage Eagle stuff that I couldn't get back. Well,
Speaker 2: I helped you with the pictures.
Speaker 1: You did you can. This is the thing. You were
Speaker 1: so amazing because you don't ever ask or like judge
Speaker 1: anything I do. Usually when the shit hits the fan
Speaker 1: and stuff, you're like, tell me what to do, I'll
Speaker 1: do it. You you were like a Sherpa from heaven,
Speaker 1: schlipping everything, loading heavy things into the back of the truck, well,
Speaker 1: organizing us and trying to keep us all calm.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, in those situations, you know, your brain is
Speaker 2: trying to rationalize it while also trying to be really
Speaker 2: quick and aware of what's going on and the unknown
Speaker 2: is it's crazy.
Speaker 1: When you're in that feeling of adrenaline rushing through you
Speaker 1: and you're scared and you just kind of pick random things.
Speaker 1: But I went straight for the pictures and uh things
Speaker 1: like that, and I didn't take clothes. I took one clothes,
Speaker 1: one outfit. I don't even know, no underwear.
Speaker 2: Well, look, there's the sound, Yeah I did you hear us?
Speaker 2: Hear that sound, the fire sound, And there's an app
Speaker 2: that everybody's been on and that like sound is seared
Speaker 2: like a notification warning and where another fire is popped
Speaker 2: up or what's going on here? But in true reflection
Speaker 2: of grabbing things, yeah, just when you when you're in
Speaker 2: that and you're trying to save what you need to save, right,
Speaker 2: I guess there was really nothing we really needed to
Speaker 2: save because we were already all saved. The girls were fine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we were just getting convenient things.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, random, We had all the dog stuff.
Speaker 1: That was the most important thing to us, I think,
Speaker 1: and then the girls packed a bag.
Speaker 2: I just you know, just also thinking about the people
Speaker 2: who didn't have any time or the luxury. And it
Speaker 2: was so quick and it was literally the perfect storm
Speaker 2: in the Palisades. How that hit and then how it
Speaker 2: hit an in canyon and even it when.
Speaker 1: We were at Peter's house and we got that evacuation
Speaker 1: warning for running his house. Yeah, when the running canyon
Speaker 1: came up, that was terrifying, Like.
Speaker 2: Well, everybody were right because it was close and you
Speaker 2: were close to that because.
Speaker 1: We were also like, where are we going to go? Now?
Speaker 1: It's the next plan.
Speaker 2: We had all gotten settled in. We all had a
Speaker 2: family dinner together, which was really nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that was like a.
Speaker 2: We have we had all never done that before.
Speaker 1: Well we've done it, but this was not in his.
Speaker 2: Home or not in our home.
Speaker 1: I don't remember, but I feel.
Speaker 2: Like it was nice. Lily, the Jack, the girls, we
Speaker 2: ordered Chinese food. It was it was enjoyable in it
Speaker 2: for that brief moment we were not thinking about Yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Turned off the news for a minute and just sat
Speaker 1: as a family and tried to.
Speaker 2: Have you know, some sort of you know, normalcy.
Speaker 1: When we had Peter on the podcast and we really
Speaker 1: opened up some new channels of communication and you know,
Speaker 1: sort of had a kind of restart to what our
Speaker 1: relationship should be. I think that was amazing and that
Speaker 1: probably was the opening the door opening for us to
Speaker 1: be comfortable enough to even ask him, can we come
Speaker 1: and stay at your house? And without hesitation, he was
Speaker 1: like absolutely, And we went there and all our family
Speaker 1: was together. The girls, Luca, Lola, and Fiona were there,
Speaker 1: He was there, lily Is Beyonce was there, and Jack
Speaker 1: there almost their almost two year old son, and all
Speaker 1: of our dogs. So we all just sort of they
Speaker 1: we all just sort of really hunkered down and watched
Speaker 1: the news together and it was together.
Speaker 2: It was an enjoyable experience.
Speaker 1: I told, uh, I don't know enjoyable, Like could anything
Speaker 1: be enjoyable right now?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that with everything going on in
Speaker 2: my brain, I was I was so grateful to be
Speaker 2: in his place and be safe, be safe, and the
Speaker 2: girls were safe and every but he was safe. It
Speaker 2: was like, oh, okay, yeah, let's make the best of this.
Speaker 2: I did ask you in bed, I was like, do
Speaker 2: you feel weird? Sleeping in your ex husband's house.
Speaker 1: I said, no, I really didn't at all. I didn't,
Speaker 1: but I do. I have a confession to make.
Speaker 2: I have a.
Speaker 1: Confession to make. So he I guess Lily had made
Speaker 1: some banana bread with chocolate chips in it, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't just sitting there on the counter and nobody was
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. So I kind of ate it all.
Speaker 2: Sorry, guys, Well, she had me go back in there.
Speaker 1: I had some and then I was.
Speaker 2: Like, we stayed in the guest house was private, it's
Speaker 2: like a back house. It was like a back house.
Speaker 2: It was a garage converted into a bed. It might
Speaker 2: smell like a campfire too, because all of our clothes
Speaker 2: when we got back where we smelled like a campfire.
Speaker 2: But they're all right.
Speaker 1: So going back to the banana bat first second, I
Speaker 1: know who eats the sweets and the banana breads in
Speaker 1: that house. And his name's Peter. So I went back
Speaker 1: later and I was like, hey, is there more banana bread?
Speaker 1: And he's like no, I think I think he got eaten.
Speaker 1: I've said who ate it all? And he was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. I said, oh, I
Speaker 1: know who ate it all and he gets up and
Speaker 1: he walks out and he leaves the room. He goes
Speaker 1: into the kitchen and I'm like, oh, okay, bye, and
Speaker 1: he comes back in with the tiniest little saran wrap
Speaker 1: back like wad, and it had literally one bite of
Speaker 1: banana bread left in it, and he gave it to me.
Speaker 1: You guys, he let me have the last bite that
Speaker 1: he was hiding for himself.
Speaker 2: That's so nice. I mean, that's so kind of him.
Speaker 2: The girls were making fun of him because I walked
Speaker 2: in from the guest house to get some water and
Speaker 2: then peanut butter filled pretzels with chocolate on top, and
Speaker 2: he's making a sandwich at eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think we were all stressed eating.
Speaker 2: Everybody was probably doing things that.
Speaker 1: They I have no plan to I have no plan
Speaker 1: to stop stress either.
Speaker 2: I didn't be in there because I was trying to
Speaker 2: go steal chocolate covered peanut butter bruds.
Speaker 1: I was not only stress eating. I was stressed vacuuming.
Speaker 1: Is that I mean, I guess that's good for my heart.
Speaker 1: Like I was exercising in some way, but I vacuumed
Speaker 1: this entire house like four times, just because I didn't
Speaker 1: know what else to do.
Speaker 2: I think at one point I was like, I have
Speaker 2: to I have to take a break from the news.
Speaker 2: I need to turn on and I had a phone,
Speaker 2: I had a phone and TV and I think you
Speaker 2: may have told me we need to take a break.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's almost impossible.
Speaker 2: Impossible, But we all kind of managed to keep our
Speaker 2: cool until we never got an evacuation like notice there.
Speaker 2: So I think that that was the most important, just
Speaker 2: listening to every instruction and just really adhering to it.
Speaker 1: And of course at that point we had to make
Speaker 1: the difficult decision to postpone the I Choose Me Live event.
Speaker 1: We've been working really, really always hard, and our whole team,
Speaker 1: everybody at iHeart, all my family members have been working
Speaker 1: to get us ready for the most exciting event that
Speaker 1: we were so proud to be throwing, and everything was
Speaker 1: falling into place with that, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden this happened and we had to make the decision.
Speaker 1: I think we made it on Wednesday that we needed
Speaker 1: to let it be known that we couldn't do the event.
Speaker 1: We had to postpone it. There was, I mean, not
Speaker 1: a question in anybody's mind that it was important to
Speaker 1: us that we kept our everybody involved safe, all the
Speaker 1: guests that were flying in, all the panelists that were
Speaker 1: flying in, and there to do it. It was not
Speaker 1: It was like, of course, this needs to be the decision, absolutely,
Speaker 1: But I still have to admit afterwards I felt like
Speaker 1: sort of like what now. I felt sort of.
Speaker 2: I think everybody in the city is in a what
Speaker 2: now place?
Speaker 1: That's the thing. And that was what made the decision
Speaker 1: easy to make, was knowing that so many of our
Speaker 1: neighbors and our fellow Angelino's were in this state of emergency.
Speaker 2: I did feel such a sense of gratitude yesterday for
Speaker 2: our situation and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you came home and like the house was still.
Speaker 2: Okay, and being over in Altadena with my business partner
Speaker 2: and his house is still standing, but the smoke damage
Speaker 2: because it was an older house that they had it
Speaker 2: at all locked up, but the smoke blue the window open,
Speaker 2: you could see the soot inside and the smoke damage.
Speaker 2: And he's not going to be able to go back
Speaker 2: there and live for you know, so who knows.
Speaker 1: Not to mention his entire neighborhood has burned down.
Speaker 2: In his entire neighborhood, even walking through it yesterday and
Speaker 2: seeing the destruction of you know, the you'll notice that
Speaker 2: one house is here, and then three houses are gone,
Speaker 2: and then two houses are there, and then four are gone.
Speaker 2: I was asking questions and the firemen they just did
Speaker 2: not have the resources. They didn't they couldn't contend with
Speaker 2: eighty to ninety mile an hour wind.
Speaker 1: So they didn't have water, right.
Speaker 2: They had to conserve the water. So when they were
Speaker 2: coming up to places, if they saw that a house
Speaker 2: was gone, they were like, we can't save it. We'll
Speaker 2: try and save the house next to it. So they
Speaker 2: doused all their resources on that one house and they
Speaker 2: moved on to the next situation that they had to
Speaker 2: fight like that. And it's just scary. There's nothing, there's
Speaker 2: nothing that there's nothing that anyone can do. And I
Speaker 2: think that that is frightening, and I mean it puts
Speaker 2: a lot of things into perspective. But you know, you're
Speaker 2: working so hard on the event coming up and so
Speaker 2: wrapped up into that, and ye have to cancel it
Speaker 2: because that is small pales in comparison.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, it was not the time to quite yet
Speaker 1: to come together, but it will be, and I can
Speaker 1: say without a doubt that we are going to find
Speaker 1: a date to reschedule it because I kind of think
Speaker 1: now more than ever, we need to feel supported by
Speaker 1: our community, and I think that having the event in
Speaker 1: some capacity will we'll offer us all like some solace
Speaker 1: and some solidarity and that feeling of of being being neighbors,
Speaker 1: being friendly, kind and having support. So we're definitely going
Speaker 1: to be rescheduling it. We're just trying to find a
Speaker 1: date in the near future. Stay abreast to any new
Speaker 1: developments with that on our social media platform on I
Speaker 1: Choose Me Live. We'll update you guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's something. I mean, even now we
Speaker 2: have Winds coming back next week. It's Friday and Tuesday,
Speaker 2: and now we have to prepare for something else.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. It's crazy, though. What is what is really
Speaker 1: pissing me off right now is the looters, the people
Speaker 1: that are robbing from people, and the people that are
Speaker 1: setting up fake like gofundmes. I know my friend Cameron
Speaker 1: Matheson who lost his beautiful home in Altadena. He's devastated,
Speaker 1: his family's devastated, and someone is online using his situation
Speaker 1: to raise money for themselves. Basically they have no connection
Speaker 1: with this. And I saw that he went on on
Speaker 1: the Instagram earlier today and said, don't that's not me.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking for money. So anytime you see somebody
Speaker 1: trying to get money for me, it's not me, right,
Speaker 1: which just sucks.
Speaker 2: It's sad. Well, you know, they brought in the National Guard,
Speaker 2: so that's good Johnny and Altadena that that's what everyone
Speaker 2: was afraid of. Looters and people taking av.
Speaker 1: We were afraid of it too when we left the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we were told we do have a gate.
Speaker 2: We were told to leave the gate open in case
Speaker 2: firemen have to come in and they need access. I
Speaker 2: mean that being said, you live in the city and
Speaker 2: with all these crimes and just everything that's been happening,
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do that because they know that
Speaker 2: our neighborhood just got evacuated. So who's to say that
Speaker 2: no one's going to come in? And you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's just another added thing to be worried about.
Speaker 2: But and then you think to yourself, why am I
Speaker 2: worrying about that ship because the house is going to
Speaker 2: burn down anyway, I might see my house for the
Speaker 2: last time.
Speaker 1: So, but when we got to come home and we
Speaker 1: found out that our house was saved, and we just
Speaker 1: we are so grateful.
Speaker 2: It was everyone working together, because I think we are
Speaker 2: so grateful that we're so fortunate and so blessed. Yeah,
Speaker 2: to have had our house stay through all of this.
Speaker 1: And the neighborhood is a hot mess though, Like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of trees around where we live. There's so
Speaker 1: many down trees and broken limbs.
Speaker 2: That's what you know, a lot of people are missing.
Speaker 2: Is the wind damage that this storm caused in another
Speaker 2: itself is like is one situation another situation. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: one of the worst wind events I've ever seen that
Speaker 2: I've been here in twenty three years.
Speaker 1: What wild, wild wind scary winds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, my my heart still goes out to
Speaker 2: my heart goes out to all those people and my
Speaker 2: prayers and thoughts and wherever you are. It's just really
Speaker 2: puts everything in perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now it feels like even though the fires are
Speaker 1: literally still burning and burning down houses and people are
Speaker 1: still getting evacuated all over the city. Yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: just like on pins and needles because you it's happening.
Speaker 1: Like if you look at a map, it's sort of
Speaker 1: surrounding the entire city and so you feel like a
Speaker 1: sitting duck somehow, like you're just waiting for I mean,
Speaker 1: and you can't come.
Speaker 2: It's everybody has been advised to stay inside. I own
Speaker 2: a bar restaurant and we have a patio and no
Speaker 2: one's there and we're trying to be a haven for
Speaker 2: people to come in. And but you know, everybody should
Speaker 2: just stay home because of the smoke now, because of
Speaker 2: the unhealthy air, because now the winds have completely stopped
Speaker 2: and we're in just a stagnant face.
Speaker 1: But if they're coming back, but they're coming back, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so scared. Like every time the alert goes off
Speaker 1: on my phone, it's the scariest feeling and it shoots
Speaker 1: like the fear into every fiber of your body, and
Speaker 1: you're like ready, you're on edge and ready to take action.
Speaker 1: Because that's the thing. Like we do live in a
Speaker 1: hillside and there is no humidity here and there. It
Speaker 1: is so so dry, and it could happen. The embers
Speaker 1: could come from anywhere and start new fires everywhere. So
Speaker 1: it's just really a very nerve wracking time.
Speaker 2: It feels like it feels like you're living in a movie,
Speaker 2: but I don't know where Vin Diesel is or not.
Speaker 1: The Rock I was like, the Rock would stop these fires.
Speaker 1: This was this was one of his movies.
Speaker 2: I like the Rock guy, the Rock. Yeah, he would
Speaker 2: have crushed it. Yesterday.
Speaker 1: We are definitely sharing resources on our socials and we're
Speaker 1: going to put them in the show notes too, so
Speaker 1: you can find out how to help, how to donate
Speaker 1: to people that have been affected by this. I know
Speaker 1: we are going through our house and donating blankets and
Speaker 1: coats and all the things that they're asking for, and
Speaker 1: we want to go help people, but there are so
Speaker 1: many restrictions about who can go in what the areas
Speaker 1: and yeah right now.
Speaker 2: I mean the only reason I was up in down
Speaker 2: toa Dina yesterday is because I was at you know,
Speaker 2: Johnny's house. But we did get to speak to some
Speaker 2: people who had lost their whole like everything, and when
Speaker 2: they were just speaking to us and seen in their eyes,
Speaker 2: they were okay, that they were okay, their family was okay,
Speaker 2: everybody was okay. Yes, it sucks, but in that moment,
Speaker 2: you don't know, like I don't. We didn't lose our house.
Speaker 1: Might yeah, I have a ton of good friends that
Speaker 1: lost their houses from the Palisades to Malibu.
Speaker 2: It just puts everything in such perspective that it really doesn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think once you get out and you're safe
Speaker 1: and your family is safe and you've lost everything, there's
Speaker 1: this like feeling of none of it really matters, Nothing
Speaker 1: matters except this moment and that we're here together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's heartbroken for everybody though. Yeah, we want to
Speaker 1: share our gratitude the firefighters, the first responders, the now
Speaker 1: the National Guard coming in, the National Guards, all of
Speaker 1: the news people.
Speaker 2: That have kept us, the news people who were around
Speaker 2: the plan, you know, hour after hour after hour after hour,
Speaker 2: and themselves in such danger and they were all doing
Speaker 2: such a good job. Like Channel nine has the eaton Canyon,
Speaker 2: Channel four has the Palisades. Oh my god, the running
Speaker 2: fire just broke out. Katla has that.
Speaker 1: So everybody's working really hard to keep helping people and
Speaker 1: keep everybody safe during this devastating time.
Speaker 2: And it's it's gonna be a it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: tough road for the city. And I think, I I
Speaker 2: know this city will all come together and community reach out,
Speaker 2: especially in our neighborhood and mine and my business neighborhood
Speaker 2: wasn't affected. But I've just been talking to those people
Speaker 2: and they all want to go out into these other
Speaker 2: areas once everything settles down and just help people. I
Speaker 2: know that this will bring a lot of humans together. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm grateful that we're all safe. I'm so terribly
Speaker 2: sad for everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. I think that we have a good
Speaker 1: system of warnings and the evacuation signals, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, at the end of the day, we have to
Speaker 2: take care of each other and our neighbors in our
Speaker 2: neighborhoods and be there for one another, and don't I
Speaker 2: don't really know what anyone could have done with eighty
Speaker 2: ninety mile an hour winds and the wind patterns. It
Speaker 2: was tornadoes, like many tornadoes going east west, north south.
Speaker 1: So we are just so grateful for everything. We're grateful
Speaker 1: to have a home and be together as a family.
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, for everybody listening, it's important
Speaker 1: that you are prepared in any kind of disastrous situation,
Speaker 1: have your to go back, you know, packed with things
Speaker 1: that you might need, and.
Speaker 2: Because you never you always look at stuff and you
Speaker 2: always go well that's not gonna happen, right.
Speaker 1: You don't think it's going to happen to you, but
Speaker 1: it does. So thank you for listening. I hope that
Speaker 1: this podcast helped and we will see you soon.
Speaker 2: Bye bye, take care of everyone.