Bonus: Message from a City on Fire | How to Help

Weirding Way Media. Welcome to eighties TV ladies. Wishing you all a very safe, secure, and taken care of place. Right now, There's been a lot going on in Los Angeles. Sharon is out of town, so I've decided to get Richard HadAM from Richard Adam's Paranormal Bookshelf to join me in our garage, which is still standing, unlike a lot of buildings in Los Angeles.

So hello, I'm Susan. Hello Susan, I'm Richard your husband. I know I'm no Sharon Johnson, but you guys are going to have to put up with me for today. So we would be normally dropping a regular episode for you, but today instead we are dropping this one because there has been unprecedented fires in all of Los Angeles, the Palisades in Altadena, and so we're safe. We housed some people who had to evacu wait, some of whom lost a home, but others were able to go home, and we're still hoping that the fires will be fully contained soon.

You know, we get wind all the time in LA. But I don't know, I feel like fire was expected. I don't know, I feel like there was a sense of doom even before this week started. Do you get that feeling or am I misremembering it? No, they were warning us there were winds coming and with all the dryness and lines and trees that would go down, they knew there was a chance of fire, and so we were warned a lot, and we've been warned a lot with all of the natural disasters that have ramped up in the last few years because of climate change.

It's so strange because it happened instantly. We were getting text messages from people friends Altadena, Pasadena, Yeah, that were immediately like we're getting evacuation warnings. We need a place to go. Can we go to your place? And that was Tuesday evening, not even late, and no sooner did one person text, then another one did, and it's like, wait a second, we do have some spare room.

But it was really weird for a second. And then one couple that we know who has a dog ended up at a house near us in our neighborhood, in the home of friends who were traveling. But then my sister in law ended up bringing her family down, husband, two daughters, two dogs, and they've been with us for three days. I know. And then our sun Spencer came down.

He came down with his dog because they got evacuated. So yeah, there was a point of wait a second, how many people can we fit in here? Well, not only that, but how many people do we know who were being evacuated and we're their first call? Like, that's the part I didn't get. I'm like, if we were evacuated, what I would we be calling people?

Or would I just be like, We're going downtown to the Bonaventure. I'm getting a room with a twenty four hour room service. You understand that we would have to evacuate with our two dogs and a cat. That's fine. Many hotels don't take that.

People were unable to bring their pets. I know that that was the problem. And all of these people had animals. Our son, Spencer had an animal, a sister in law had two dogs, and the Cavins had their dogs. So it would have been, yeah, we have two dogs, and so we have two dogs that are not you know, they're good, but it's like, okay, when you're suddenly mixing a lot of dogs on one dog's home territory, you can have some trouble.

But it all worked out and everybody was safe. And turns out we ended up kind of at the edge of an evacuation warning area, and we didn't know which way the wind was going to blow, literally, And so there was this, you know, that sense that everybody in LA had and some still have and many still have, that we may have to go now, and we then would have to evacuate all of us somewhere else. There were many people who evacuated to a place and then that whole household had to evacuate again. Well, and there were evacuation centers that had to close down and relocate everyone who had shown up there. So, yeah, it's people have been scrambling and almost everyone because a lot of people were texting again just checking in on us because they hear, oh my god, Pasadena, Alta, Dina, that's where you know, Richard and Susan live.

So they were checking in. And almost everyone who checked in with us turned out to be hosting evacue's people they knew friends, you know, I checked in. So my podcast is Richard Haddam's paranormal Bookshelf, and one of the sister podcasts on the Astonishing Legends Network is Scared All the Time, and so I, you know, the hosts of that show Live in LA I checked in with them. One of them was hosting their co host on the show because they had to evacuate. Almost everyone we talked to their lives are being impacted, either helping people or they are in need of help.

But thankfully, I feel like the number of people who have died has not I don't know it could. Let's just say this, it's terrible. It could have been much worse. Well, it's not done. I mean I think the latest count is thirteen, but the amount of instruction that's very small.

I think it will go up because they you know, there's a lot of destruction and a lot of people that maybe couldn't get out. But at the same time, given the amount of destruction, I think one of the things we were talking about with our new family sitting around making spaghetti, was that the priority these days, particularly in southern California with fires, which we're used to, not like this, but we're used to, is to protect life. It's life first, then property. Yeah, and I think that's what they did. I know there's been a lot of talk about how terrible everything was, and everything is terrible, but I actually think the response was incredible.

I was, you know, the firefighters were out there, the crews were out there, people were helping each other. What I saw on the ground and what we saw from all of our neighbors and friends who were dealing with all of this is a lot of people. Firefighters, police, everybody in Los Angeles in the areas that I saw. We're trying to help each other. Everybody was doing their job to the fullest extent.

How tired I was sitting in our house just hosting people and checking in on people. There was like a day Wednesday, maybe Thursday, where I was like, I don't think I can keep doing this right, keep checking for the evacuation notices, and we kept getting some some more false alarms, some were not, but the phone would go off and it's very stressful. And then I thought of the firefighters out there on their second third night, the pilots that were dropping and trying to drop in very dangerous conditions and kind of holding the line literally on a ridge that you know, saved countless of people. And I was like, those people have to be really tired. Those have to be people have to be so much more tired than me, and they are going to keep going.

So I'm going to keep checking in, I'm going to keep trying to share information about where you can donate. But we live very close to Alta Dina, many of our friends, I've worked and lived in Alta Dina and it's very destroyed. And I know there's also the palisades and all that stuff, but Altadena is literally close to us and our hearts, and so I just want to say, if you want to help, we'll put some stuff in our description, some links for gofundmeis but also local charities and organizations. And today again I went out to our local school and the students were there with their families, calling every family to make sure they were okay and to find out where they were and what they needed. And that was pretty amazing to me.

I knew we showed up to help, but I didn't know what we would be doing. And immediately our son got on the phone with his other friends and learned how to call somebody and say, hey, this is you know, Dashel from Waverley, and he had a little script. It was amazing. They contacted every family to make sure they were okay, where they were, and say we have whatever you need. We can help you with and that's what businesses are doing here, that's what people in their own homes are doing, and that's what schools are doing.

So there's been a lot of loss, and I know there's a lot of chaos and a lot of bad actors, but the majority of people on the ground are helping, are looking for ways to help, and are trying to make sure that everybody's okay. So yeah, and if you're listening and you do want to help, and a lot of people have reached out to us through our individual shows, and then also personally, check the show notes for eighties TV Ladies for this episode and there will be legitimate wayes where you can give your money and be confident that you know it's not one of the many scammers out there trying to take advantage of the disaster by ripping you off. So and we thank you for any help you can provide, because now's the time, now's the time we need it.

All right, Well, we're wishing you safe wins Low Wins, and that we have a calmer week ahead and hoping that you are okay and safe where you are, and that you're taking care of yourself and others and being amazed and ladies of the twenty first century. Eighties, my hand so pretty eighties into the city, aid dream of gooding, my god money. Many thanks for joining me Richard. Oh yeah, okay, I thought you were dumb.