Month One
The Endless Month Since the Night That Changed Everything.
Friends, as we dive back into regular posting here – there is so much to share, and we don’t want to share too much – I’m going to begin by adding a series of Guides and what will be pertinent in the short term and in time become some shared Altadena Eaton Fire history. This is the post we shared to our neighbors only private group this week as we hit the one month mark.
>> MONTH ONE <<
a note from your admin
February 4, 2025
Hello friends. It's hard to believe tonight will mark one month since the fateful night that changed everything for all of us. One month to nearly the hour we were thinking it was time to pack up and prepare to go, at least for a day or two until the worst of the smoke and ash passed. A month in and I feel like it's the first day I'm coming up for air, which I'm guessing many of you can relate to too. We had planned an online vigil for today, but our team (all of whom lost their homes) has been as overwhelmed as all of you who have been trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and navigate this uncharted territory together the last few weeks. We're all also still in this critical phase that feels like frenetic flurry of activity and we could all use a break– and a deep breath. A vigil will come, but for now, some updates on the bigger picture things we've been working on and involved in and what's next...
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERS
This week we'll begin sending critical comms through our newsletters direct to your inbox. As always, we'll be curating (and fact checking) the most helpful information out there to share with you. Please be sure to subscribe to our free newsletters (content only goes behind a paywall after it's archived a few weeks after posting) if you haven't already.
BEAUTIFUL ALTADENA SLACK PUBLIC COMMUNITY
When I started this group ten years ago (hard to believe but we've been doing this that long) it was because Altadena not being its own city had no central comms channels which drove me crazy being someone who spent ages in communications and PR. As anyone who's been here a while knows, we're often lamenting the fact that we still have no central source of comms all these years later, and this medium (Facebook) is terrible for real communication. I've been working on our Slack the last couple of weeks and it will launch in the next few days. (This will be live as soon as we’re able to address the issue of someone currently squatting on our name which has been a thrill)
HOME REBUILDING WEBINAR
We are hosting a Rebuilding Webinar on Thursday, February 13 at 5:30pm on Zoom. It will cover a number of topics for people whose homes are total losses (at least 6,000 of us) including site cleanup options, building fire resistant homes, the rebuilding process and timeline, and more. We'll be joined by builders (including one who was our neighbor on Marengo and lost it all), someone from the Army Corps of Engineers and other pros in the field with time for Q&A. Attend the webinar here.
ALTADENA RESIDENT IMPACT SURVEY
If you haven't already, please be sure to complete the research survey we've shared here. The survey for Altadena residents is comprehensive and aims to collect data on a number of points that we can use as we move forward from this crisis to help multiple groups and organizations shape a better Altadena. If you are an Altadena resident please take the time to complete the survey, share your experiences to date around the Eaton Fire, and please share this far and wide with all of your neighbors and friends who are also Altadena residents. This data is so very important and this is an impactful way for our voices to be heard loud and clear. This is a pro bono public interest research project being conducted by the local Future Organization. Residents can complete the survey here.
A BIG THANKS
As I'm sure most of you are aware, our moderators have been working around the clock for everyone. I especially want to give a shout out to Daniel Harlow who's one of our unsung heroes. Despite battling fire for days to try to save part of his home and his neighbor's home, he's been here day and night, sometimes up all night with me, to keep things going here. Our other mods including Ciressa Henderson, Stuart Brawley and my own Marcus Beer have also been a huge behind the scenes support keeping things running and they all deserve a round of thanks for being the kind of people that make our Altadena so incredibly special. Please continue to read the daily Morning Posts Daniel pens. They're a daily digest chock full of important information, events and links. If you read nothing else here, make it that.
...
Much love to all of you, from our neighbors who have been displaced and scattered to the wind to our neighbors who are still here holding it down and navigating this strange new reality with half of their town gone. We're going to get through this because we all have each other.
~shawna xx
One Week In
For anyone curious, here is another note we shared with our group as we all navigated these uncharted waters. It’s a bit of insight into our collective reality.
<< ONE WEEK IN >>
a note from your admin
January 13, 2025
You've seen a lot of important and "official" posts and some notes about our temporarily updated group rules and guidelines but I'm going to add one more....
We are still receiving complaints about posts not being approved. We are receiving thousands – literally thousands – and the majority are repeating the same thing over and over, outdated info, questions that have been answered repeatedly (group search) or flat out wrong.
We're also seeing people post threads of homes standing with addresses and photos which makes them big targets for looting.
We're seeing posts from people wanting to get in the area for one reason or another – important reasons – and we're not sharing that here because you can't. More importantly, you shouldn't. The arsenic, asbestos, and lead levels in our neighborhood are off the charts and will be for months if not years of cleanup.
We've locked the group down as we became aware of the SCE investigators trying to infiltrate to gather evidence from your comments and images shared here to build their defense against our lawsuit for burning our town down. While we have received close to 2k requests to join our group, we've accepted about 100 of those people we know we can trust. But that's it because we are doing everything we can to ensure this continues to be a safe and trusted space.
If you want an open group there is another Altadena group that is entirely open, and where everyone is let in, where there is no post approval, and we are seeing it flooded with misinformation. But if you want the wild west, it exists and you are welcome to go there for it.
But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE think carefully about what you post and where you post it and be doubly careful about what you believe.
Keep an eye out for some master threads today on where to post all of our local GoFundMe links for those who were less impacted to network for everyone here who lost so much, a Lost & Found Pets thread, an important note about our Environmental Safety, one for Memories we need a place to share, and a Mental Health Resources thread. Most of us have been running nonstop since Wednesday and the enormity of this hasn't even begun to set in. Hang in there everyone...