Living in Los Angeles inherently means orchestrating daily life around the city’s infamous traffic: dodging it, enduring it, and often voicing frustrations about it.
However, for residents hit hard by the recent fires—particularly in Altadena and Pacific Palisades—the disruption has been profound.
The fires, which swept through these communities in January, obliterated not just homes, but also established routines that Angelenos rely on to navigate their day-to-day lives.
The result of this destruction is a significant adjustment, as many displaced individuals have found themselves trading the familiar roads and paths of their neighborhoods for longer, more inconvenient commutes.
For Sarah Parker, the loss of her home in Altadena to the Eaton Fire has been a heartbreaking experience, further complicated by her new commute.
Having moved her family to Arcadia, her daily drive to work at Cedars-Sinai on the Westside has now ballooned to an exhausting 90 minutes each way.
“What it’s done to my commute has been soul crushing,” Parker lamented, illustrating the heavy toll traffic takes on her life now.
Similarly, Furmencio Quiroz and his family have navigated a series of temporary housing arrangements after losing their home in Altadena.
With stints in Pomona and San Bernardino, the distance from their familiar community has imposed a lengthy travel commitment on them.
“Obviously, all our life is in Altadena, Pasadena,” Quiroz shared, explaining that the necessity of commuting back and forth has added yet another layer to their challenges.
The stress has been particularly palpable for parents like Marisol Espino.
After the fire took her family’s home, Espino and her relatives had to leap between various temporary rentals and hotels while still ensuring her children attended school in Pasadena.
As the family has now split up to find affordable housing—the separation adding to the strain of their situation—Espino worried about the upcoming school year.
“It’s exhausting, just spending more time in the car,” she confessed.
The joy and familiarity that once came with geographically close community has been replaced by a sense of frustration, exhaustion, and anxiety.
Shannon Kearney, who had chosen her home in Altadena for its proximity to the Pasadena Waldorf School, has experienced a similar loss.
With both her home and the school destroyed in the fires, relocating to Silver Lake has severed the daily connections and routines she and her son had cultivated.
Until summer brought some respite, Kearney’s commute to the Waldorf’s temporary location in La Crescenta was burdensome.
Witnessing her son’s struggles with the changing environment has been the hardest part: “He had a lot of freedom and a lot of playtime, and all of that is gone because he’s in the car so much,” Kearney noted, reflecting on her son’s lost sense of independence.
While the additional time spent commuting stands out, it is merely one of many challenges faced by fire survivors in the aftermath.
For many Angelenos, the battle against traffic is something familiar, but for those who have lost homes and stability, it serves as a metaphor for the myriad of losses suffered—loss of time on the phone with insurance adjusters, navigating FEMA claims, and waiting for building permits to be approved.
Although insurance may cover some gas expenses incurred from the additional commuting, there are facets of this experience that simply cannot be compensated.
Kearney articulated a poignant point when she remarked, “This was so much time wasted that I was never going to be able to get back.”
Rebuilding houses and replacing belongings may be possible, but the intangible loss of time and the emotional toll are far more complex and enduring.
For Espino, nearly seven months post-fire, the unfamiliarity of her new environment remains a significant burden.
She reminisced about the ease with which she used to navigate the curved North Altadena Drive back home, now replaced by an overwhelming sense of loss for all that has changed.
As Los Angeles continues to grapple with the aftermath of the devastation, the personal stories of traffic woes and emotional challenges reveal a broader narrative of resilience amidst overwhelming hardship.
image source from：laist
