Photo By Jordan Raiff | Brian and Pamela Huges sit down in their long-term rental with visual information...... read more read more
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing debris removal for thousands of properties destroyed during Southern California’s Palisades and Eaton fires Jan. 7.
While removing debris is USACE’s primary mission, the more than 450 employees are also building relationships with the survivors along the way.
Survivors Pamela and Brian Hughes, Ewing Avenue in Altadena are among the many survivors that have built lasting relationships with USACE employees.
First meeting in Toronto in 1987, Brian was working as a musician when a band Pamela was singing for suddenly needed a guitarist.
“We ran into each other by surprise on Valentine’s Day. ,” said Brian. “That band broke up shortly after I joined—but I got to take the singer,” he said smiling, remembering the moment fondly. Sometime after that, the couple moved to California, where Brian eventually had his own studio in a double garage behind their pool.
Much like when he met his wife, the fires were a complete surprise.
“We didn’t get any alerts,” said Pamela. “Our power went out around six or something, and then a friend of Pamela’s called and said, ‘Well, what are you doing about the fires? They’re in the Pacific Palisades.’
“Then Pamela phoned our neighbor across the way, Anne Marie, and she said just three words: ‘Pam, evacuate now!’” said Brian.
Pamela added, “We left around 7 or 8:30 at night. In retrospect, we might have been able to come back for some things, but trees were already down, and power lines were everywhere.”
Expecting to be gone for only a night or two, they, like other residents, grabbed only the essentials, which for them included a prized and well-used 1971 Gibson ES-175 electric guitar along with clothes added to a ‘go bag’ out of convenience.
As Brian drove down Colorado Avenue, a major thoroughfare around Pasadena, they hoped to find a hotel with vacancy. But that wasn’t the case. “As we started driving that way, the winds got worse and worse, and Pamela said I was driving into it—so I turned around,” said Brian.
Pulling into a parking lot, they called around to hotels but received no answers. Thankfully, they had another option.
“Good friends of ours in Venice [California] had offered us their guest house 45 minutes before we started calling around. We quickly called them back and said, ‘We’ll take it.’ We spent the first week in Venice Beach,” said Brian.
Instead of returning in a day or two as they had in past fires, it took two weeks for Brian and Pamela to return to their home. While neighbors checked on the neighborhood a few days later, Pamela said it was “utterly treacherous” due to fallen trees and power lines.
Consequentially, they were now competing with many others to find a new place to live. With few options, a fellow musician friend of Brian’s offered his condo while he was on tour in Europe.
During that time, they spent most of their days searching for housing. “It’s a full-time job getting back on your feet… There are so many things to do—between applying for FEMA, Small Business Administration loans, or even talking with the insurance,” said Brian.
For these two, having USACE involved has provided comfort in a dark time.
“I’m so glad the Corps is here. I feel if it was up to all of us as individuals, this would never happen. One of my neighbors wanted to get a small truck and clear his property himself, but thanks to the Corps of Engineers, we’re getting things cleared—and quickly,” said Pamela.
Brian added, “Everything the Corps has done has been great. First, we filled out the right of entry application, and since then, we’ve been getting periodic updates. Once we found temporary housing a few minutes away, we’ve been visiting frequently and seeing everything the Corps of Engineers has done, all their fantastic work, and how expedited it all is. People we’ve talked to are just so happy with how polite, patient, and thorough they’ve been. I could not imagine this being done any better.
This is the first positive step toward rebuilding since the fire happened.”
“I didn’t think we’d rebuild, but I am so in love with this neighborhood. I see a future in it. Even though we are older, I think there’s room for us too,” said Pamela.
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2025 12:20 |
| Story ID: | 496279 |
| Location: | ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 148 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, ‘Evacuate Now!’: USACE assists survivors after Southern California wildfires, by Jordan Raiff, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
