Altadena Wildfire and Katrina, Are there Similarities? – The Invisible Woman

The Coleman family moved to Altadena, CA, in 1969. The house they came to call “home” became the hub of warmth, love, and security to the five children they raised there and the broader family and friends who came there for weddings, family parties, and gatherings that included grandchildren, cousins, and dozens of kids from the community. The Coleman home was the “go-to spot” to receive advice and support.

The Coleman family loved Altadena, and the racially and ethnically diverse community loved them. Sadly, on Jan. 7, the Coleman matriarch, who is 93 years old, lost the home to one of the worst fires in the history of Southern California.

After embers from the Eaton Canyon fire began setting homes on fire, the Colemans were forced to flee the home with just the clothes on their backs.

Sadly, they lost everything in the fire, including photos and items that can never be replaced.

The tragedy that began on January 7th is just the beginning for the Colemans and the thousands of others who survived one of the worst disasters in California history. Here is a link to the Coleman Family GoFundMe campaign. Please give what you can.

Local journalist and frequent LA Progressive reporter, James Farr, happens to live in one of the high-risk regions adjacent to Eaton Canyon. James, who lives in Pasadena, CA, gives some insight into what he witnessed over the past few days. An evacuee himself, James took his family to Orange County initially but has now returned to Pasadena.

He talks about how the Altadena Fire has already affected Black and Brown families in ways that are different from the other communities. James maintains that marginalized communities are typically hit hardest by disasters, and this wildfire disaster is proving to be no different.

Environmental justice and economic justice go hand in hand when analyzing how disasters such as this impact different communities differently.

Almost twenty years ago, the world watched as Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levees resulted in unimaginable death, damage, and disaster, particularly in New Orleans. But less of the world paid attention as the mostly white areas of ravaged New Orleans were completely rebuilt and reinhabited, while Black neighborhoods like the Lower 9th Ward experienced a far different story.

Prominent public intellectual, noted political analyst, and Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson provided an analysis of these two different stories in his highly acclaimed post-Katrina book, “Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster.” In it, Dyson examines what Hurricane Katrina reveals about the fault lines of race and poverty in America. He offers a well-researched, searing indictment of the unevenhandedness of government policy as it relates to race and class.

What Katrina Didn’t Teach Us

In the week since the first embers set so

many homes ablaze in the

Altadena/Pasadena area of Southern

California, scores of people we know

personally have reached out, and we

have reached out to them. What is

becoming clear is that those who were

already living on the edge, without much

to begin with, are in worse shape than

those with more resources.

James Farr has found that this story is

shaping up to be omenously similar to

Katrina but holds out hope that the

aftermath of these two devastating

tragedies will be different as do we.