Margot Stueber, wearing her sporty sunglasses and hot-pink sweater, got started on building her new home this week – the first one in a community that lost almost 6,000 homes to the wildfires that hit Greater Los Angeles in January. It’s a big deal, showing how quickly they cleared out the lots and began the next phase of recovery and rebuilding.
“I’m starting a whole new chapter in my life today,” she told reporters at a ribbon cutting on her empty dirt lot. And to those who might be feeling discouraged, she had some words of encouragement: “If I can do it, all of you can do it. Just believe in a better future for yourself and for Altadena.”
There are a lot of challenges for the thousands of people who were forced out by the Eaton and Palisades fires, which destroyed over 16,000 structures in the Los Angeles area, most of them being homes. Survivors are dealing with slow and insufficient insurance payments, homes that can’t be lived in, and lives turned upside down.
The recovery process after a natural disaster is usually long and complicated. Thanks to quick responses from disaster agencies and help from local officials, the thousands of people displaced by this year’s California wildfires are getting back on track.
But one key part of the recovery process is going really fast. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is way ahead of schedule in getting rid of debris from the lots. At the same time, local officials are making it easier to get building permits so construction can speed up once the lots are cleared. The Corps has to finish everything by the anniversary of the fires next January, but Col. Eric Swenson says they’re on track to be mostly done by the end of the summer. “We’re moving faster than ever before,” he said.
Col. Swenson gives credit to the Environmental Protection Agency for working quickly in the first phase of the cleanup. The EPA got rid of hazardous waste from the burned areas in just one month, instead of the three months they thought it would take. He mentioned that President Trump promised to speed things up, and more resources were sent, which helped the EPA move faster, and then the Corps could move faster too.
Another big change was that Los Angeles County set a deadline for property owners to decide if they wanted the Corps to clean up their burned properties. The owners who signed the forms could get their lots cleared for free instead of paying a private contractor. Most of the owners signed up for the Corps’ cleanup plan. Out of the 12,000 lots that qualify for Corps clearing, they got forms for more than 10,000 of them, which covers 83% of the properties hit by the fires.
It hasn’t been a perfect process though. At first, people were upset about the trees that weren’t actually dead being removed. The Corps listened to the complaints and made changes. There are still a lot of trucks on the roads, and residents are worried about toxic dust and soil, as well as hazardous waste being dumped in landfills. The Corps says they’re taking all the necessary precautions, like wetting down the cleanup areas, lining trucks, and using air monitors. There have been some community protests, but they haven’t stopped the cleanup.
At the ribbon cutting in Altadena, county board supervisor Kathryn Barger praised Ms. Stueber for being the first one to get her property cleared. Governor Gavin Newsom even showed up in February to see the lot, and he checked in with her and her architect in March to help speed up the permitting process.
Ms. Stueber, a child therapist, acted fast after the fire. She got in touch with designer Trinidad Campbell through a friend right after the fire. They spent a lot of time crying at first, but as they started coming up with design ideas, she began to look ahead. “Once you start moving forward, you can see the future taking shape in front of you,” she said in an interview. “It’s hard to get over a loss if you stay still.”
Her positive attitude has helped her start over multiple times in her life. She moved to the U.S. from Germany over 30 years ago with just a suitcase, then she started over after a divorce, and now she’s building a new home. She grew up playing in the rubble of World War II in Koblenz, with her mother and grandmother showing her how to be resilient.
Ms. Stueber expects her new home to be finished in about eight to nine months. She knows that her neighborhood will be a construction zone for a while, with not many familiar sights left. But she’s excited to see all the new homes that will be built. She’s been meeting with her neighbors every month, and most of them are planning to rebuild.
“We’re going to create a new community that’s just as nice, or even nicer, than what we had before,” she said.
