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Survivors return to find homes reduced to rubble

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Wildfires kill at least 10, destroy over 10,000 structures

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Insurance challenges expected for affected homeowners

By Matt McKnight and Fred Greaves

LOS ANGELES, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Survivors of the

wildfires that have been sweeping parts of Los Angeles have

started to trickle back to their evacuated homes in recent days,

hoping against the odds that they were spared the worst of the

devastation.

Many instead found little more than concrete foundations,

ashen rubble and memories.

The wildfires, among the worst natural disasters ever to hit

California, had killed at least 10 people as of Friday morning

and destroyed or badly damaged more than 10,000 structures,

authorities said.

Aerial images of some scorched neighborhoods - including

parts of Pacific Palisades, a mostly affluent enclave west of

downtown, and Altadena, a diverse neighborhood on L.A.'s eastern

edge - show block after block of homes burned to the ground, as

if in a war zone.

Those who survived say they feel fortunate to have escaped

with their lives. But many shed tears over family homes lost and

fears about futures filled with uncertainty.

In a neighborhood of 60 homes ravaged by the Palisades Fire,

the only thing left standing at Rick McGeagh's ranch house near

the Will Rogers State Park is a statue of the Virgin Mary he

installed when they moved there in 1998. It had belonged to his

grandmother who had died a year earlier.

He called the statue's survival an "amazing blessing" in a

terrible time. "I think it's miraculous."

McGeagh, 61, a commercial real estate broker who along with

his wife raised three children at their home, said only six

homes in his neighborhood remained standing.

"Everything else is ash and rubble," he told Reuters on

Friday.

He first noticed the fire on Tuesday, when he was out

walking his dog near the park and saw odd looking white clouds

that turned out to be smoke. He rushed home, packed everything

that he could grab in his car and fled with his wife.

Later they watched the progression of the fire that day on

their home security camera. "At five, we saw the neighbor's

house across the street go. Then our camera went out."

"We're obviously devastated, but grateful to have each

other," McGeagh said.

AVOCADO TREE OFFERS SLIVER OF HOPE

In the Altadena neighborhood, Alita Johnson, a lifelong

resident whose home burned down, was seeking assistance at an

evacuation center on Thursday when she bumped into a friend

there. After greeting the man and giving him a hug, Johnson, 61,

said: "I lost my house."

In a reply all too common in Los Angeles this week, her

friend replied, "I know, I'm sorry - we lost everything, too."

En route to see the charred plot of land where her home once

stood, Johnson, sitting in the passenger seat of a car, pointed

ahead of her and told a Reuters reporter, "This is where I

live."

In a trembling voice, Johnson then corrected the verb tense:

"Where I lived."

Her voice rose a little as she noted that her avocado tree

survived. It was one of the few signs of hope in sight.

"Nothing prepares you for this amount of destruction," she

said, her eyes welling with tears.

ON THE STREET

"Now we're homeless," Paul Lewis, another Altadena resident

whose home burned down, said on Thursday in a matter-of-fact

voice. "We're searching for a place to stay."

Lewis and his wife had tried to return to their burned-down

home in the hope of recovering any personal effects not consumed

in the flames, he said. But the area where they live was blocked

off to vehicle traffic. He didn't want to walk the mile (1.6 km)

or so to their home with two young children and a dog in tow.

A day earlier they were able to reach the home by car and

found it burned down to the foundations, still smoldering. Lewis

said that his garage was still on fire that day.

Hotels in the area are fully booked, mostly by people forced

to flee their homes, Lewis said. AirBnBs and Vrbos were scarce,

he said.

Lewis said his house was covered by insurance - but he was

girding for a long fight to recover its value. He foresaw a

scenario in which he would have to hire an attorney "to make

sure we're protected."

"Insurance companies for a while have been trying to drop

coverage for people like us, who live near natural habitat," he

said, referring to the nearby Eaton Canyon area. "I'm sure

they'll do everything they can to undercut our claim."

OVERWHELMED BY DESTRUCTION

At a mobile home park in Pacific Palisades, Curtis, who said

he would not like his last name to be published, grimaced and

his eyes welled with tears as he took in the burnt ruins all

around him. Asked what he had lost, Curtis replied immediately

and simply: "Everything."

Then he recalled that he did have his vehicle and

"whatever's in the car."

Overwhelmed by the scenes of destruction around him, Curtis

added that he hoped a feral neighborhood cat - a beloved local

character - "hopefully made it out safely."