Laguna Hotels & Eateries Offer Discounts to L.A. Fire Evacuees
A growing list of offers
Editor’s Note: Over the next week, I’ll be collecting information from Laguna Beach based businesses and individuals who are offering assistance in some way to the L.A. fire evacuees. If you’re one such business, feel free to reach out to me by hitting “reply” on this email and sending me your details.
Laguna’s memory of its fire in 1993
In Laguna Beach, Oct. 27, 1993 was a day that forever changed this city. A small fire that began at the mouth of Laguna Canyon sprinted toward Laguna Beach, pressed on by roaring Santa Ana winds. Burning at the rate of 100 acres a minute, the blaze leapt across the canyon road, burring through Canyon Acres subdivision before plowing up and over the hill into the Mystic Hill residences.
In just a matter of hours, the fire had burned 17,000 acres, leveled 366 homes to the ground and damaged another 500 homes.
It all happened in the middle of the day. People had woken up, had their breakfasts and got in their cars to go to work. When they returned that afternoon, they had nothing to return to.
The emotional aftermath of fire
It was 7 years after that fire I moved to Laguna Beach in the year 2000. In the spring of 2001, I moved to one of the few single-level ranch homes on Mystic Hill that had miraculously escaped most of the fire. Most of the burn area’s rebuild and reconstruction on the Hill was completed at this time, but the emotional burn scar still prickled under the surface.
My neighbor, whose home had been one to burn to the ground in 1993, told me that when she and other residents were allowed back into the area, “it was like standing on the moon.”
She said, “It was just this eerie landscape of concrete and steel beam rubble. I could hear neighbors blocks away crying because there was nothing there anymore to block the sound.”
That 1993 fire loss was a devastating hit to Laguna Beach. Although it was a moment in time that changed lives forever, that fire was NOTHING the size of what our L.A. friends are enduring right now.
Paying it forward
The residents of Laguna Beach understand, though. Boy, do they ever. And they are leaping into action, many because they say it’s their way to “pay it forward.”
Many residents tell me that what they remember most from the aftermath of the fires was the amazing outpouring of generous support from people. Yes, the agencies were there to help and support in a huge way, but when they tell me about those days, their eyes well with tears when they recall the many acts of kindness they received from individuals and small businesses.
Laguna Beach hotels slash rates
A growing list of Laguna hoteliers are offering deep discounts. While it may seem that we are a sizable distance from the L.A. fire epicenters (60+ miles to Santa Monica and nearly 100 miles from Malibu), the Surf and Sand Resort tells me that they had more than 50 rooms book in a matter of hours.
Event planners and restaurateurs responding
Additionally, event planners and restaurateurs are contacting me with offers for fire evacuees in the L.A. fires.