Sawt Falasteen - Displaced LA residents in shock at scale of fire destruction

They have gathered above Santa Monica Canyon, near the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood where devastating flames first broke out among multi-million dollar mansions on Tuesday.

Residents continue to evacuate, or return briefly to collect their belongings.

Gusts are still so strong that expensive Teslas and Alfa Romeos rock on their tires. A police car with a megaphone orders bystanders to "leave the area now."

"You got the ashes to worry about in your lungs. You got your life to worry about with these 80- to 100-mile an hour gusts," Sarahlee Stevens-Shippen told AFP.

"We've just been in panic mode."

The 69-year-old retiree has lived here since the 1970s.

Clad in a mask, she returned to her home at dawn to retrieve a few cherished possessions that she had been unable to gather in her hurry to flee the night before.

"When I saw the glow of the fire coming over the mountain yesterday about eight o'clock, I took off," she said.

The flames had "already jumped the coast highway nearby and some palm trees were catching on fire," she recalled.

During the night that followed, at least two more substantial fires broke out to the north of the Los Angeles urban sprawl, in Altadena and the San Fernando Valley.

Two people are confirmed to have died so far. Tens of thousands have evacuated their homes. And authorities warn that the danger is far from over, with treacherous windy conditions set to remain until later in the week.

"This has been a shock that is still sinking in. But we're in survival mode, so we're just grabbing certain necessities and getting out," said Stevens-Shippen.

- 'Never imagined' -

Carrying a large blue plastic bag stuffed full of clothes, Martin Sansing also emerges from the canyon. A television producer, he and his wife have just fled their four-bedroom villa.

When Sansing bought the home for $1.6 million 15 years ago, he thought this neighborhood below the mountains that surround Los Angeles would be safe.

"We're in a pretty urban area. We're not like, on a hill or anything like that," he said.

"I never imagined we would be affected."

Every fall and winter, California is swept by hot, dry Santa Ana winds. For firefighters, these are a nightmare, as they greatly increase the risk of fires spreading.

This week, their strength reached an intensity not seen in more than a decade, meteorologists say.

To compound the disaster, South California is experiencing a very dry winter, which makes vegetation more flammable. And there is a surplus of brush and shrubs, thanks to the two previous, unusually wet winters.

"It's hard not to think it's unrelated to what's happening on the planet," said Sansing, 54.

"These things seem to be more frequent and more intense."

- 'So fast' -

At an evacuation center a few miles (kilometers) away, Arlinda Henderson is still trying to come to terms with what has happened.

The Pacific Palisades resident has lived in her home with her husband since 1984. Over those four decades, she has experienced evacuations, but never anything of this severity.

"This time was different -- the fire just came down the hill so fast because of the wind," she said.

"I'd never seen anything like it."

The former flight attendant only had time to grab a few family photos and her pet cat before leaving her home -- perhaps for the final time.

"I think our house is gone. I've tried calling home, and I've tried a couple of neighbors. It's just not ringing," sighed the 76-year-old.

She fears that her home insurance will refuse to continue to cover her against wildfires if she rebuilds in the neighborhood.

"I can't believe LA is surrounded" by wildfires, she said.

X.AbuJaber--SF-PST