Former Savannah resident evacuates after California wildfires

SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) - Wildfires have ravaged Los Angeles (LA) County killing at least 10 people and prompting hundreds of thousands to evacuate, including a former Savannah resident.

Whitney Gamble has lived in Savannah for a number of years but now calls LA County home. She said it has been an emotional and overwhelming couple of days as neighborhoods are turned into ash and at least 9,000 structures are destroyed because of the raging wildfires

"Since this all began, if you look towards the Santa Monica mountains, it is dark,” Gamble said. “As you see the sun coming up, the entire sky around it is the same color as the sun in the morning. So, it's a scary looking sunrise. But then if you look behind you, it's blue like nothing's going on."

She told News 3 an eerie silence looms over the county, almost as if it were a ghost town. Like thousands of other Californians, Gamble has been anxiously glued to her television, wondering if a place she calls home will be next. On Wednesday, she said that fear intensified as fires barreled toward her home.  She packed her things and within 30 minutes, she headed south.

"I grabbed my valuables, my birth certificate, my computer,” Gamble listed. “I'm a photographer, so I grabbed my equipment and, you know, food for myself and my dog."

She said it's a dreadful feeling when evacuating your home and not knowing what you'll eventually come back to.

"It was sad thinking about I might come back to a burned down condo,” she said.  “Like this is not at all how I thought my week was going to start off."

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Gamble is back in LA County right now where the good news is, her home is ok.

"Like, you wake up, my condo smells like smoke. Like I said, these masks, I went ahead and got N95 masks for just walking my dog."

She also told News 3 that palm trees litter the ground due to the strong Santa Ana winds.

“That day before we evacuated, it literally sounded like someone was moving couches across our ceiling, on our rooftop space,” she explained.

Gamble said she'll stay in California. However, she'll always be ready to leave at a moment's notice.


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