Giving Compass' Take:
- Claire Wang spotlights how Los Angeles community groups are supporting wildfire relief and recovery efforts, providing rides and supplies.
- What actions can you take to support short-term relief and long-term recovery for communities impacted by wildfires?
- Learn more about disaster relief and recovery and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on disaster philanthropy.
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As California state and federal agencies lag in their response to the widespread wildfires that erupted this week in Los Angeles, a network of grassroots organizations and small businesses have launched their own disaster relief efforts – from coordinating overnight evacuation services to delivering essential supplies to victims and frontline workers, demonstrating how community groups support wildfire relief efforts.
After the fires began burning, the worker-owners at All Power Books decided on Tuesday night to convert the leftist bookstore cooperative into a warehouse for emergency resources.
Over the next 48 hours, residents all over the city packed the community space with box after box of canned food, masks, blankets, sleeping bags and toiletries. Organizers transported supplies to survivors at different churches and evacuation shelters; they delivered bottled water and snacks to firefighters, many of whom are serving out a sentence as they battle the blazes.
“We’ve already seen how crucially underprepared the city government is in dealing with social service,” said Savannah Boyd, a co-founder of All Power Books, which is based in the West Adams neighborhood, regarding how community groups support wildfire relief.
“We knew we were going to have to start organizing for mutual aid.”
The bookstore’s central location in south LA and proximity to the I-10 freeway, Boyd said, made it an ideal fit for a centralized “donations hub” where donors and mutual aid groups can coordinate supply dropoffs and deliveries.
By Thursday afternoon, Boyd said the bookstore had to stop accepting donations, as deliveries have maxed out its storage capacity.
Fueled by ferocious Santa Ana winds, the series of blazes that tore through Los Angeles county on Tuesday and Wednesday burned more than 30,000 acres of land and killed at least 10 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires, which destroyed more than 10,000 structures, were both among the five most destructive fires in California history. Other fires spread in Woodley, Lidia and Sunset. More than 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate.
Read the full article about community groups providing wildfire relief by Claire Wang at The Guardian.