• Gale Sinatra, a USC professor, lost her home in the Eaton fire in Altadena, California.
• She and her husband evacuated before the evacuation order after a neighbor warned them they should.
• In the days afterward, she struggled to acquire medications and direct mail from loved ones.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Gale Sinatra, Ph.D., a professor at USC Rossier School of Education, based in Altadena, California. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband and I lost our home, neighborhood, and community in Altadena to the Eaton Fire.

I've been asked, "How are you doing?" and that question is hard to answer. It's been a very heart-wrenching week.

I didn't just lose my home, but my neighborhood is gone. It's such a massive loss that it's difficult to wrap your head around.

We had no idea it was coming

The Eaton Fire was completely unexpected. In 2020, a wildfire threatened our neighborhood, and I packed suitcases with clothes, documents, and family and wedding photos. I felt fully prepared. I know how to react to the threat of Southern California wildfires.

The Eaton Fire started at about 6:15 p.m. on January 7, when a resident saw an electrical tower on fire. There was a strong wind advisory, and we lost power.

At 7:30 p.m., my husband and I were playing cribbage at the kitchen table, lit by a camp light. I looked up and saw my neighbor running across the street with a flashlight and thought, "That can't be good." When he reached our home, he asked if I had looked up at the mountain near us. I hadn't. He said, "It doesn't look good. We're leaving, and I think you should, too."

Being 40 miles across Los Angeles, the Palisades fire was not a threat to us, and there were no evacuation orders near our neighborhood at that time.

I grabbed as much as I could but forgot a few important things

We walked through our house using the flashlight feature on our phones to see what was in front of us. It's easy to look back and think, "Why didn't I pack my house title?" but when you're panicking and trying to get out as fast as you can, it's a feat to have packed anything.

I grabbed clothes, our passports, my makeup bag, and other necessities for an overnight trip. I thought the fire would stay in the mountains, which wildfires have always done.

What began as a structure fire spread to over 200 acres in 75 minutes. About 30 minutes after we left, our neighborhood was under an evacuation order. By midnight, the fire had reached 1,000 acres.

I forgot to grab my medications and could not contact our local independent pharmacy. I heard rumors that it burned down, which seemed probable, considering nobody was manning the phones.

I had to call my doctors to re-send the scripts to an open pharmacy, but I had just refilled my medications the week before, so there was pushback from my insurance. Once the prescriptions were finally approved, the CVS Pharmacy my doctor sent them to didn't have electricity and could not fill them. I found another CVS Pharmacy with power, and they told me it had been refilled at the CVS without power.

When we finally could refill our prescriptions, we found out our local pharmacy had not burned but was out of power and inaccessible by staff.

The insurance process that comes next is daunting

On the morning of January 9, I watched in horror as CNN broadcast live from my street. It looked like a bomb had hit it. My home was completely gone, along with so many others.

When you lose your home, there are a thousand things to do to start the process with your insurance company, obtain lost documents and paperwork, find new housing, tend to your physiological needs, and get back to your life. Refilling our medications was just one thing on our towering to-do list, and that single task took days to complete.

To submit claims to my insurance, I need to provide documents such as my home title, which I didn't collect while running out of my house. Where will documents and paperwork be sent since my home and our local post office have burned down?

I don't know where to direct my loved ones who want to help

I have very caring friends who would like to send me essentials, such as clothes, but I have no address to provide them. I have applied to reroute our mail to a post office in Pasadena, but I don't know how long it will take.

Thankfully, a colleague of mine has an ADU unit we could stay in for a few days. We're looking for permanent housing in the area, and while there are many helpful resources to help those impacted find temporary housing, it feels like we are on our own for long-term leases. It will be a long road ahead.

For those looking to help, donating to the community is very appreciated. I've been impressed with World Central Kitchen, which also needs donations. There are many local resources for our community, and donations, especially monetary, go a long way.