Say a prayer for our Members in California!

[WillyDaP]

2024 saw my wife and I being hit by a Tornado and fortunately we have rebuilt as we had moderate damage. We had neighbors who lost their entire home and the pain, shock, and issues to get back to normal is hard for those unaffected to imagine. Sadly, the losses in California are similar in effect , though by another disaster, but empathy for the folks affected is in our thoughts. If you are a Carpoke member in Southern California do let us know if you are okay and I know many of us have concern for those devastated.

[Tom]

Thanks and well said. We had a family friend lose his house to the fire yesterday, after living in it for decades He was in his 80's and just bought a very nice 997, which went with the house. Super sad situation.

[Leader]

We live in the San Fernando Valley (northern suburb of Los Angeles). The national news coverage I watched yesterday (ABC) made it look like the apocalypse was beginning right here in L.A. It IS extremely bad, but most of the city and region is okay. The biggest (and most expensive) fire is in Pacific Palisades, which is the area between Santa Monica and Malibu on the coast (and up into the mountains). Many celebrities live in the Palisades and it appears there are very few homes untouched by the raging fire. Hundreds of homes are gone.
The other major fire is in Altadena, adjacent to Pasadena and La Cañada. Again, another area with some extremely expensive homes and celebrity residents, although most of the damage there has been to more normal family neighborhoods.
There are other fires, too, smaller, but no less destructive. The fire fighters are spread way too thin to cover all these fires. The water resources are overtaxed. And most concerning, the wind has been relentless and powerful...spreading embers from house-to-house, making any progress to contain the fires almost impossible.
If you want to follow along, the fire agencies have a good resource at http://www.fire.ca.gov.
With all this destruction happening in higher-end neighborhoods, you just know that scores of expensive vehicles are being destroyed as they sit in their garages unable to be moved by their owners who have been forced to evacuate. Far more importantly, five people have died in these fires and that total is bound to increase once the authorities are able to access the affected neighborhoods and make a proper assessment.

[996C438]

Good luck to all affected by this tragedy.

[944m3]

One of my favorite cities to visit, which I try to do often, visited just a year ago. LA is one the most American of cities, it has everything. Which of course part of it is its car culture.

My thoughts are with everyone there. If any good charity donation opportunities come up please let us know. One that I already donate to is Jose Andres World Central Kitchen. But that is just one, I’m sure there are many good organizations that are helping.

[P_Coastal]

Hoping the fires are out soon.
Was just reading about the situation, Canadian news was talking to crews from BC and Quebec that are there.

[dr bob]

We are former ex residents of the Glendale-Pasadena area, and heavily involved there professionally and personally for the best part of two decades. Lots of friends are now fire refugees. Karen had a lot of professional clients and friends west towards the ocean, plus many in the Hollywood Hills who have been displaced.

The home we had there was a rebuild after the College Hills fire in the late 1980's, the one that was caused by a firebug masquerading as a Glendale Arson Investigator. We left that home about ten years ago when the cost of fire insurance became the largest single cost-of-ownership line item. More than mortgage, property taxes and utilities combined. We had many acres (maybe 100?) of wildland and wildlife refuge area for a front yard, sloping up to the three homes on our ridgetop. We loved the home, the location, the view across the basin to the coast. But the fire risk and costs were more than we could justify.

Each of these current Los Angeles area fires is suspicious as far as initial causes. In our time there, we watched pretty carefully at large and small fire events, and virtually all started too close to a road or trail 'escape' route. Some were cigarettes and burning stuff tossed from moving vehicles, some careless 'accidents', but none from real 'natural' causes. Intentional? Thrill-seekers? Adventure-arsonists? After fires as intense as the current Cali blazes it will be tough to find a root-cause and a root-cause-location, but maybe with some of the current technology and satellite imaging tools those things will be discovered.

In the meanwhile, our friends and former neighbors there have lost a lot. Rebuilding at that scale isn't something that just happens overnight. Insurance underwriters are going to fail or give up. Most folks there won't be made whole by insurance, and will suffer huge losses with not much hope for rebuilding or recovery. Our hearts go out to folks there who have lost everything.

[Tom]

Well here is one of many many cars lost in the LA fires. This one belonged to "Navy Dave" -- a close family friend who lost his long-term family home in Pacific Palisades. In his early 80's now -- a US Navy vet who bought his first Porsche just last summer and loved it. He's already starting the process with his insurance co and is asking for help to value it. It's a 2012.5 911 cab, 'mint' condition, PDK, 43k miles, new tires, dealer maintained, etc. If anyone knows of good comps, or realistic value guides, please post here. Normally, he'd be all over researching this, but he's in a hotel right now with nothing but a suitcase, so gathering comps for him would be a huge help.

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car1.jpeg (125.92 KiB) Viewed 2714 times

[blueline]

Heartbreaking and I'm not referring to his beautiful Porsche, although that's also obviously an additional sad circumstance.

A search at BaT turned up 45 sold 2012 Carrera Cabs with varying trim levels over the past 3 or 4 years.

https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/resu ... +cabriolet

[blueline]

Hagerty's valuation guide might help -

https://www.hagerty.com/valuation-tools ... p=1&st=ymm