The Atlantic

L.A.'s Day at the Mercy of the Wind

Three wildfires are burning as an ominous weather forecast of gusty winds threatens to spread disaster across the region.
Source: Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters

LOS ANGELES—As dawn nears on the West Coast the residents of America’s second largest city are in something like the opposite position of stranded sailors praying for wind to escape ruin.

Greater Los Angeles is not quite overwhelmed by fire.

Four-hundred-and-seventy-five acres are ablaze near the mountain pass that connects the L.A. basin to the San Fernando Valley. The mountains on the Valley’s northern border are aflame too––the Creek Fire has burned something like 13,000 acres. And roughly an hour north, in seaside Ventura, the Thomas

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