Homeowner in Palisades eager to move back home following wildfire, wants to help her community rebuild
Many homes in the Palisades are lined with destruction but there are still some homes left standing within them. One homeowner said she is ready to come back regardless if she's looking out to her son's property that was lost in the fire.
Terri Webb said she wants to be part of her community's resurgence and come back home.
"The roses are blooming, that's a sign of life so that's good," Webb said.
The flowers are a sign of hope with new growth, in a community beginning to rebuild.
Everything around Webb's Palisades home was reduced to rubble.
"The houses across the street are gone, the houses behind me are gone. There are three of us here now that survived," Webb said.
Webb has lived in her home for 42 years and it's still standing with very little damage after the Palisades Fire tore through and destroyed her neighborhood in January.
"All in all, I am probably the luckiest person in the world right now," Webb said
Since the fires, she's been displaced and battling with her insurance.
"Just trying to get ahold of a claims person to let know what they will cover," Webb said. "I have a high deductible, so I know I have to put out some money, but it is the uncertainty of not being able to talk to anybody."
Most recently, Webb has been living at a hotel in Santa Monica paying out of pocket now that her FEMA funds have run out.
"I am trying to get everything cleaned up, doing as much as I can myself," Webb said.
Webb has cleaning services in and out of her house trying to clear any soot and ash left behind before she plans on moving back in within the next few weeks.
"There are people living out here, it is going to be a little strange the first night," Webb said. "The market is open, the cafe, the American Legion. Those things make you feel more at home."
Even with her son's house across the street destroyed, she said she will be right here as he and the rest of her neighborhood rebuilds.
"Initially I was so overwhelmed I didn't even know what to do, but you get used to coming up here and every time you come up here you see a little more progress and that is encouraging," Webb said.
