More and more residents of Los Angeles are debating if moving elsewhere is the decision they need to make. Residents like Adam Ho are growing out of the initial “heartthrob” of the city. 

“In the beginning, it was the culture and the music, the pop-up food and the nightlife,” said the aficionado of downtown L.A., an out-of-work waiter. “These days, it’s COVID, peer pressure to wear or not wear masks, more fires than you ever imagined, and, man, the smog is brutal.”

For the past week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued unhealthful air advisories due to smoke and ash from two major local fires. But that’s not it. There are also wildfires racing across Central and Northern California. The air is affecting residents the minute they step outdoors. And the smoke is moving further south by the hour. 

“There’s just so much fire,” said Ryan Walbrun, a fire weather meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “And so much smoke.”

“I drove 600 miles up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke,” Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, said Sunday on the television program, ‘This Week.’ “We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could have never envisioned this.”

This entire situation is more devastating than some realize. Not only are people losing their houses. But the air quality is forcing some to visit hospitals already at capacity. Competing so to say with COVID-19 patients. 

Continue to pray for California. As well as the rest of the country. These are trying times for sure.