As the West Coast wildfire destruction continues, Wisconsin residents with ties to Southern California are worrying about their loved ones and homes.
Debra Morrall flew back to Racine from Los Angeles Wednesday night after visiting her daughter for the holidays in the Pacific Palisades.
She shared with Mariam Mackar what the chaos looked like up close.
"It's devastating to lose not just your house but your entire community and everything you've grown up with," Morrall said. "What I saw, and what I continue to see, is just heartbreaking."
Morrall said when her family first saw the smoke, they had no idea the destruction the fires would cause.
Watch: 'It's like a hurricane of fire': Wisconsinite returns home from CA wildfires
"Like you see in hurricanes, the palm trees were tipped to their sides. It was like a hurricane of fire," Morrall recalled.
"I don't think it ever occurred to us that it would barrel down that hill into the city the way it did."
"And a lot of that city has just been destroyed?" Mackar asked.
"It's gone," Morrall answered. "They have two grocery stores, and they're both gone. The library's gone."
She says the flames took hold so quickly that Pacific Palisades residents hardly had time to consider their city might be decimated in the process.
"It's really a small community. It's been around for over 100 years. They have a lot of community traditions — the kind of stuff you would see in small-town Wisconsin. That's why [my daughter] loved it there."
On Wednesday night, Morrall left the ash-filled skies of California and returned to a nearly polar opposite scene in Wisconsin.
"I said I would never complain about cold or snow again," she told Mackar.
The Wisconsinite is now getting as many updates from her daughter as she can over the phone while her family waits out the flames before they can see what's left of the life they built.
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