No stranger to natural disasters, Pasadena resident Pedro Rojas keeps a safety bag in his car with essentials like a jacket, gloves and running shoes in case he needs to flee at a moment’s notice.

Los Angeles officials told most evacuees from the wildfires on Thursday to stay away from their homes at least another week as emergency responders remove toxic waste from incinerated neighborhoods and cut off electricity and gas lines posing a hazard amid the ruins.

Many neighborhoods are still off-limits to residents. Evacuees say they are increasingly frustrated and at a loss over what to do next.

Tens of thousands of people ordered to flee their homes as wildfires tore through Los Angeles were told Thursday they would not be allowed back for at least a week,

The lobby of Shutters on the Beach, the luxury oceanfront hotel in Santa Monica that is usually abuzz with tourists and entertainment professionals, had by Thursday transformed into a refuge for Los Angeles residents displaced by the raging wildfires that have ripped through thousands of acres and leveled entire neighborhoods to ash.

Red flag warnings have finally expired for much of the Los Angeles area as strong winds failed to materialize.

TELL US WHAT YOU KIND OF SAW YESTERDAY AND WHAT YOU’RE SEEING NOW THIS MORNING WHEN WE FIRST DESCENDED INTO THE AREA, WE CAME OFF THE GRAPEVINE CAME INTO THE GREATER LOS ANGELES, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA,