Malibu is not getting a free ride, resident says
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Malibu:
Robyn Morgan, 69, of Carbon Mesa Road in Malibu, evacuated at 3:30 a.m. Monday.
Morgan wears a necklace with what looks like a gold nugget with a diamond in the middle. It’s the remains of her late husband’s watch, the only thing they were able to save when their house was burned in the 1993 Malibu fire.
‘I have had it on since ‘93,’ she said as a chopper dumped water on a smoky ridge above. ‘I never take it off.’
It’s hard for other people to understand why she lives here through thick and thin, she said. But when her husband was dying in 1997, the beauty of the canyon became a way for her to comfort him.
‘When he was dying, he was in a back bedroom. I told him, ‘I want you to look outside. I’m going to make the garden as nice as I can for you.’ ‘
She has heard the talk about rich Malibu residents being bailed out at great cost because of where they choose to live.
‘They got the wrong idea about all the rich people in Malibu,’ she said. ‘There are movie stars who are super-rich, and there are those making a living who are not super-rich.’
She said spends a lot of money clearing vegetation around her home. ‘A lot goes into Malibu. We are not getting a free ride. We pay our taxes like everyone else.’
Her son Damon Bivens, 41, who also lives in Malibu, showed up to be with her. ‘I can’t be too far from Mom when she lives in a place called Carbon Canyon.’
He said that no house is worth risking a life for, yet, ‘This feels different for us, because we lost everything before.’
-- Hector Becerra
