shovel

“We want to be ready with a project that can put shovels in the ground when that happens.”

Armed with shovels and heavy construction equipment, crews quickly collected fire debris from rugged cliffsides, dusky shorelines and sprawling burnt-out neighborhoods.

Most people on a job site have legal status, Harris said, “but if shovels never hit the ground, the costs are being borne by everybody, and it’s slowing the rebuilding of L.A.”

"Half an hour had gone and there was no call back from them, so that's when I phoned friends and we started getting in and shovelling them all down to the river."

But before you can get a shovel into the ground, everything changes.