Josh Kamensky, press secretary for LA city council member Eric Garcetti, says:
In response to many suggestions, especially from bloggers, Eric has set up a fund for people to donate to help with relief for people who may have medical costs or, sadly, burial costs from yesterday’s crash. The paypal link is at the top of the page. The following entry is a long account of what touring the site was like, including some pictures. It’s on his campaign blog right now, but we’ll put it on the city servers early tomorrow.
Link to donate. Councilman Garcetti has also posted a first-hand account of the crash site on his blog, with snapshots. Snip:
I toured the site — it was horrifying. I have had the misfortune of being in war zones, I have seen cities like Sarajevo after the Balkans war, post-war Eritrea, Cambodia during the end of the years of the Khmer Rouge resistance, and in “liberated” areas of Burma. But seeing a tragedy like this, the immediacy of it, overwhelmed me. Tom said he had never seen anything so bad in his entire life.The smell of fuel, which I first sensed on Los Feliz Boulevard at the 5 freeway, a good 2/3rds of a mile away, was omnipresent, and as I walked past the diesel, I realized that it had mixed with the pouring rain and blood and was a deep, bright, red. The trains were twisted in every direction, an overpass (which killed one of the passengers when a derailed car hit it) was crumpled, cars were overturned and steel twisted everywhere. I went through some of the cars and saw the personal effects–sunglasses here, a commuter’s bicycle there, bloodstains everywhere.
The authorities had spraypainted the sides of the cars with the number of fatalities in each car to piece together what had happened. The fire department told me that they feared some people might still be under the train cars and were awaiting the heavy equipment to see for sure. Initial checks with x-ray equipment and dogs indicated no further survivors, but crews continued working.
Link to account and images (also spotted on Blogging.LA)