Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California.[1]
Coverage[]
Los Angeles is featured in The Capital Threat while it appeared briefly in the documentary and the locations were settled on Wrath of God, The Last Supper, Home Wrecked Home, Waves of Devastation, Sky's the Limit, and Depths of Destruction.
The city was first introduced in 1 week after people when the Los Angeles Freeways are empty and so do the U.S. Bank Tower.[2] At night, the power grid of Los Angeles fails and the city turns dark.[3]
An elephant roams through Los Angeles.
In 2 weeks after people, in zoos of Los Angeles, the animals are dying but for the elephants, with their use of superior intelligence and powerful trunks that can lift up to 600 pounds, the elephants are able to break out of zoos and start roaming and begin a new life at the abandoned city of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, 3,000 tons of garbage have gone uncollected in Hollywood and some sewer systems deliver the garbage directly to the ocean where it will add to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.[2]
The Los Angeles Aqueducts are empty.
In 3 weeks after people, the impossibly lush image of Los Angeles is getting a facelift as the plants starts to wither and turn brown because Los Angeles used 137 gallons of water per person per day with 87% of the water came from faraway places like the Los Angeles Aqueducts, the major part of the water supply for Los Angeles. It travels through a series of power-generating plants but when the power plants stop working, the water backs up and begins creating new reservoirs which denies the city its main water source.[2]
The light show of the Pacific Wheel would be the last light of Los Angeles.
In 1 month after people, Los Angeles returns to its natural state, a desert, and the thirsty green lawns, trees, and manicured gardens are withering which set the stage for a massive catastrophe soon to come.[2] On the Santa Monica Pier, the Pacific Wheel still blazes with 1,600 thousand LED lights and it is run on solar power. With the solar power continue to run, the Pacific Wheel is the only light still brighten the night of Los Angeles.[4]
In 6 months after people, while some animal populations are desperate for water, others are learning to adapt including mosquitoes. Brent Karner stated that the swimming pools of Los Angeles would go into disrepair, there would be stagnant water, and would make it a great place for mosquitoes to breed. A stagnant pool can support hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes.[2]
In 1 year after people, plants starts to reconquer the city of Los Angeles.[5] Even in 3 years after people, Downtown Los Angeles is an overgrown metropolis and the Los Angeles Freeways has gone green. Doug Failing stated that the roadways are great seed corridors so the natural winds would drive a lot of seeds and other materials down the open corridors. Grasses and other small plants quickly take over and soon trees begin growing and roots tearing apart the concrete.[2]
In 5 years after people, the city is under siege of vegetation and trees as it was overrun and overgrowth.[5]
Downtown Los Angeles burns.
The Grauman's Chinese Theatre burns.
The buildings at Santa Monica Pier begins to sink.
In 10 years after people, Los Angeles is firmly on the path to becoming a desert once more. Fred Barker stated that the nonnative plants starts dying out and the native plants would return and gradually taking over. At Beverly Hills, without the aqueduct importing billions of water, the huge Canary Island palm trees lining the streets are decaying trunks and it slowly dies from the top down. While Los Angeles is nearly unrecognizable, it's nothing compared to what's coming, the wildfires. When a lightning strike sets off a fire in the hills near Los Angeles, there won't be any firefighters riding to the rescue. In Downtown, the U.S. Bank Tower burns from the inside out and while the structural steel frame withstands the searing heat, the interior spaces burn quickly which turns the tallest building into a charred skeleton. Meanwhile, the stainless steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall are virtually fireproof but the flames consume the plant life that grows between them. In Hollywood, the rotting wood of Grauman's Chinese Theatre is engulfed in mere seconds but the cement foot and handprints of Tinseltown legends easily survive the inferno. Nearby, the Hollywood Sign is engulfed as its acrylic latex paint feeds the fire but it will survive the scorching fire because although it look wood from afar, it's actually made of steel.[2] At the Santa Monica Pier, the pounding of the pier has taken over the years is showing and the deck planks deteriorates. Eric Broeske stated that there would be some sinking buildings and not all at once because it would be one by one and little by little, the buildings sink through the pier. The nightly light show from the Pacific Wheel would comes to an end because the system inverter, which converts the solar power's DC current into usable AC electricity finally fails.[4] Meanwhile at the Los Angeles International Airport, the airport is already crumbling because it isn't simply built to last with the exception being the Theme Building where its arches dominate the empty airport and would continue to endure because of a surprising form of protection that keep it safe from nature's most powerful forces.[6]
In 15 years after people, the Stahl House burns by wildfires and while the windows break from the flames, the house refuses to burn down but by destroying the vegetation that binds the soil, the fires have cleared a new avenue of destruction.[7]
The top 21 floors of the U.S. Bank Tower collapse.
In 50 years after people, the Big One, an earthquake measuring 8.0, hits Los Angeles. In Downtown, the U.S. Bank Tower is a charred teetering steel skeleton as the top 21 floors collapse after wildfire damage and years without maintenance despite having an earthquake-damping struts installed between floors. Just a few blocks away, the 32-story Los Angeles City Hall is fitted with a base isolated anti-earthquake mechanism but it rely on rubberized bearings to absorb the shock & minimize vibration and after fire damage & 50 years without maintenance, the rubber have deteriorated and the Los Angeles City Hall collapses. The Hollywood Sign is also coming down as the quake shears off the corroded bolts that held the letters securely to the girders sunk into the bedrock and the letters falls apart from the hills.[2] Meanwhile, the devastating waves of a winter storm are tearing into a crumbling Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Wheel is in trouble as powerful waves and strong winds wipe away most of the wheel but the A-frame shaped base remains because of the triangle shape and would last 100 years.[4]
Randy's Donuts after 60 years.
In 60 years after people, rainwater is eating away Randy's Donuts. Tanya Komas stated that water would pool inside of the donut at the bottom of the hollow portion making the base to fail first and the top of the donut would come down on top of it. Along with the hollow steel structure corroding, Randy's Donuts crumbles and the restaurant is destroyed in the process.[3]
The Stahl House collapse.
In 75 years after people, the Stahl House teeters precariously on its fire blasted and rain eroded hillside. Tanya Komas stated that the house would sit in a tilted position for some time but not for long because all sorts of things shifting and the forces would change. A particular heavy downpour washes out a final section of sediment beneath the house causing it to collapse and slides down the hill to be shatter on the Sunset Strip below.[7]
The Los Angeles Freeways are flooded.
In 100 years after people, the oxide layer of the Walt Disney Concert Hall is fading and the silver panels are slowly changing to the color of dried blood causing it to become a spectacular sculpture of rust. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Freeways is pulling apart by corrosion and rain transform some parts into a water world where the drainage inlets are clogged with debris and pumps stopped working long ago which cause it to turn into dozens of small lake ecosystems. Doug Failing stated that it would become a gathering places for animals and the freeway corridors would be a relatively straight easy for them to use to migrate from place to place. Next, with the prey come the predators where the jumbled overpasses are points of ambush.[2]
The control tower collapse, leaving the Theme Building the only structure at the airport still standing.
At the Los Angeles International Airport, 125 years after people have take its toll and the only two structure remaining are the LAX Control Tower and the Theme Building. Seismologists discovered a major fault line just a few miles away in the time of humans and they calculated that the odds of a massive earthquake were just 1 in 8 in the next 125 years. As a violent 6.5 earthquake strikes at down, the LAX Control Tower collapses but thanks to the 2010 renovation, the mass damper saves the Theme Building which leaves it the only structure at the airport still standing.[6]
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after 150 years.
In 150 years after people, the reinforced concrete of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is in dire straight and has been degraded over 150 years of neglect. Another earthquake rumbles through Los Angeles causing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to collapse with the roman style arches made of modern concrete shattered and the cheap seats provide a front row seat to the destruction.[8]
The Capitol Records Building have gone green.
Meanwhile at Hollywood, 175 years after people have cause the Capitol Records Building to be covered in greenery but below ground, the famed echo chambers have become a sonic time capsule. Steven S. Ross stated that the echo chambers would be among the longest lived objects left by humankind which could last 5,000 to 10,000 years. However, 175 years after people have cause the Capitol Records Building to collapse but with the echo chambers being built with pure concrete, no iron skeleton to rust, and destroy the concrete from within, the echo chambers would stand for a very long time.[9]
After 600 years, the U.S. Bank Tower finally collapse.
In 600 years after people, most of Los Angeles have become unrecognizable, yet there is one structure that is still recognizable: the U.S. Bank Tower, the last recognizable edifice still standing in Los Angeles. The steel skyscraper survive the wildfire and the Big One which snapped off its top 21 floors, and the lower 52 floors defied the odds for hundreds of years. Steven S. Ross stated that the buildings central core is fairly stiff concrete and has a steel framing around the edges. He continues that the core would collapse sooner if it was in a climate with more freeze thaw cycles but it doesn't happen in Los Angeles because earthquakes would happen. Finally, a moderate earthquake finally brings down the heavily corroded and weakened skyscraper.[2]
Transformation[]
Los Angeles after 600 years without people.
The transformation is mostly focused in The Capital Threat where evidence suggest that Los Angeles would return to being a desert, where the native plants returns and reconquer the city while the non-native plants died off. Visuals shown in 600 years after people have shown the combination of a desert and native plants taking over the city and burying the rubble, while some ruined skyscrapers stand as walls. The Los Angeles Freeways also shows another evidence of transformation since the freeways would become reservoirs for animal life to migrate, while the structure is a great seed corridor as mentioned by Doug Failing, causing it to overgrow. Because of previous wildfires, some hillsides would erode including at the site of the Stahl House and parts of the hill of the Hollywood Sign. In conclusion, Los Angeles returns into a desert with a mix of native plant life as a forest.
Gallery[]
Series
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Official Concept
