FAMILIES FACING DESPERATION.

Neighbor, Jan Stewart and I agreed to volunteer for the Butte Fire Recovery once a week. The traffic was light and we stopped and took pictures on the way to the recovery center in Mountain Ranch. You can click to enlarge this picture. It shows how unpredictable fires can be. The firefighters were able to save the house, but the entire front fencing is burned and the rise to the right of the house has a burned out camper on it. The white car, obviously recently parked there.


What do you do?  Where do you go?


Sometimes it defies reason. Some trees stand while another is a hot spot on the same hillside.


Greeting us at the  recovery center was a sign and empty space.


Just two weeks ago this is what the center looked like. I was so busy, I couldn't take the time for more than one picture.
We spoke to volunteers at the center and they told us to go to Senders Market and post what we had to donate.


On huge boards, one entitled tell us what you need?

Heartbreaking to read on the far right: Looking for Mom with autistic brother. And the simple word WORK.


You can feel the desperation, Need a Job, hard worker, Lost Jobs, living in red Ford P/U. A visual reminder that businesses burned and can no longer employ people. The toll is over 3000 people have lost their homes, over 570 families. Some are so remote they are just being contacted. This is rough, hilly country.


Bulletin two asks what you have? Jan and I listed what we had to give and then began to return home still in our work clothes. We took more pictures.

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In San Andreas, State Farm set up a settlement wagon for people needing to get their insurance claims in. No one there knew where we could volunteer in town, though we heard they had a need.


We stopped and talked to a Sheriff's Deputy in his car. He knew nothing. Since we had time on our side we drove to Mokelumne Hill. The town, we knew, had been saved. But the butte overlooking the town showed how close it was.
From there we decided to drive to Glencoe where my son has a place. He knew he hadn't burned out. I know so many people out this way and no way to know if they are in trouble. The newspapers don't want to publish too much information for fear of looters, in part.  But, more tomorrow.

BUTTE FIRE RECOVERY CENTER

Yesterday, I drove to Mountain Ranch to the park on Whiskey Slide Road where Fema and the Red Cross have set up a fire victim recovery center. Mountain Ranch Rd. was filled with traffic with 3 major stops for road crews re-establishing power lines to the area; removing dead debris from the road, and cutting dead roadside trees with potential to fall on the road.  Mountain Ranch Rd winds treacherously through the canyon without much shoulder space to stop.  At each forced stop, I took a picture from my window. It always baffles me that one tree still has green leaves while the next one is almost completely brown and scorched.

Somehow, when a fire goes through an area, I’m not alone in thinking that everything is burned down to the ground.  I’ve seen devastation like that. There is plenty of ash, and plenty of dead trees to come from my very limited view.

In the foreground on the left is a small blackened pine. Pine trees will die in a fire like this, but many of the oak trees, if given a chance, will survive. I don’t understand fire science and what makes this a hot spot where big trees burned and other areas are islands of green. Recovery is better when trees, are left standing, and even some dead ones left on the ground to hold water and gather clumps of washed dirt against them to aid in regrowth and insect activity.

At the park, I took this picture of mass, organized chaos when I first arrived. Then, it was a matter of slowly making my way around the park to drop off the carload of items I brought. Soap and shampoo one place. Black garbage bags another. Charcoal, boots, medications, paper plates, toilet paper, jackets, toys, pants, shirts, books, belts, scarves…
Before I returned to the site above the four pairs of boots I had left were already gone. One guy told me, “Oh, thank you. I have such trouble finding size 13.”
They aren’t accepting appliances or furniture until people have power and shelter to put it in.  Many have found places to stay. Some are camping on their property or are in Fema trailers. 545 houses burned.  State Farm has set up a Disaster Recovery trailer in San Andreas where people go to file their claims.
I worked hard; never getting a chance to take more pictures. I met a couple from Manteca and another from Modesto who came to help. The community of volunteers from Mountain Ranch was fantastic, practical and upbeat.  Then, late in the day, about 3:00, word came that rain was expected. Then it was a matter of getting tarps under all boxes of sorted clothing so wet couldn’t seep into the boxes. And covering them from the top with rolls of Visqueen plastic. I returned home late in the  day completely exhausted. Today, I’ll work on getting my own stuff back on shelves, that my kids removed for me. Sunday, my oldest son will bring back a van load of genealogy, family photos and records from his garage in Valley Springs.