Calaveras Recovers

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All those who were evacuated were temporarily homeless for a few days.

After a tense week of evacuation when many Calaveras residents settled in local shelters and with their friends, they returned to an almost unimaginable scene of devastation, concentrated mostly in District 2 where Mountain Ranch & RailRoad Flat had turned into a blackened moonscape. Immediately the local community began to mobilize, assisted by the American Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, and hundreds of caring neighbors in Tuolumne, Amador and San Joaquin counties who brought clothing and supplies in such quantities that the organizers felt initially overwhelmed.

Then came community groups from churches and non profits from Valley Springs, San Andreas, Burson and the Highway 4 corridor to lend a hand, particularly at the epicenter, which was the Mountain Ranch Youth Alliance Resource Center. Even citizens who themselves had lost their homes volunteered to distribute food and clothing to their fellow victims as the county struggled to keep up with the task of providing dumpsters for spoiled food, water sources for those who had lost their wells, and light for those who were without power. The Resource Center provided daily lunch and dinner to both volunteers and victims; laundry and shower facilities were quickly brought in and tents, tarps, flashlights and sturdy boots were collected for those returning to their ravished parcels. Many individuals and groups as diverse as the Humane Society and Haygrowers pitched in to help.

Soon state and federal aid began to pour in when both Governor Brown and President Obama declared Calaveras a disaster area. Among those government agencies who lent a hand to the to the effort were: Calaveras Public Works, Environmental Health, Planning, The Resource Connection, Calaveras County Behavioral Health and many others.

From the state, California Office of Emergency Services quickly moved in to begin assessing the impact of the fire and the steps needed to begin cleanup. Shortly thereafter FEMA set up Disaster Recovery Centers in San Andreas, Mountain Ranch and Rail Road Flat. The Recovery Centers brought in the Small Business Administration, a State Supplemental Grant Program, Veterans Affairs, the DMV, California Franchise Tax Board and the Employment Development Department to assist people in recovering their losses.

Calaveras Grown initiated a program to help people repair their wells and irrigation systems, begin treating their land and plan for erosion control while the Blue Mountain Center for Youth and Families offered help to those seeking compensation from PG&E for their food losses while they had no power.