With the devastation, the amount of human lives lost this time is un believable .

my heart goes out to you Californians .


I just can't imagine what the folks affected by these fires are going through .

You loose everything you own and have to stay Hotels and motels until you run out of money
God bless these people, i hope help is swift .


Again I can't stress enough about how I feel. When you think you have it bad ,there are always others who have it Worse

 

People cope out here the same way they do in NJ or Florida when disaster strikes in the form of hurricanes and tornadoes. You do what you have to do in your situation. It's tough. There aren't enough hotels, motels, airb&b's or other rentals to house over 52,000 people who have been evacuated, they're sleeping in tents in Walmart parking lots. They left with the clothes on their back and it's cold. Our club is sending a trailer full of supplies Friday to help out but they need so much more. The folks in our area have stepped up and millions have been raised locally but it's still not enough. It may be years before infrastructure is back. Power won't be restored for months at least, the area isn't safe to return to and so many have no jobs to go back to. A city of about 30,000 people has just been burnt to the ground.
BTW, I had said in another thread that they were down to dozens missing but apparently that was wrong. I heard this morning the death toll was 55 and counting and there were still around 300 people missing.

It's tough.

 

Yes Rixer i seen it here first hand . I had minor damage fixed it myself . but others were devastated . There is one little town here The whole entire town was washed into the bay and out to sea. Still has not been rebuilt. Where we were lucky here is that in jersey most coastal homes are people second or third homes . So most homes were empty at the time . Regardless of what you might hear .
I hope the folks in your state recover at lightning speed . We all will help as always.
.

 

I was listening to NPR and they were talking about California and what needed to be done. One person pointed out that all the forest management in the world isn't going to stop fires from happening in CA. They might happen less or be smaller, but the natural geography of CA is going to include regular fires.

What they do need to focus on more is evacuation. They need to work on evacuation routes for all these little isolated communities, get the information out there about evacuating, etc.

Anyone who lives in hurricane country like I do knows about hurricane preparedness. They know what to have on hand, when they need to be ready to leave, how to get the hell out and where to go. Of course, if you don't have much money, evacuating is that much more difficult. That's where the county and state have to come in and help people get out. But you cannot wait, and they emphasize that. I'm not sure CA has as extensive evacuation plans as the Gulf Coast has for hurricanes. Ever since Katrina, areas where hurricanes are common, especially along the Gulf Coast, have been much more diligent about preparedness and evacuation.

 

I don't have an opinion on how things happened or why things happened I just wanted to point out the sheer strength in people , and how we all come together . In times of need .

 

I'm a evacuee from the Camp Fire in northern Ca. who didn't loose everything, but that is bitter-sweet news, won't be able to go home for a long time. and when we can return there's nothing worth returning to! It'll be years of clean-up and rebuilding till we have a "town"

 

The looters are taking what little people have left, it's a enough to make a person become a vigilante!

 

Then there's the smoke, so thick it's like fog, viability less than a mile, and toxic! Face masks are the new style trend, or least if you want to save your lungs.

 

We are in Chico now, it's bad.

 

We just do what we have to do to survive.

 

Chico had a large homeless population before the evacuation, now it's so bad people are camping out on the strips dividing the streets, being evicted from parking lots, and with the temps getting in the hi 30's in the mornings it's bad.

 

We are lucky tho, our daughter has a small apartment we're all in now. We're off to FEMA today!

 

how do you find out what charities . Will give the people the most money honestly
Without a hundred middle men .

 

@Truthful 1 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...ictims-of-the-california-wildfires-2018-11-15

thank you!

 

As a volunteer firefighter, several times on long fire scenes (usually wildfires) I have welcomed cold drinks and sandwiches brought by the Red Cross for the fire crews, and I have seen their disaster relief efforts for the victims. They are always at the top of my list.

 

The charity with the most money going to the people who need it is the Salvation Army. The overhead is a pittance. Next up is the Ronald McDonald House. The CEO works for free. There is a listing of first responding charities, the Red Cross, the ASPCA, the American Humane, many others that do good work with little going to paper pushers.