Thread by @bri_sacks

#CampFire thread: Paradise was a disaster waiting to happen

“Years and years ago we knew we had a problem with that community," a Cal Fire chief said. They prepared, but the "fire moved more than twice as fast as was predicted under the worst scenarios"
buzzfeednews.com/article/briann…

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called the Camp fire, which practically destroyed the town of Paradise, “worse than any war zone I saw in Iraq.”

buzzfeednews.com/article/blakem…

This is how smokey the air is in Sacramento, which is about 90 miles south of Paradise

Here at the Chico Wal Mart, which has transformed into a tent refuge city for #campfire evacuees. One of the lead volunteers says there are 1,000 people sleeping here

Tammy Mezera has been living in the tent community since Saturday with Her puppy. She lost her home in Paradise. She just moved here from Illinois to make a new start.

“I call it trial by fire,” she joked

Tammy showed me what it’s been like living here. They’re all bundled up and keep each other warm and make each other laugh. They want to know where FEMA is.

The parking lot is overflowing with clothes, volunteers, people making hot food for evacuees, tents, people sleeping in cars. It’s amazingly organized chaos. Organizer Melissa Contant said there’s a lot of kids here

This is Brooklyn. She’s 7. She’s from Paradise and lost her house. She’s been staying here with her mom and the rest of your neighborhood.

Brooklyn and Preston are friends and have been staying together here with neighbors. I asked him what they’ve been doing every day and he says “just sit here” and also play baseball

Mel Contant is one of the lead organizers. She and about a dozen volunteers are running this on their own, with help from Wal Mart and the community. She wants to know officials’ plan for all these people.

“The rain is coming and these people need a roof over their heads”

Here’s a snapshot of what it’s like spending the night here. There are about 15 porta potties for 1,000 people, Contant says. Showers are the biggest issue, since so many people lost their cars and can’t drive to take one. Volunteers make them hot meals. Vehicles keep pouring in

People started sleeping in the lot Saturday, volunteers said. By Monday, it had exploded. During the day, “thousands” stream in to get supplies and food. It’s become a close-knit community as they all wait for word on their homes.

“We’re living minute by minute,” said Eric Bass

These #campfire evacuees are now in the crux of a serious housing crisis and may have to leave California, losing their home yet again, @skbaer reports buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer…

This is the situation facing thousands of #campfire evacuees: John and Kathy Wilkes are retired, living on social security, and were renting their Paradise home. Since they didn’t own it, they don’t know if they’ll get FEMA aid to start over

“We’ve lost our place in the world”

Here’s the list of people still missing from the #campfire, which started a week ago. There are about 300 names buttecounty.net/Portals/24/Cam…

Apparently Trump is coming here to Paradise on Saturday, Briana khan, an OES spokesperson just said to a surprised group of fire officials

The Wal Mart refuge tent city is closing 1 pm Sunday, leas volunteers confirmed. They secured 200 beds through Red Cross and said they will help get evacuees there.

“This is not sustainable,” said Debbie Barbers, a lead volunteer. “We need to get these people to better shelter”

Back with Brooklyn and her mom, Jen Fitzgerald. Jen doesn’t know what she’s going to do or if she’s going to go to the fairgrounds. She doesn’t want to “expose” Brooklyn to a crowded tent “with all those kids running around” and the norovirus breakout

Ok here’s more of what’s going on at the Wal Mart: it’s a bit of a cluster fuck. This is what volunteers and Butte County have told me. Wal Mart is not forcing the people to leave, volunteers are trying to get them out because it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and it’s a flood zone

/2 Only thing is there’s not a lot of places for them to go. Callie Lutz, a PIO Butte County PIO, said officials don’t know what to do with the camp yet and called it a “fluid situation.” The county+Red Cross has 7 shelters, only 1 is accepting evacuees. Norovirus identified at 4

/3 volunteers are coordinating rides, giving out gas cards, trying to convince people to leave.

Marcello Barbero, a volunteer who has been here all week, said the county wants them out by Saturday because Trump is coming.

I haven’t confirmed that

Signs here detailing resources and reinforcing that people need to be out by Sunday

Shawna, 21, has been here with here mom and two kids: a 3-year-old and 3-week-old for a week. They said they went to Oroville Rescue Mission but the conditions there were “bad and there were bed bugs” so they came here. They don’t want to put the baby in a crowded shelter, either

There are a lot less people here this evening than there were yesterday, but lead organizer Mel Contant thinks people are going to stay put. Butte County is still trying to figure out temporary housing solutions, the PIO said. So, basically, it’s a bit of a mess.

There are 994 search and rescue personnel here combing properties and cars looking for human remains, officials said. About 500 are volunteers from agencies across the state

“A lot of it is like a total cremation,” said Tulare County SAR Dennis Phillips. “It’s hard to see”

Lyn Mangiameli-from San Benito SAR-says based on what he’s seen, there could be “hundreds” of people found dead and the entire search might take months. He’s here with 12 volunteers:

“No emergency worker is prepared for this, but it’s about bringing peace and closure to people”

📷 from Paradise. A search and rescuer said that the intensity of the #campfire melted things to “molten metal.” The blaze flashed and moved on so fast that it left wood piles in tact, but devoured the home right in front of it

Yesterday evening, firefighters took their day off from battling the blaze to come see the kids at the Walmart parking lot camp and show them their truck and spray the hose.

Brooklyn, Preston, and about 6 other little kids who are still living here thought it was pretty rad

So far, 145 people have been reported sick with the Norovirus in #campfire evacuee shelters and “the number of sick people is increasing every day.” 4/7 Butte county/Red Cross-run shelters have been affected, so they’re trying to open more

https://twitter.com/countyofbutte/status/1063173038571569152?s=21

Latest #CampFire numbers:

* 63 people dead
*600+ listed missing
* 45% contained
* 142,000 acres burned
* 9,841 homes, 2,412 other buildings gone
* 5,596 fire personnel battling the blaze

The air quality up here is insanely awful. It’s like walking through someone’s fresh cigarette exhale

I’m spending the morning at the FEMA and California disaster assistance intake center, which just opened after more than a week of people being displaced. It’s not even 9 am and the line is wrapping around the old Sears here and growing steadily

Phew. Ok. Out of FEMA land, which is set up in an old Chico Sears and is like the DMV on steroids. You come in, and if you’re pre-registered with a number, you go in one line and then they funnel you through, as John Wilkes calls it: “the mouth of bureaucracy”

Most people I talked to wished the major help was here sooner. Rena Eley and her daughter, Kayla, live in Magalia and like thousands of others, lost everything.

“When you consider what happened up there, people should have been here earlier.”

The mother and daughter, like tons of others, are renters and didn’t think to have insurance. Dazed and in donated clothes, they and hoards of others walk by table after table of agencies: SBA, CDA, DMV, social security, veterans affairs, USDA, trying to figure out what they need

I went through the whole process with 2 families and I still have no idea what they’re getting. They don’t either, yet, because FEMA says its still trying to figure out how inspectors can check people’s homes to approve their apps, since officials are still looking for bodies

John and Kathy Wilkes ran into an issue w/ their app b/c they, their landlord, and landlord’s grandson all live on the same property and mistakenly applied together-thus lumping them into a much higher income bracket. The Wilkes are on social security and fall under “vulnerable”

Their landlord’s grandson, Andrew, then had to call FEMA from inside FEMA bc officials there couldn’t help him and be on the phone for 30 mins to rectify the situation. They wouldn’t let them cancel and start over, since they were already in the system.

FEMA officials here are also taking things minute-by-minute given the fluidity and scale of this disaster.

“I was at the Carr Fire and that was nothing compared to this,” said FEMA spox Jovanna Garcia

That July fire burned 229,651 acres and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures

Tl:dr federal officials are also like 😳 this disaster. Garcia:

*It’ll take awhile to ✔️ TSA to let people live in hotels. There aren’t enough hotels, though
*Ppl applied and got ineligible letters even though they’re eligible Bc of inspecting issues
*Expediting EVERYONE’s aid

This doggo was very much the mood 😭

There’s really no way to train for this: combing through the ashy shreds of someone’s life, looking for bits of their body, over and over and over again, a search+rescue volunteer said

They do it, though, because it helps others, it’s part of the healing buzzfeednews.com/article/briann…

Back at Walmart tent camp to see how the phase-out’s going. There are less people, but still a solid amount. Going to highlight the people who’ve been cooking nonstop for nearly a week. Like Roxie Taylor, whose brother, Izzy, and his friends (cooking rn):

Izzy is not here bc his wife just had a baby, but his sister says their crew has gone through thousands and thousands of donated $ and pounds of food: “Whatever we get we do something with it.”

They’ve made evacuees tri-tip, carne asada, sloppy joes, chicken, from am to midnight

The @sexy_panda_truck really kicked this off. They got here Friday night and, on their own dime, immediately started cooking for hundred of people and are camping here, too. They now have a crew of volunteers and floods of donations are also cooking a fuck ton of food

.@WCKitchen has been spooning out meals to people. They were also @ the #woolseyfire. There are also many other volunteers pouring hot chocolate, coffee, and bbqing. Anyway, just a reminder that it’s not all doom and gloom here. Humans can be pretty 👌🏻❤️

https://twitter.com/chefjoseandres/status/1062902689284190209

Latest #campfire numbers:
*146,000 acres burned
*50% contained
*47,200 residents evacuated
*1,164 people in shelters
*12,263 total structures destroyed

Fire officials say they’re worried about winds this weekend+challenging terrain, but have made progress on the line

There’s another red flag weather warning starting Saturday night to Sunday morning. Low humidity and wind gusts 40-50 mph
“Not as extensive of an event as last weekend, but winds will be significant,” meteorologist said.

AND there will be a major weather change next week: RAIN

There are now 1,011 people now currently unaccounted for in the #campfire, but @ButteSheriff cautioned that this list is fluid, there getting a lot of info, and there may be duplicate names.

They found 8 new bodies, bringing the death toll to 71. All found in their homes

California emergency officials said this is the “largest deployment of search and rescue personnel that we’ve ever had to deliver to the state.” It’s an incredibly tedious, gutting job buzzfeednews.com/article/briann…

Joe Moses, the search manager, says they’re in the fifth day of looking for bodies. They’re using resources from 38 sheriff departments across California, with more than 600 people on the ground every day.

Officials have been using dental records and fingerprints to identify #campfire victims, but they’re now going to utilize this rapid DNA machine and are asking parents and children of missing people to go to the Chico Sears and submit a mouth swab