I'm not going to point fingers at anyone or try and place blame. I would, however, like to know that our board members from Paradise are okay. It's going to take years (if ever) for that beautiful little town to recover. Here's the latest CalFire report:
Everyone who lives in the forest is finding it hard to sleep right now. The sounds of helicopters flying over is frightening, the smell of drift smoke unavoidable. Everyone I know has been touched by this fire in one way or another - friends and family have lost everything. Other friends and family are over there on the lines trying to knock this fire down. Some of them are fighting the fire while their own homes lie in ruins, mere piles of ash and rubble. There are 48 confirmed dead and more than 200 still missing.Over 7,600 single residences have been destroyed and 260 businesses, making this the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
If you want to help, go through an organized drive. If you're on Facebook, pages like Butte County Sheriff, Yuba County OES, Oroville News Live, Butte Wx Spotter, Rabbit Creek Journal and the pages of the elected officials are good places to start.
I'm going to monitor this thread and ask other mods to do the same. As I said above, this isn't about pointing fingers or placing blame. This isn't about discussing climate change or other political hot topics. This is about letting everyone know there are thousands of our neighbors who need a helping hand. I'm asking everyone to respect this and not turn this into something else. Thank you all.
If you know of someone who lived in Paradise and you haven't been able to reach them, it's possible they may be in a shelter or even a Walmart parking lot with no way to reach out. If they lost their cell phones, they may not have phone numbers readily available. Do check those pages I've mentioned above. They have a lot of links to websites with survivor lists, missing person lists, etc.
Everyone who lives in the forest is finding it hard to sleep right now. The sounds of helicopters flying over is frightening, the smell of drift smoke unavoidable. Everyone I know has been touched by this fire in one way or another - friends and family have lost everything. Other friends and family are over there on the lines trying to knock this fire down. Some of them are fighting the fire while their own homes lie in ruins, mere piles of ash and rubble. There are 48 confirmed dead and more than 200 still missing.Over 7,600 single residences have been destroyed and 260 businesses, making this the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
If you want to help, go through an organized drive. If you're on Facebook, pages like Butte County Sheriff, Yuba County OES, Oroville News Live, Butte Wx Spotter, Rabbit Creek Journal and the pages of the elected officials are good places to start.
I'm going to monitor this thread and ask other mods to do the same. As I said above, this isn't about pointing fingers or placing blame. This isn't about discussing climate change or other political hot topics. This is about letting everyone know there are thousands of our neighbors who need a helping hand. I'm asking everyone to respect this and not turn this into something else. Thank you all.
If you know of someone who lived in Paradise and you haven't been able to reach them, it's possible they may be in a shelter or even a Walmart parking lot with no way to reach out. If they lost their cell phones, they may not have phone numbers readily available. Do check those pages I've mentioned above. They have a lot of links to websites with survivor lists, missing person lists, etc.
