GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. — It is a day many Caldor Fire victims hoped had never happened. It has been three years since the devastating wildfire forced many peoples’ lives into uncertainty.
It's been three years of work in progress.
“It has been a challenge for us,” said Michael George, who lost his home to the wildfire.
Three years later, for many Caldor fire victims, it has been an uphill fight to return to normalcy.
Michael George is approaching a year since he was able to successfully jump through the insurance obstacle course and finally get a new home.
“We had to start over. We have gone through a lot, but we are survivors,” George said.
The fire also threatened the Lake Tahoe region and burned more than 220,000 acres, destroying more than 1,000 structures and causing $1.2 billion in damage.
While some are rebuilding their homes and are completing that process, many are still in their trailers.
“We still need help, and it is not going to be a short-term solution. We are looking at long-term. We are looking at 5, 10, 15 years,” said Jennifer McKim-Hibbard, who lost her home.
McKim-Hibbard is also the Development and Program Director with West Slope Foundation, a nonprofit started after the Caldor Fire to provide relief to the victims and preparedness programs. She said every year since the fire it gets harder.
“I think we all had in our head that we would all be home, we would get individual assistance. We would get the funding from other sources, and we would be able to go home. And three years later, a lot of us are still searching for answers and searching for hope,” McKim-Hibbard said.
Many did not have insurance, which made accepting FEMA’s denial of assistance even harder.
“Unfortunately, there are quite a few people that will never know what it is like to have a home again, they will only know, trailers where their homes used to stand, trailers now stand, and that is their new reality,” McKim-Hibbard said.
New seeds planted are growing, like new homes and the new Post Office.
The Caldor Fire has long been extinguished, but the impact is still felt today, many years and possibly decades to come.
“We are hurting. This is not easy, and every day we just need some compassion. We need somebody or an organization or an agency or the president to decide to overturn his decision not to give us the individual assistance. We need a miracle, and hopefully there is a miracle out there somewhere that can help us,” McKim-Hibbard said.
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