It has almost been three months since we woke up to a flurry of text messages and phone calls. Hearing Damon yell to me that Santa Rosa was on fire made my heart stop. This is a hard topic to write about, but, since my blog is my scrapbook, its important to have it all included.
Thankfully my immediate family (who lives all across the county) were all safe and their homes were spared. But it took almost a week to be able to be certain of that statement. Unfortunately, many family friends and memorable locations in our community have been lost. The impact of the devastation just keeps growing all these weeks later.
Damon immediately went up to the ranch and these pictures are of the property. They prepared the property as much as they could, as the fire was on the other side of the ridge. It never reached the crest of the mountain, but it was scary at times.
Thankfully the ranch is fully equipped with smart men and lots of equipment to help clear brush, make fire roads, etc. In fact, at the start of the fires Loren took his tractor to the neighboring properties and helped to save several houses. At one point he was taking a video and a fire engine came up the road, saw that he was handling the fire as best as he could and then they turned around. During the first hours there was just too many fires and too little help.
Within hours the fire grew so quickly and thousands of houses were damaged. The fire and wind created its own weather system - it was truly a level of mother nature that I never knew existed.
I learned so much about fire fighting...I had no clue how a lot of fire fighting is done with tractors and community helpers. Not just trained fire fighters with water hydrants. Unfortunately, these are all words and phrases that are a common part of C's vocabulary these days.
My high school was majoring burned...the students are all spread throughout Sonoma County trying to carry on with their studies. The school of 400 students had 80 students loose their houses.
Merediths parents lost their home and their escape story is one that haunts me to this day - within 30 more seconds her mom could have been lost in the fire as well. I have known her parents for the last 20 years and hearing them tell us their story 3 days later while their cars still smelled like smoke was just heart wrenching.
During these days we were glued to social media and the news. I learned how to read fire maps. I cried, I was attached to my phone and the emergency updates. I would get physically sick when my text noise would ding (typically I have my phone on silent, but I turned on the sound during this time, so the text message ding always makes my heart skip a beat.)
We tried to maintain a somewhat sense of normal during the active fires for C's sake, but it was super difficult. She still talks about the fire, often. Its hard not to when we drive up to Windsor and pass all the buildings that once lined the freeway that we would frequent. In fact today she randomly said she was so sorry that we lost our wedding venue and the hotel were we stayed on our wedding night and where we were the night we decided to buy our current home. I shared with her about how the memories are more important than anything...but she is still really impacted by the physical changes. Here is a video someone posted on Facebook for our wedding reception venue.
We made sure to cuddle a ton. C started showing some separation anxiety that has continued to this day. She'll randomly call out for me and when I answer she quickly says 'I love you.' She really needs to know where we all are at all times.
My sweet friend Tenaya was super helpful during this time. Her husband is a CalFire chief and the two of them were non-stop fighting the fires. Her stories are crazy and I am so thankful for her bravery and concern for our community. She kept us posted on any developments that could impact my parents house, which was beyond amazing and appreciated.
Our area was under advisory evacuation, so I had my car packed for almost a week. It was an interesting conversation to have with C. Especially since Damon was up at the ranch. It was very interesting to see what she deemed appropriate to pack and save. Her first pick was the Hugh Cambra trophy from the fair and another pick was a bible Noah gave her.
Here are some videos of Damons dad working his tractor on the hillside next to him.
The local news talk radio station had the best coverage, followed closely by the Press Democrat. Again, we were glued to social media and the internet to track things. I became the information hub for my parents. As the days went on, the winds picked back up and evacuation orders grew - so I would send out group texts with screen shots of maps showing the distance from their homes to the active fire.
One night we headed up to my parents...just to see everyone face to face and for the kids to play.
Towards the end of the week they released maps showing aerial images...red was green vegetation and the black areas were burn areas. We were zooming in on address of family friends to see the existence (or lack their of) of their homes. Residents weren't allowed back for up to two weeks, so there was a ton of uncertainty.
I did head into work for a few hours and brought C with me. It was difficult to concentrate, but necessary. Thankfully all of our employees were safe from the friends as well.
It was a week that changed the way we view our corner of the world.
I will (hopefully) never see devastation at that magnitude again. It was a surreal moment in our lives when National Guard trucks were normal, when everyone slowed down and checked in (even the cashier at 7-11 stopped to ask if I was ok) and when our small town of Santa Rosa became known on a national level.
Today we drive by areas leveled to the ground. We see large piles of concrete stockpiled throughout the county - concrete that once held peoples homes, their belongings, their lives. Driving alongside truck after truck making dump runs or transporting burned cars is now our new normal. Sonoma Strong bumper stickers and t-shirts are now everywhere. Signs are still up thanking the first responders. And now billboards with similar messages plus the attorney attempting to get lawsuits started.
When we see smoke, we get nervous. When we think of how this is impacting our housing market, our insurance rates and the future of our country, we get nervous.
But as I unpacked our evacuation bags I felt a new sense of pride. Pride for my home. Pride for my strong and sensitive daughter. Pride for my community. As I continue to read articles about rebuilding, about volunteering and about heroism, I feel pride.
As a Summer Orientation leader at Chico State I had to introduce myself every morning to the several hundred attendees. We said our name, our major, our class and where we were from. Every morning I ended my introduction with 'and I am proud to be from Sonoma County.' I knew where I was raised was special as a 20 year old.
I just never know how much that would grow 15 years later.
