Chetco Bar Fire Stories: Support from Port Orford and Beyond

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Support from Port Orford and Beyond

View from Battle Rock Park in Port Orford.

During the Chetco Bar Fire, Curry County saw an outpouring of support from outside the immediate area. Jeff MacFarlane, owner of Camp Blanco RV Park in Port Orford, was part of the team who led the effort to get donations where they were needed; his focus was on the donations coming from North Curry, Coos & Douglas counties. This is his story…

Jeff had gotten into the habit of checking Facebook for reports about the fire when, sometime in late August or early September, he started to see posts about the Food Bank running low on food due to extra demand. “I was pretty familiar with wildfires,” Jeff said, “from living most of my life in Northern California where they happened close by and frequently (like the Fountain Fire near Redding) and I wanted to do something to help the folks in Brookings.”

Jeff continued, “I thought to myself: ‘I’m self-employed; I have a truck and a teenager I can put to work; I have access to a trailer; my location is perfect [Camp Blanco RV Park fronts highway 101 and is within Port Orford city limits]…how could I NOT do something?’”

Challenging Others to Donate

So, he started up the Port Orford Chetco Bar Fire “donation challenge”. He posted the challenge on the North Curry News & Views Facebook group page, asking everyone in Port Orford to bring donations to his location, which he planned to deliver down to Brookings once he had a full load. He got permission from the local fire chief to use the county emergency response trailer, which he then parked in the middle of his RV park; had his friend, Julie Ells, make some signs; and was immediately overwhelmed with the amount of donations that started pouring in.

“I mean, I KNEW some people would help,” Jeff said, “but I was really surprised at the level of it all; at one point, I remember there were 8 trucks lined up to help deliver donations to Brookings, we were getting so much help!”

A volunteers displays a donation of masks.

 

No System In Place

As echoed in many of the interviews for the Chetco Bar Fire Series, Jeff noted that there really was no organized system in place to coordinate all the donations. A system had to be developed as they went along. Everyone wanted to help, but the lack of a system made it a challenge. Jeff basically decided on his own to be “the one doing the gathering,” as he put it.

That meant Jeff became the main hub for all donations coming from the north. This included Port Orford and Langlois; Coos County (Joni Wasson had a food drive going at the Fred Meyer in Coos Bay; another lady from Coquille – Lisa – started collecting food at the McKays there); basically, everything coming from the north. Jeff became acquainted with Summer Matteson and Andre Bay, neither of whom he’d known prior to the donation effort. Jeff would report to them what he had coming in from North Curry and points north; Summer and Andre would then tell him what was needed, and when and where it was needed.

Some of the donations brought to Port Orford.

Many Generous People; Many Helping Hands

Brett Webb, commercial crab fisherman, friend, and Port Orford city council member (“…who actually started working on this before I did,”Jeff said) was instrumental in getting permission to store the excess food and other donations at the Port Orford Community Building until they were needed in Brookings and could be transported. Dave Duncan, Port Orford fire chief, approved the use of the Curry County emergency response trailer that Jeff parked at his campground.

Jeff’s friend, Andy Juell, took some of the truckloads down, as did others; his camp host, William, helped organize the donations that were brought to Camp Blanco. Jeff and others would go north with empty trailers, fill them up with donations, and deliver them down to Gold Beach, Brookings, and Smith River.

And The Donations Poured In

“People I didn’t even know were making donations,” he went on. “Even my son’s girlfriend, Lacey Smith, who’s a bartender at Pitches, announced that they would donate a week’s worth of tips to the cause; she ended up collecting over $1,000 to send down to the Chetco Bar Fire fund at Wild Rivers Community Foundation!”

Jeff continued, “From start to finish, I believe our local team and I were able to collect and deliver just over 10,000 pounds of mostly food, some water, and a few other items like blankets, pet supplies, toiletries, and other household goods.”

“Everybody in Port Orford wanted to do something, it wasn’t just me” Jeff explained. “People would come into the RV park, literally put a wad of cash in my hand, and say ‘give this to the folks dealing with the fire’. They knew just like I knew…this could very easily have been us needing the help.”

Jeff MacFarlane was interviewed by Kathleen Dickson on Feb. 5, 2018. Thanks to Jeff for making this story possible. Thanks also to Brian Tillung for generously contributing photos for this story.

 

 

Chetco Bar Fire Stories: The Tolowa Dee-Ni’ Nation

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Housing for the Evacuees: The Tolowa Dee-Ni’ Nation

Many acts of random kindness were on display during the Chetco Bar Fire, generous gestures that defines what community is about. Organizations, businesses and individuals all stepped up and gave of their time, money, resources and many opened up their homes. Noteworthy in the coordination of efforts for the larger community was when the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Brookings’  Smith River neighbor to the south opened up the old Ship Ashore property to all evacuees of the Chetco Bar Fire.

An interview with Tessa LaFazio, who took on the herculean task of coordinating operations of  the temporary evacuation shelter- before, during and after, gives a picture of the many people that came together under trying times.

When the Chetco Bar Fire swept out of control in August, 2017, staff of the Tolowa Dee-Ni’ Nation sprang into action upon learning that large numbers of people and their trailers or RVs were being displaced. Tessa LaFazio, the Emergency Services Specialist for the tribe, realized that immediate housing and spaces were needed for the RVs and trailers being evacuated from RV parks affected by the fire. Many were permanent residents that were being uprooted. The Ship Ashore property in Smith River, recently acquired by the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, was quickly prepared to receive the expected influx of evacuees from the fire.

Evacuees learn about fire progress from Forest Service personnel at the evacuation center.

The logistics of this large emergency shelter endeavor were challenging- mapping out the placement of trailers, RVs and tents as well as physically setting up their locations, developing and implementing a checking in/out process, setting up a dorm building, beds, showers, bathrooms, maintenance, security and of course, how to feed everyone. Tessa and her crew went to work.

Fortunately, since many evacuees had their own trailers or RVs to prepare meals in, the number of meals that needed to be served were not as large as it could have been. Also, for the first eleven days the Red Cross provided funding so that two of the three meals could be prepared by the Tribe’s House of Howonquet Restaurant. After that, tribal staff and volunteers cooked and served. Neighboring churches in Smith River took their turns, as well as did tribal staff and people staying in the shelter. There was a feeling of camaraderie and community during those mealtimes that the shelter was open by the Tribe.

Forest Service personnel give reports to evacuees at the evacuation center.

For Tessa, those shared feelings of community and thankfulness from the evacuees, as well as knowing that she was doing the right thing for everyone helped buttressed her during those many twenty hour days during the four weeks the evacuation shelter was open. Community support, donations and volunteer time were given from the many local businesses and people from the surrounding communities. Over 110 volunteers put in countless hours at the evacuation shelter from Curry and Del Norte counties, Tribal council members and staff donated their time. Local businesses such as Alexandre Dairy, Rumiano Cheese and Java Hut, as well as Fred Meyer donated food and supplies. Agencies brought a mental health volunteer to the shelter to help those affected by the fire.

Tessa LaFazio, left, with other volunteers at the evacuation center.

Over 140 evacuees were served at the Tribe’s evacuation shelter. It was the only shelter open consistently for any persons evacuated during that time. Of great importance for many of the evacuees, was that they were able to keep their pets or animals with them, since many of them were in their RVs or trailers.

For almost four weeks, services of indoor shelter, RV sites with water and sewer hook-ups, tent sites, prepared meals and snacks, laundry facilities and restrooms with showers were provided at this evacuation shelter by the Tribal Nation.

When asked how the experience of those four weeks and its aftermath affected her, Tessa shared that she had a better understanding of herself, her strengths and weaknesses, personally and professionally, and of her community, as well as a deeper appreciation of it.

From left, Representative Defazio, Senator Wyden, and Governor Brown visited the evacuation center.

There were also lessons learned.  “It was a learning experience for everyone,” stated Tessa. “ Emergency Preparedness cannot be on the backburner.” Better communications between local governments such as the Tribal Nation and Curry County as well as with agencies such as the Forest Services were also identified as areas for improvement. Communication at all levels was the biggest challenge for many. Information was hard to come by for the evacuees until the Forest Service was later brought in for updates.

The valuable insights realized in the process of providing an evacuation shelter, as well as the impacts of the Chetco Bar Fire has the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation proactively working to be better prepared for whatever crisis may next come their way.

Thanks to Tessa LaFazio for sharing the story about the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s Ship Ashore evacuation shelter, and  to Jeri Lynn Thompson, Tribal Council member and Tribal Secretary of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation for making this possible.

 

 

 

Chetco Bar Fire Stories: Volunteers Undertake Resource Coordination Effort

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Volunteers Undertake Resource Coordination Effort

Summer Matteson-Kinney works as the Curry County Juvenile and Parks administrator, but little did she know that during the Chetco Bar Fire, she would become the lead team member for the Chetco Bar Fire Donation & Volunteer Resource Coordination Team.

It started as Summer was camping over the weekend of August 19 with friends and family. She began getting texts about donations coming in for fire evacuees, “first from Brandy Haselden [Neighborworks Umpqua], then from [State Representative] David Brock Smith,” Summer Matteson-Kinney explained. “Of course, I had no idea the fire had blown up like it had, until I got back home Sunday [August 20].”

First thing Monday morning, August 21, Curry County Sheriff John Ward came to ask Summer if she would head up the coordination of volunteers and donations. “Of course, I didn’t think to ask what it was going to entail- I just said ‘yes’, “ she explains.

Reaching Out For Help

Summer knew she was going to need some help, so the first person she reached out to was Andre Bay.  “He and I had worked together during some recent search and rescue efforts,” Summer said, “plus he was a friend; I knew he was well connected and would probably be willing to help.”

Summer continues: “ I also called Karen Layng [with the state OEM/FEMA office], who basically told me to ‘start on page 16’ of the FEMA handbook; so that’s what we did!” OEM’s (Offices of Emergency Management) from other states began to offer their help and resources as well.

Summer went on, “Well, that ‘yes’ back on the 21st turned into seven weeks of volunteering during every spare hour I had – vacation time, lunch hours, before work, after work…even weekends – because that’s what it took to stay on top of what became a massive coordination job for me and the other members of our core team.”

Andre and volunteers install a new water tank at the site of a lost home.

Andre’s Connections

“Summer’s the one who got me involved,” Andre Bay explains, “She called me the same day the Sheriff called her to be the donations coordinator. Summer and I had worked together on search and rescue missions, and she knew I was someone who could make things happen.”

Andre continued, “Well, the first thing I did was gathered info. Basically, I hit the streets, stopping in parking lots, for instance, looking for folks displaced by the fire who were temporarily living in their RVs, to find out what their immediate needs were. I drove from Gold Beach to Ship Ashore, just checking with everyone I met, asking them how we could help.”

The Core Team Is Formed

A donation and volunteer coordination team was formed. The coordination team was: Summer (government services); Andre Bay (food); Allison Thomas (press releases, manned the Remax locations); Tami Bishop (defensible space); and Jeff McFarlane (north county donations). Summer put together handbooks that each team member used and that included all the resources they had available at any given time. The team was in contact daily, varying between face-to-face, or by phone, text, Facebook Messenger, or email, and Summer acted as the “central” hub regarding any decisions the team made, because she answered to the Sheriff.

The Chetco Bar Fire Help (CBFH) page, originally started by Ryan Hanners, became a central hub for most of the donations and volunteer offers. The coordination team would get word for a need through the CBFH page, or via a Facebook “private message”, or by phone; volunteers were connected to needs via the CBFH page and were put on the list for future help.

The team served all the Curry County food banks during the fire, as well as Oasis Shelter. They also delivered a few tons of food in person to the families on Cate Road. The Elks opened their door to the team so they could offer a free clothing store there for evacuees.

The Three Percenters Answer The Call

Due to a lack of resources in Curry County, Andre decided to reach out to his contacts throughout the region who were part of “Three Percenter” Groups. (The Three Percenters (also styled 3%ers and III%ers)  are people who “stand up for people’s rights,” according to Andre: they are community-driven, self-sufficient, and non-violent; come in response to calls for help; and are there to help in whatever way they can, he explained.

“We had volunteers showing up who came from Three Percenter groups in Seattle, Portland, Salem, Lebanon and Redmond, Lincoln and Lake Counties, Del Norte County, and right here in Curry County to do whatever they could to help out,” Andre explained, “they sent people, food and emergency supplies; they helped folks clear their property to prepare it in case the fire came their way; they put on a barbecue at the Old Fireside Diner in Harbor to raise money; they were “boots on the ground”; and many of them stayed as long as they were needed, even at the expense of their own lives and families.”

The Three Percenter volunteers helped clear 56 properties located in Level 3 Evacuation areas in Curry. They moved their resources to O’Brien (Josephine County) to help out over there when the fire started moving in that direction, and after it had calmed down in Curry County.

Before picture at the site of a lost home.

After picture at the site of a lost home. Cleanup work done by Oregon III%.

 

Keeping Track Of It All

From the start, Summer made sure to  track donations and volunteer hours, but because the donations had to be accounted for through either a nonprofit or government entity, she needed help. She went first to the Curry County Board of Commissioners, but they didn’t have the resources or capacity to help much. The Rotary Club was willing to help, but wasn’t ready to support an online effort. That was when Wild Rivers Community Foundation (WRCF) offered to be the hub. Jessica Carrillo helped by keeping track of where stuff would go and monetary donations went directly to WRCF, with Michelle Carrillo’s help.

WRCF also organized a meeting, facilitated by Geri Livingston, that brought stakeholders together; the goal was to figure out what was needed and who could supply what. The result was a better ebb and flow of supplies, resources and volunteers, according to both Summer and Andre.

Donations arrive from a group in Redmond. Andre is on the left, Summer is third from left, in the back.

And The Donations Poured In

Andre estimates they moved approximately 45,000 pounds of food and supplies between the Brookings Harbor Food Bank and the storage facilities that Marie and Bret Curtis with ReMax opened up for them. The Harbor Remax office was also where one of the Chetco Bar Fire “free” stores was located (the other was at the Elks Lodge), where people could come get what they needed from the piles of donations that kept pouring in.

Picture of the free store set up for those affected by the fire.

Monetary donations were mostly directed to Wild Rivers Community Foundation, but that money was not immediately available, as it had to be “passed through” a nonprofit before it could be accessed, which took time, Andre said. When the Nazarene Church agreed to act as the pass-through nonprofit for immediate needs – what Andre called the “Cate Road fund” (i.e. donations gathered by the team and meant to fund immediate needs for those who lost their homes on Cate Road) – that was “a Godsend” as Andre put it, as the church was able to make the money more easily accessible.

Challenges Identified

Summer and Andre both identified a lack of resources and limited government support as major challenges during the fire.  It was immediately obvious as well that Curry County needs to institute a Volunteer Organization Active In Disaster (VOAD), or a Community Organization Active In Disaster (COAD). Shelter and temporary short-term housing was in very short supply. The Red Cross didn’t understand our local needs, according to Summer, so the shelters they set up were little used. At Ship Ashore, they had a better handle on what the evacuees needed, she felt.

Andre is still working on relief, advocating mostly for the families on Cate Road who lost their homes and infrastructure. He said they (he and Summer) personally delivered checks on Nov. 18 – just before Thanksgiving – to those families that came from donations raised at a fundraising concert in September with the Kingston Trio.

Free BBQ for all. Pictured is the Redmond III%.

Was There Any Good To Be Had?

When asked if there was anything good that came out of the experience, Summer smiled and said, “You’ve seen the bumper stickers floating around since then, right? The ones that say ‘Curry Strong’? Well,” she continued, “that bumper sticker says it all: we’re strong – as a community, as a county, as a region. We showed that we know how to take care of our own.”

Summer Matteson-Kinney was interviewed by Kathleen Dickson on Nov. 28, 2017, and Andre Bay was interviewed by Kathleen Dickson on Dec. 5, 2017. Thanks to both Summer and Andre for sharing their stories.

 

 

 

Chetco Bar Fire Stories: A Community Steps Up to Feed Fire Evacuees

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A Community Steps Up to Feed Fire Evacuees

The Brookings Harbor Food Bank was at the forefront of disaster relief during the Chetco Bar Fire. People were displaced all over the region, temporarily relocating to Gold Beach, Port Orford, and Crescent City; many who were regulars at the food bank were all of a sudden missing.

“I was at meetings in Medford when the fire started moving [just before the weekend of August 19],” Pamela Winebarger, Executive Director for the Brookings Harbor Food Bank related, “and I’d only been on the job here since April, so at first, I thought we were on our own.” She continued, “Thankfully, we were not. Donations AND volunteers started pouring in from all corners of Oregon and California.”

These donations were crucial. In August alone, the numbers at the Food Bank went from a normal 1800 people helped to over 4300; the need tripled. The Brookings Harbor Food Bank started handing out weekly boxes (instead of the normal monthly ones) and stopped requiring income verification – anyone who needed food during the crisis got some.

Local Coast Guardsmen helped unload 7 pallets of water donated by Grocery Outlet.

Support Came From All Sides

The Food Bank started seeing all kinds of donations. “A truck was loaned to us for additional storage,” relates Pamela, “a real estate office offered two locations at which to store extra donations; food drives were conducted by a number of nonprofits; the overwhelming generosity just blew me away!”

Donations kept pouring in. Two weeks into the evacuations, Debbie with the Salvation Army handed them a purchase order for $2,000 to Ray’s Market in Gold Beach. They used it to buy meat for the folks affected by the Chetco Bar Fire. The Oregon Employee Association sent a check; the Crescent City Emblem Club donated 3100 pounds of food and $170 from a food drive they conducted outside Walmart. Ryan Wheelock, a business owner from Klamath Falls,  got together with other people in the community and brought 3,875 pounds of food and water in a U-Haul, simply because he wanted to give back.

Hal & Lori, owners of Grocery Outlet, donated 19 pallets of water (individual bottles AND gallon containers, valued at $5,000 total) that had been delivered to their store accidentally. Their corporate office told them, “give it away”, so they did…to the Food Bank. Within 4 hours, all but one pallet was gone. Food drives were conducted at the Dollar Store and BiMart; donations came in from Grocery Outlet, Fred Meyers, South Coast Food Share, and the Oregon Food Bank. A lady came in one day and donated her last $10.00; a young girl baked and sold cookies and donated the $56.00 proceeds.

Grocery Outlet donated 7 pallets of water; Ryan Wheelock of Grants Pass donated water as well.

“It was a very intense, but good, ‘fuzzy’ feeling,” Pamela went on to say, “A lot of people gave because they could…but many people also gave because they felt they should.”

“Thank goodness for our Food bank manager, Carolita Briggs, and the 18-20 other volunteers who pushed themselves all of August and September, during the worst of it,” Pamela explained, “they were a Godsend, and I had to be constantly making sure they would take a break and not push themselves so hard!”

Communicating Needs

Pamela did numerous interviews on the radio stations and for the newspapers, and the word got out that donations were needed – “it eventually took on a life of its own”. For instance, three weeks into the evacuations, a tattoo artist in Bend contacted Pamela on a Sunday, wanting to know where to bring 3600 pounds of food they wanted to donate; Pamela had no idea where she learned about the disaster.

The Facebook page “Chetco Bar Fire Help Page” became the central hub for all offers of food, money, and volunteers. The Food Bank became the gathering place for all the food donations. Pamela was concerned that donations might be getting diverted away from the other food banks, community kitchens and food pantries in the region, so she checked on them regularly to make sure they had enough for their people, and shared what the Food Bank had when others needed it.

Volunteers unloaded and sorted donations.

Lessons Learned for the Future

There were a number of lessons learned during the crisis. For instance, Pamela noticed there was a real need for collaboration between the various government entities (e.g. the sheriff’s office) and those nonprofits offering services to evacuees and others. The Wild Rivers Community Foundation helped address this need by organizing a meeting at the Chetco Activity Center to pull together all the people working on relief efforts. Collaboration started happening. Pamela attended the meeting and because of connections made there, she was able to reach out to volunteers to come help receive the food, find a place to store it, and then parcel it out to where it was needed most.

The Chetco Bar Fire also revealed a definite lack of temporary housing for evacuees; a lack of daycare also became apparent when childcare providers were themselves evacuated, leaving parents with no options. Pamela also noticed that our region lacks a centrally-located “informational” sheet that lists what services are available – for both during and AFTER a crisis is over. The good news, many of these are deficiencies that can be addressed.

Donations arrived from local and outlying areas.

A Very Giving Community

All in all, the Chetco Bar Fire was an eye-opening experience for Pamela. “Before the fire, I had been volunteering at St. Tim’s,” Pamela said, “and I saw how much need there was here. What I hadn’t seen yet was how generous this region really is. During and after the fire, I realized we live in a very giving community, full of people who do what needs to be done, often without any fanfare or thought for their own needs,” she continued, “They saw what I saw: that those who were being evacuated were oftentimes not well off, and it wasn’t so easy for them to just leave their homes and stay somewhere else for weeks on end. They needed our help.”

Pamela Winebarger, Executive Director of the Brookings Harbor Food Bank, was interviewed on Nov. 27, 2017 by Kathleen Dickson. Thanks to Pamela Winebarger, for making this story possible. Read more about the Brookings Harbor Food Bank here as part of our Wild Rivers Connect Positive Stories Series.