Camp Fire: Many evacuees remain at Chico Walmart, despite rain forecast

Nov. 19--CHICO -- Every night, temperatures dip into the 30s. Rain is forecast for midweek.

But despite efforts to get Camp Fire evacuees indoors, many are refusing to leave the Walmart parking lot in Chico that has become a de facto distribution center for food, clothing and other resources -- even as those resources are shifting to other locations.

"With my stressors, it'd be difficult to move," said Paradise resident Hope Hood, 62. "It's too far out. If I didn't know anybody ..."

Hood trailed off, clutching her 11-year-old chihuahua, Maggie, "I'd rather sleep in my car," she said.

An ad hoc group of volunteers came together in the immediate wake of the fire to begin doling out food to fire evacuees who found themselves clustering in the lot. Since then, the makeshift evacuation center has grown, with estimates of several hundred people at one point. Some of those initial volunteers are now trying to help people transition to other more formal shelters.

It's not always easy to convince people to leave, said Abraham Mosher, a Chico resident who's been volunteering at the parking lot since shortly after the fire sent people fleeing from their homes. Many were turned off from the shelters after hearing reports of norovirus sickening people who stayed there, he said.

Others didn't want to travel to the Butte County Fairgrounds in Gridley, a roughly half-hour drive from Chico. And, many who remain in the lot were living paycheck to paycheck before the fire, Mosher said.

"It's tough. It's kind of like pulling teeth," he said. "A lot of them are at the bottom of the social demographic. They're a little more rebellious. They're independent. So that's why they're cool here."

The Camp Fire, which started roaring through Butte County more than a week ago, has torn through nearly 150,000 acres, destroyed an estimated 9,700 homes along with 2,895 businesses and other buildings, and claimed the lives of at least 76 -- though that number is expected to rise. It was 60 percent contained Sunday.

A Butte County spokesperson said bus transportation was being provided on the B Line to fire evacuees from the Walmart parking lot to the fairgrounds, but as of around noon on Sunday, none of the volunteers working at the parking lot seemed to have received that information -- or seen the bus, which was supposed to be circling the lot.

Rumors had been swirling that the Red Cross would provide transportation, but spokeswoman Cynthia Shaw said it was only coordinating with local agencies to do so. The nonprofit organization is serving around 600 people across six shelters, she said. Those shelters will remain open for "a while," she said.

"We're still very much in the thick of it," Shaw said. "This is a very large response, and there is a very big need."

And, for at least the time being, volunteers are sticking by to help evacuees at the Walmart parking lot, too. Mel Contant, an Antioch resident whose son is in college in Chico and who has been volunteering in the lot for the past week, dismissed speculation that Walmart was forcing evacuees out.

"Do you see anyone from Walmart kicking anyone out of here? No," she said, adding that as long as help is needed, she and other volunteers would be working to make sure they got the help and resources they need.

Clothing and some other donations have been moved, though, with volunteers shuttling everything that wasn't food, water or medical supplies a half mile up the road to the shuttered Toys R Us.

Since at least Monday afternoon, another ad hoc coalition of organizations and volunteers has been bringing clothing, tents, sleeping bags, toiletries and other supplies to the parking lot in front of the vacant storefront. It started as just a pile of clothes and a table, said volunteer Craig Anderson, then grew to seven or eight parking spots and now spreads out over multiple rows.

A number of Christian ministries have been helping sort the donations and categorize them, Anderson said. And, on Sunday, the volunteers began moving the clothing, bedding, shoes and other supplies inside the vacant Toys R Us. The volunteers, in coordination with the county, were able to get permission to use the store as a new distribution center -- one that won't be exposed to the elements.

The idea is for the so-called Miracle City Recovery Center to provide ongoing support to displaced residents as they continue to search for permanent shelter, said Casey Gibbs, a Magalia resident whose home was lost in the blaze. The former paramedic is training to be a counselor, he said. So, after he and his wife found refuge in Richardson Springs with Youth with a Mission, an evangelical organization, he decided to help at the Toys R Us parking lot.

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Serving as a paramedic hardened him to the types of destruction and devastation that wreaked havoc in Butte County, but he's not immune to human emotion, he said. Volunteering has been a welcome distraction from the pain of losing his home -- a way to do something, anything, but feel powerless.

"There are times when the glue melts," he said, pausing for a moment as tears reddened the rims of his eyes. Gibbs took a deep breath. He clenched his jaw. "And then it settles back up again."

Turning toward a group of volunteers loading supplies into the back of the store, he called out, "You guys need any help here?"

Chico Enterprise-Record staff writer Bianca Quilantan contributed to this report.

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