Extended evacuation amid Walbridge fire trying for Russian River residents

Aug. 27--The Walbridge fire didn't have a name yet when thousands of people along the lower Russian River were ordered to grab what they could from home and clear out of harm's way in a hurry.

On Thursday, nine days later, many remained refugees, forced by another natural disaster to flee the forested landscape they call home.

Like others driven out by the LNU Lightning Complex fires that have burned across five counties, they were making due -- landing with family and friends, finding hotel rooms, parking RVs at campgrounds or parking lots.

Some were lucky -- people like Steven Morgan, 58, of Rio Nido, whose insurance provider covered the tab for a room at the Oxford Suites in Rohnert Park after he'd spent a few days with his adult son.

Retired contractor Doug Misner, had a hotel room in Bodega Bay for a few nights before he and his wife, his sister and brother-in-law, found refuge with friends in Wikiup.

Misner, 69, had only packed for a couple of nights and had been swinging wildly between certainty his home off Canyon One Road would be fine, and fear that "I could lose everything, and I would have to come out of retirement and rebuild half the houses in Rio Nido if everything burned down."

Out of more than 5,100 residents who were still under mandatory evacuation in Sonoma County early Thursday, about 71% hailed from adjacent evacuation zones along the southern edge of the 55,353-acre Walbridge fire. The largest group, residents along the north bank of the Russian River in Guerneville, were cleared to return late Thursday. Further east, Rio Nido remained in the evacuation area.

But earlier in the day, neighbors on the north side of the river from Guerneville, Guernewood Park, Rio Nido and Hacienda, were all among the county's last group of evacuees. They hail from places where anyone who's been around knows the drill, where they take what Mother Nature dishes out in stride.

Winter floods and intensifying wildfires have tested them in recent years like few eras before.

And add this latest fire to the ongoing COVID pandemic and resulting economic blow?

"It's been so much, it's almost incomprehensible," Guerneville resident Jeniffer Wertz said on a break during one of her jobs. "You get tired of saying, 'We'll get through this, too.' "

Rodger Jensen, who lives on Armstrong Woods Road, on the north side of town, said successive disasters had been draining.

"I guess when you look at things in a spiritual way, you realize a challenge is an opportunity for personal growth," he said, then chuckled. "But man, oh man, I'm done."

The lower river area was part of a mass evacuation ordered on the evening of Aug. 18 as what was then called the 13-4 fire, sparked by lightning the previous day, erupted into a major wildfire in the densely wooded hills west of Healdsburg and north of McCray Ridge Road above Rio Nido.

A second fire north of Jenner prompted authorities to order the wholesale emptying of communities along the coast and from the river mouth all the way to Forestville. Later, they would add orders and warnings for the western outskirts of Windsor and Healdsburg, where city officials told all 12,000 residents to prepare to evacuate on Aug. 19.

The winds were driving the fire south-southeast toward Forestville at that point and would eventually bring flames south past Sweetwater Springs Road, extending the threat to upper reaches of river communities for days.

Among those evacuated were about two dozen medically vulnerable, homeless individuals who had just taken up residence at a newly established tent camp in a county park-and-ride lot in Guerneville. Fifteen of those residents were still among 40 or 50 clients of West County Community Services who at one point were staying at the fire evacuation center at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Executive Director Tim Miller said.

Rio Nido resident Scott Ades, who stayed behind at his home and is "feeding about two dozen cats" in their owners' absence, as well as a potbelly pig, said other evacuees ended up in garages, spare rooms, wherever they could.

Everyone wanted to come home, "but the reality is the fire's not out yet, so more people in here just gives firefighters and first responders more difficulty to get where they have to go," Ades, 45, said. "Most people are very much aware it's just not a good idea to come back."

But the continued evacuation exacerbated what has been a prolonged and stressful period for the river region, starting with recovery from the February 2019 floods and stretching through last October, when the Kincade fire prompted authorities to evacuate 200,000 people from Healdsburg to Jenner.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic this spring that has crippled the struggling tourism industry, the backbone of the local economy.

For those who work paycheck to paycheck, evacuations -- however necessary -- just add one more hardship to the lives of struggling families, often a double whammy, said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents the west county.

Many, she said, "have been without work, because their place of employment has been closed, and they have the added expense of having to pay for a hotel or a campground."

"A lot of folks were already teetering on the brink because of COVID" and reduced work and income, Hopkins said. "I am certainly concerned about people's ability to pay their bills, to pay their rent."

Wertz, who lives on River Road, where an evacuation order was replaced by a warning Thursday night, had stayed until Wednesday in a cabin at a KOA campground in Petaluma, where a large number of other evacuees had converged. She left to stay at a friend's Guernewood Park vacation rental a day later, when many of her fellow evacuees were allowed to go back home.

As the workforce fund manager for the nonprofit Russian River Alliance, Wertz is well known around the community and had extensive exposure to some of those struggling over the past nine days. She helped give out more than $10,000 in Safeway gift cards and directed people toward other help.

"On social media, they're posting, 'I'm running out of money, I'm running out of faith. I'm running out of patience,' " Wertz said.

"It's not like this is the first one," she added. "This is flood, Kincade fire, public safety power shutoffs, and now this. It all adds up. When will it ever stop? And we've been troupers, you know?"

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.

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