Loma Rica and the long road to recovery

July 08--Wildfires have devastated several parts of the state so far this year and the summer isn't even a month in. Those affected will have a long road to recovery to rebuild what was lost and to start over again -- just ask some Cascade Fire victims who are still going through the process nine months after the blaze swept through a portion of the Yuba County foothills.

The Cascade Fire started on the night of Oct. 8 near Loma Rica. By the time it was finished ravaging the area, it had burnt nearly 10,000 acres, destroyed 264 structures and killed four people. The cause is still being investigated by CalFire.

Some residents say the rebuild has gone better than expected, given the fact that so many people were displaced. Some foothill residents have already finished construction on their rebuilt homes and have moved in. Others say recovering from the tragedy has been a costly endeavor and an extremely difficult process to navigate.

A family's resolve

The Johnson family lives on Cascade Way. Their home was one of the first to be destroyed by the fire. The family knew right away that their manufactured home would be gone as they evacuated, but that night they decided they were going to rebuild as soon as possible.

"Everyone's story and situation are different," said Matt Johnson, who is a firefighter for Yuba City. "We started building at the end of April. We've been trying to do a lot of the work ourselves."

From what was there to what will be there once the build is done, which the family estimates will be around Thanksgiving, a larger home will replace the one they lost. To save on costs on designing a new home, Johnson and a close friend, who also lost their home in the fire, split the design plan. His friend built a similar home earlier this year, but Johnson threw in a few modifications to his friend's plans, which held up the approval process.

"Part of the issue was with the draftsman, but we are happy with where we are at in the process," Johnson said. "It's definitely a long process to get everything done. We are now in the phase of scheduling out tradesmen and contractors."

Johnson said there were some obstacles with acquiring permits from the Yuba County Building Department, but overall the staff's help was invaluable.

"The one-stop shop events that they put on helped out a lot. We signed up for everything and were able to receive several grants and the financial assistance we needed. We wouldn't have known about what was available to us without going to those," he said.

Johnson said the community also went above and beyond to help his family recover after the Cascade Fire.

Building issues

Foothill resident Janee Cloward and her family lost their home, a shop on their property and a vehicle to the fire when it swept through Dale Lane off of Loma Rica Road.

The plan, Cloward said, is to build again on the property. But, they haven't started due to a series of setbacks. The main issue for them, she said, was that the short list of pre-approved building plans provided by the county -- in terms of the types of homes that could be built -- didn't suit her family's needs.

"A lot of them were too small or a two-story (home), which we couldn't do because it didn't work for my mom. So that's been really difficult," Cloward said. "It's taken a while to find a house plan we like, and we are in the process of doing that right now."

After the handful of pre-approved plans weren't cutting it, Cloward sought an independent contractor to help design a new home for the family.

"We are hoping to have everything done by next spring, but that all depends on when we can get started," she said.

Insurance setbacks

Down the road a bit, Loma Rica resident Carrie Hodges is also hoping to get reconstruction underway. Unlike Cloward, Hodges' home wasn't burnt down, but smoke and soot damaged the interior and it needed to be gutted and the roof replaced. She did, however, lose all of her outbuildings and fencing around her several acres of property.

Hodges has been living in a camper in her driveway since Yuba County lifted the evacuation orders.

"Everything has been a fight," she said.

For Hodges, the main issue has been with her insurance companies -- she has both a renter's policy and a homeowner's policy. She said she has gone back-and-forth with adjusters on what the insurance companies feel they are responsible for and what they won't reimburse. Some weeks she won't hear from the companies, and then she'll get a notice saying she hasn't done something right.

Despite the setbacks, she said she has hired a contractor and is hoping to get work started within the coming weeks. Even then her insurance company could still hold up the process, as she needs approval to make certain changes, she said.

"It would be great to see some progress in the next couple of weeks," Hodges said.

FEMA mix-up

Foothills resident Walter Knotts lost two homes, a small engine shop, a garden shed and a pump house to the fire. He's lived at the property on Cascade Way for 18 years, he said.

"We are in the middle of rebuilding, but it's taking a while," Knotts said. "(The Federal Emergency Management Agency), for me, has been a big setback because they basically kept me homeless and penniless until they finally came through and sent an adjuster up here."

He said FEMA denied him various forms of recovery aid and only provided $7,000 for all of the contents in his home, which he said was only a portion of his life savings stored inside. A FEMA adjuster also incorrectly put him down on the forms as a renter, when he was actually the homeowner, so he had to "jump through a number of hoops" to get it corrected, he said.

The mistake also resulted in FEMA denying him a chance at other financial assistance programs and various grants because he wasn't the recognized homeowner.

"Here we are eight months later and they say I need to fill out an application for rental assistance, but I don't know why they didn't tell me that long ago," Knotts said. "It hasn't really been easy, even with the community meetings."

Knotts has ordered a home to be delivered in early August, but he might not be able to move in right away because his property still doesn't have power.

"I'm feeling stressed," Knotts said. "I'm doing everything by myself. I've been paying out of pocket to have people up here working."

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