Middletown seeks return to normalcy

Sept. 25--MIDDLETOWN -- With high hopes, communal resolve and a lot of unanswered questions, residents of this disaster-stricken southern Lake County town strove Thursday for a return to normalcy.

Many of the downtown businesses were open and customers poured through Hardester's Market, which has been open since Sept. 13, the day after the terrifying Valley fire roared down from Cobb Mountain and hopscotched through Middletown's residential areas.

But there was also an aura of despair, an unshakable sense of loss for the community of 1,300 in which some people have lost their homes and all their possessions.

"People refer to this place as God's country," said Evelyne Miller, a clerk at Hardester's, expressing hope that Middletown, her home for 15 years, will rebuild and "get back to normal."

But she sensed, driving over the mountain from Calistoga, that the town had changed, at least for the time being. "It's different," she said. "There's a sadness. You can feel it."

Tarps, red gasoline cans, rakes, brooms, hoses, contractor bags and shop vacuums were on display at the front of the store.

A few blocks away, the Local Assistance Center -- set up in the grassy plaza in front of the Middletown Library and Senior Center -- was among the busiest places in town.

Stacey Pfeifer, a Cobb resident, sat in a folding chair in the shade of a large oak tree, awaiting an interview with a Federal Emergency Management Agency representative.

"I'm in limbo," said Pfeifer, who said she's been told that her rental home was one of the more than 1,900 structures destroyed by the 76,067-acre wildfire, which was 87 percent contained Thursday night.

"I want to stay and rebuild my practice," said Pfeifer, an Ayurvedic medicine practitioner. "I like this area. I just don't know if there will be enough of an economy here." The Cobb area, where the fire erupted 13 days ago, is one of the last areas still closed to residents.

Along with FEMA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and several insurance companies have set up mobile offices at the assistance center.

"We've been going non-stop since we arrived," said Margaret Stuckey, a FEMA Corps member taking assistance applications from residents. FEMA will remain as long as it is needed, she said.

The ashen remains of homes and apartments lay between the downtown area and Middletown High School, where a soccer game was going on Thursday afternoon.

On a nearby field, coach Shaun Sims was running a practice for his Middletown Youth Football players, clad in purple shirts and black pants, their helmets bearing a horseshoe on both sides, the symbol of Middletown High's Mustangs.

Wednesday was the squad's first practice, held after the coach was barraged with calls from parents wanting to know when the sport would resume. "Trying to get back to normalcy," Sims said as his charges ran short sprints.

"Let's go, let's go," he called out. "Gimme a good three-point stance and let's go."

More than 500 people filled the bleachers at the high school's otherwise empty Bill Foltmer Field, with a fire-blacked hillside as a backdrop for a community meeting.

Joy Stearns and Beryl Thompson, who fled from their home in the Cobb Mountain community of Pine Summit, said they came to the meeting for information, including some idea of when they might be able to return to the ruins.

"I've been told the whole neighborhood is gone," Stearns said.

The couple saw the flames reach the end of their street and made a hasty departure.

"We had to drive through a wall of fire to get out," Thompson said.

Stearns said she had one chance to grab a keepsake, and she pulled a watercolor of Donner Lake off the wall. The painting, which belonged to her grandparents, survived the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, she said.

In the bleachers, Jon Henry, a South Lake County Fire District firefighter-EMT, handed out red plastic fireman's helmets to children and adults. With thousands of firefighters battling the blaze, the local fire agency's mission was to get out in the community with the message "we're here, we care. This is our community."

"Half of our town is gone," he said.

His wife, Heather Henry, and her daughters, Amanda, 16, and Kacie, 13, have planted flowers on about 80 lots around town. "Just trying to bring some hope and some joyfulness to this mess," she said.

During the meeting, County Supervisor Rob Brown cautioned that rebuilding won't be a speedy process. "Winter's coming. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of erosion control to do," he told the crowd.

In the hard-hit Cobb area, trees must be removed, fences restored and some lots that have been virtually eradicated will have to be surveyed, he said.

Brown advised residents to register with FEMA if they have sustained losses.

Sue Piper, a United Policyholders representative, said her nonprofit organization is on hand to assist property owners in dealing with their insurance companies.

"I'm here to tell you there is light at the end of the tunnel," said Piper, a survivor of the devastating Oakland hills fire of 1991, which killed 25 people and destroyed nearly 4,300 homes and apartments,

Keith Woods, head of the Santa Rosa-based North Coast Builders Exchange, said his group is setting up a website, www.rebuildinglakecounty.org, that will list licensed contractors who are part of the exchange.

Referring to the stages of grief, Woods said, "eventually you'll have acceptance -- and there's going to be hope and rebuilding."

"I don't know if I've ever seen anybody come together like you have," he said. "I just want to say thank you for being Lake County."

For complete wildfire coverage go to: www.pressdemocrat.com/wildfire.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or [email protected]. On Twitter @guykovner.

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