El Dorado County released a new video in yet another plea to the federal government, calling on them to help Caldor Fire survivors.”This is our last hope. It really is,” George Turnboo, the District 2 supervisor for El Dorado County, said.The video shows the extensive damage in Grizzly Flats, and it features families still impacted nearly a year after the wildfire that tore through the community last August.The effort follows multiple denials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to provide assistance to people in El Dorado County who lost their homes and businesses.Watch Related Video Below | Caldor Fire survivors in Grizzly Flats grapple with lack of clean drinking waterIn a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 8, 2021, FEMA denied the state’s request for individual assistance. The agency stated “the impact to the individuals and households from this event was not of such severity and magnitude to warrant.”The state tried to appeal the decision and received another denial from FEMA in November.The new video from the county calls out President Joe Biden, who visited Northern California in September and surveyed some of the damage the Caldor Fire had done.When presented with information about how many people lost their homes and were not covered by insurance, President Biden replied, “We’re going to take care of them.”Now, Turnboo has a message for the president.”Honor your word. That’s all I’m asking,” Turnboo said, calling on the president to overturn FEMA’s decision.He said, nearly a year after the fire, there are still many people living in cars, staying at friends’ houses, and sleeping on couches.Candance Tyler and her family have been living in a travel trailer in the front yard of her brother’s Placerville home for the last nine months.”Not much room for two children and a husband and a wife,” Tyler said.Their cramped quarters now could not be more different from the sprawling property they lived at in Grizzly Flats. Tyler said her family lived on one of the original homesteads in Grizzly Flats. Her husband’s family had been there for almost 120 years.History lost in the blink of an eye, she said.Unfortunately, it is a story shared by hundreds of people who lived in Grizzly Flats, where many were either under-insured or uninsured altogether.”My neighbor was paying over $36,000 a year for fire insurance and was dropped four times. When the fire blew through, she had no insurance,” Tyler said.The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, estimates the Caldor Fire destroyed roughly 785 homes in Grizzly Flats alone.More Like This | ‘It will be beautiful again’: Caldor Fire survivors reflect on loss and the long road ahead”We lost our church; we lost our fire station; we lost our forest service station; we lost our school. Like, how much more of a community did we need to lose in order to get assistance?” Tyler asked.
El Dorado County released a new video in yet another plea to the federal government, calling on them to help Caldor Fire survivors.
“This is our last hope. It really is,” George Turnboo, the District 2 supervisor for El Dorado County, said.
The video shows the extensive damage in Grizzly Flats, and it features families still impacted nearly a year after the wildfire that tore through the community last August.
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The effort follows multiple denials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to provide assistance to people in El Dorado County who lost their homes and businesses.
Watch Related Video Below | Caldor Fire survivors in Grizzly Flats grapple with lack of clean drinking water
In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 8, 2021, FEMA denied the state’s request for individual assistance. The agency stated “the impact to…
Read More: Caldor Fire survivors make plea to Biden for federal aid