LAST DAYS

10-23-2017

Today was another interesting day. I have been on the Coffey Park route for 3 days, and today we got transferred to another route. Partially because we just need to rotate and take our turn at seeing the bigger picture of as many fire areas as we can, but because we wanted to as well. The place we went to today was an apartment complex, which is primarily housed by migrant workers, that are now out of jobs, because their bosses/employers lost houses, farms, vineyards, or whatever the case me be. It’s a secondary effect of the fires. 

We had some left over food from this feeding, and was able to take it to the homeless living under a bridge in the area. 

Some of the homeless are now due to their houses being burned down, rather than the traditional homeless we may thing of otherwise. I attached some photos of the bridge area.

On the way home today, we saw  great sunset, so thought I would end my blog with something positive.

10-24-2017

Today was my daughter Ashley’s birthday, so I made time to call her. We don’t have a lot of time to do much techy stuff, and we work 12-16 hour days. Most of my blogging is done late at night here. We were back on the Coffey Park route today. Actually, the folks in this area are starting to dwindle. Once residents come back in and sift through the ashes, and get with their insurance agent, there isn’t a big reason to come back again, unless they are helping a neighbor or friend. Tomorrow the 25^th will be our last run to this area. The cities are talking about just coming into these areas with contracted commercial cleanup crews, bulldoze and remove, then put 4” of dirt down, then the rebuilding can start. It will take years of course, and not everyone will rebuild here, so it will be a long workout situation.

I was able to visit with the California Fire fighters directly today, (front line folks) , and they said that as of today, all of the remaining fires are contained, but some are still burning, but not out of control.

In light of that, our entire operating is preparing to phase down and out too. This Friday or Saturday may be the end of the assignment/project for Red Cross in these areas. I have attached a map of the counties we were in, in this part of the state.

 I also attached a photo of my current ERV driving mate, 
and the director of our site we have been working at for 2 weeks.

For me, by Thursday (26^th), I will have put in 3 weeks without a day off. Since the operation is preparing to phase out anyway, I have been given the opportunity to have two free days at the end of my assignment, and then they will fly me home.  I plan of going to the beach on Thursday with a car load of other Red Cross workers that have the same day off. One of those workers has access to a car, so we will use that for the 16 mile trip to the beach. It is called Bodega Bay, and it is on US highway #1, that is the coast road from San Diego, to Seattle. We will be on a sliver of it, so plan to take a swim suit and get in the cold water, as its been hot here (record high today), and sight see, and eat something other than Red Cross food.  LOL

My second day (Friday) I will be by myself, and I will be taking a shuttle to the San Francisco airport (donated by a local company doing this for free for Red Cross workers). It takes about 1.75 hours to get from here to the airport. Once at the airport on Friday, I will leave my luggage at the hotel I am staying at nearby, then take the commuter train to downtown San Francisco, and ride the cable cars for a day. Then I will fly out early Saturday morning and get to Omaha by about 5:00 pm, then drive home to Columbus.

I the big picture, it was a great experience, and will probably be doing more of these in the future, maybe 1 or 2 a year. But it will be good to get home, it’s been a long journey and I am exhausted physically and mentally.

Signing off, and to all a good night.

John A. Novotny