I highly suggest that if you have the time… shoot a letter and some information to all of your elected officials (beyond the county).

*BELOW* is the letter I sent today.

Who to write?

Contact Governor Jerry Brown: https://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php

Find your CA Representatives: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Contact US Senator Boxer: https://www.boxer.senate.gov/contact/shareyourviews.html

Contact US Senator Feinstein: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Find your US Representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Dear Governor Brown,

My parents and I moved to Mountain Ranch, CA in 1990, when I was two years old. On September 10, 2015, the Butte Fire finally crested our ridge and took out nearly everything in sight.

I currently reside in Sacramento, however my parents still lived in this home. They are now two out of thousands who lost everything they’ve ever had. This is a very large percentage of newly homeless individuals in such a rural area. Many people did not have much time to prepare, and were unable to save many (if any) items. Thankfully, my parents were insured and have always planned well. However, others have not been as fortunate.

Most recently, I heard of over 60 families who are still out living on their land in tents or other makeshift “shelters”. The majority of these individuals are seniors, and temperatures are currently dropping below freezing overnight.

My hometown was nearly completely wiped off the map, I truly wish I was exaggerating. Too many people that I’ve known my entire life have lost everything. Since the fire, there have also been murders, suicides, looting, and the untimely passing of our Sheriff. It’s currently two months since the fire, and these people have been through enough.

From day one, the grassroots efforts from our community, and surrounding communities in California have carried this disaster relief effort. Yes, there are government agencies involved, but their accomplishments at this time pale in comparison to what I, and hundreds of other individuals have done in this time of need. Many volunteers abandoned their usual lives, jobs, and families to drop everything without question and lend a hand. These volunteers included residents who were victims of the fire themselves and lost everything. The never ending hard work, selflessness, and generosity of every involved individual is amazing. This speaks wonders of our community and neighbors.

However, we cannot continue to do this alone. More needs to be done, more is not being done. We are only so many people, we only have so much time, we only have so many resources, we only have so much strength, we only have so much sanity. We need help. We need the help of entities that can handle things on a larger scale than a few hundred exhausted volunteers and citizens. All of our local entities are doing everything they can to try and help. We need more help than this.

We understand, that as a county, we are not a wealthy area. We resist big business and other ventures. We like to live rural, and thrive on tourism. This however, does not mean, that these Californians deserve any less action, help, or attention. We are also aware there are many other disasters requiring attention and resources in our Great State. But, we need help too.

I wish I had amazing suggestions on how to fix this, or the answer to all our needs, and the perfect solutions for my community. That being said, my brain power and ideas ran out a few weeks ago after endless days of work on this fire. I’d dare to say this is the case with the majority of the individuals working on this endeavour. We need help. I can however, offer my assistance in helping shed light on what our community is going through. I also would be more than thrilled to connect anyone from your office with our local Supervisors and leaders in the community to see what can be done to help resolve the issues these people are facing.

There are many still suffering and homeless. The elements are on their way with the turn of the seasons. This will only get worse. This is ‪#‎ButteFireReality‬. We need help.

Sincerely,
Katie Clark