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Camp fire quickmap12/18/2023 Like a lot of Paradise area residents, Waller was drawn here by the beauty and quiet and the slower pace than her longtime home in the Los Angeles area. "In that strong of a fire, there's nothing you're going to do about that." "I know folks that had the cement siding, all of that, their house burnt to the ground," Waller says. Yet Waller's not sure anything can really be done to prevent another fire on the scale and intensity as last year's. There is also overgrown brush everywhere. Nearby those lines, there's a mobile home with a layer of pine needles and duff several inches thick on its roof. "If there were another fire, how would anybody know at say two o'clock in the morning," Waller says. Magalia resident Tammy Waller says it's unbelievable that even after the deadliest wildfire in California history was ignited by PG&E's faulty equipment, there are still power lines in her neighborhood perilously close to dense strands of trees and brush.Įveryone's cable, Internet and cell phones went dark for the most part. The population went from about 26,000 to an estimated 3,000 today. and a metropolitan area and of course we should rebuild, but because we're a small town in the mountains we shouldn't," Jones asks. "So what is the difference, is it because it's in L.A. In her view, no one in Southern California seems to raise the question about rebuilding in high risk zones after fires like the recent Getty Fire in Los Angeles that forced thousands to evacuate. Should towns like this built into dense overgrown dry forests where the homes themselves become ignition sources, be rebuilt in an era of climate change? Some people died while trying to evacuate in the gridlock.īut is all this enough? The Camp Fire continues to prompt some tough questions. They're also looking to reconfigure some streets for better escape routes. That includes no more wood decks or fences and expanded setbacks between homes and flammable material. Jones says the town has passed some new, tougher building codes. National Rethinking Disaster Recovery After A California Town Is Leveled By Wildfire Or they just don't ever want to live in Paradise again because of all the horror they experienced that day. In search of cheaper housing, survivors have moved to states like Oregon, Idaho and Texas. There was already a housing shortage - especially an affordable housing shortage - in rural Butte County before the fire. Many of Gorley's friends have moved out of state. "As to when it will get back to where it's half the population, I don't know." "It'll come back, it'll just be a slow grow," Gorley says. 8, for the 85 lives lost in the wildfire.ĭespite the trauma, Gorley says he never doubted that his hometown would recover. In Paradise, Calif., several memorials and commemorations were planned marking the anniversary through the weekend, including 85 seconds of silence at 11:08 a.m. But for him at least, talking about it and being open as the anniversary approached has helped. Like most who survived the historic wildfire, Gorley remembers it all that terrifying morning - the exploding propane tanks, the snapping of burnt tree limbs, that moment he thought he might die during a chaotic evacuation. National Water Uncertainty Frustrates Victims Of California's Worst Wildfire
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