Page 19 - Sonoma County Gazette 11-17

Miracles in the Ashes
Here’s a way to help.
By David Rupert
Sifting through the ash wasn’t pleasant. The smell of scorched earth
permeated everything. It was dirty, the soot of incinerated dreams was everywhere. And it was sad beyond emotion. But helping her friend dig in this ashen wasteland of a burned home changed her life.
My friend, Carina, lived in a home that was threatened by the Angora Fire, an aggressive mountain blaze at Lake Tahoe that ten years ago took out 242 residences and 67 commercial structures, and damaged 35 other homes. Every other home around Carina’s was destroyed. She stood with her next-door neighbor, gazing at her still-standing replace.
impacting the rich. Thousands of middle class and poor people are a ected, as well as scores of immigrant workers.
Let’s look at a couple of facts:
• More than 40 are con rmed dead. Another 68 are unaccounted for. • More than 182,000 acres have burned.
• More than 5700 homes and buildings have burned.
barons. These are your grandparents, your neighbors, your friends.
Although Carina’s home was still standing, she and her husband Scott went to work.
Scott, a cabinet maker, fashioned
a couple of frames and put a heavy- duty screen in the middle. Carina and friends scooped up the ash looking for any fragments from the homes that were spared.
Just a few weeks later, the perennials began popping their heads up through the soil, pushing away the blackened stems with new life. “It was like miracles in the ashes,” said Carina.
The California Fires are poorly named. Someone dubbed them the Wine Country Fires, making the disaster sound like it only a ects the aristocrat, employing the same kind of emotion that a Wall Street Flood or a Malibu Earthquake or a Manhattan Tornado might. But this isn’t just
Searchers are still nding victims of the re. One man was identi ed only through the serial number on his hip replacement. These are not wealthy wine
Here’s what you can do.
Compassion doesn’t depend on anyone else. So around here we don’t talk about disaster zones, government response or anything else. We will just do.
Carina is headed into the area, armed with 10 screens that her husband and her constructed. She’s going to help people in any way possible. She wants
to help stranger dig out their ashes. Or help The Red Cross sort donations, so the victims can come nd needed items easily, or help with caring and feeding homeless and orphaned animals.
There’ something beautiful about helping someone dig through the ashes of their life, to help them nd some identity of who they are. And to stand side by side with a friend – or a stranger – in this moment can be powerful.
I’m talking about res. But it applies to every other disaster in life too. We rush in when others are hurting.
Carina has inspired me to do the same. And I hope it will inspire you too.
The burned-out areas in California are closed to even residents. And it will be a few days before they can get in. The National Guard will be watching out for looters, so we can’t just march in with our screens and face masks. We’re working out the details of the assistance and I’m convinced we’ll have those smoothed out soon.
Please consider helping. If you want to join in this #MiraclesInTheAshes Brigade send me a note here - david@davidrupert.net - and we’ll enlist you in the e ort. Many hands make light work.
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