Returning residents face altered lives, communities

The Associated Press

PETALUMA, CALIF.» Some have lost loved ones. Many have survived near-death experiences. Others have lost their homes and a lifetime of possessions.

A week after fleeing raging wildfires, tens of thousands of emotionally ravaged Californians have drifted back home to find their lives and their communities dramatically altered.

At a Red Cross shelter in Petaluma on Tuesday, 69-year-old Sue Wortman recalled the words that raced through her mind when she fled the flames near her home in Sonoma.

“We’re all going up in smoke,” she thought at the time. Since then, she has been walking around in a daze.

Firefighters gained more control Tuesday of the massive wine country wildfires, even as other blazes erupted in mountains near Los Angeles and Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, officials and trauma experts worried about the emotional toll taken by the grueling week of major blazes.

The fires that swept through parts of seven counties were the deadliest and most destructive series of blazes in California history. At least 41 people were killed and 6,000 homes destroyed.

An estimated 100,000 people were evacuated at the height of the fires, and about 34,000 remain under evacuation. Many have yet to find out if their homes are still standing.

“There’s still a lot of shock and numbness when you’re in the middle of it. You’re in the high-gear of trying to cope,” said Peggy LednerSpaulding, head of outpatient behavior health services at St Joseph’s hospital in Santa Rosa, one of the cities hardest hit by the fires.

It’s common for survivors to feel a range of emotions — sadness, anger, irritability — and to suffer flashbacks or nightmares while having trouble sleeping, especially in a shelter surrounded by strangers.

Evacuees were advised to pace their exposure to news and media, which provide information that can reduce anxiety but also become overwhelming. Talking and debriefing is helpful, and parents should encourage children to talk and express their fears, LednerSpaulding said.

Lynn Bufka, a psychologist and an associate executive director at the Washington, D.C.-based American Psychological Association, said a sense of community can help with healing and recovery but that isn’t possible in some neighborhoods that vanished into ashes.

“The sense of community has burned to the ground as well,” Bufka said.

She advised evacuees to focus on the positives of what is left — family, friends, health. But as with war veterans, the symptoms of trauma or depression sometimes don’t surface for months or years, she said.

Even those who were able to return to their homes endured difficult emotions.

“All the trivial things we have to work on — cleaning up, replacing the stuff in the fridge and freezer — that’s nothing compared to my friends who lost their homes,” resident Tom Beckman said.