Residents working to make area safer

about 160 acres of the Northwest Austin neighborhood.

Seventeen homes in the development, located near Lake Travis about 20 miles from downtown, have been rebuilt or are under construction, with about half of the original owners returning, said Scott Selman, executive director of the Steiner Ranch Community Asso- ciations.

With the memory of the devastating fires largely faded, what now remains, for many, is gratitude and reflection for the bond it created.

“One of the things that came from this is how much we’re reminded that crises bring people together,” said the Rev. Mike Wyckoff, senior pastor of nearby St. Luke’s on the Lake Episcopal Church and a Steiner Ranch resident for the past eight years. “It was palpable that people in neighborhoods became closer to each other, how the community rallied. Like a lot of events that happen in communities across America, there is always a blessing out of the danger or the crisis or the tragedy. It’s a reminder that we really need each other.”

Months after the fires, Steiner Ranch neighbors mobilized to try to make the neighborhood of about 3,900 homes safer from future wildfire threats. With parts of Steiner Ranch backing into a preserve area, many homes remain vulnerable. They created a Firewise Committee, part of a program that provides homeowners with tips and an action plan to protect their yards and their homes’ exteriors. They cleared overgrown brush and debris from the greenbelt.

“The feeling now is there is a lot we can do to prevent another disaster like that from occurring,” said Nathasha Collmann, a Steiner resident and the chairwoman of the Firewise Committee. “We want to continue to do what we can to make it a safer place to live.”

Although many neighbors returned to their homes, some opted to move away.

After the fires, the Gonzales family found a nearby home to rent until their daughter Lauren finished at Vandegrift High School. Once she graduated, the family moved to a home in Southwest Austin.

“There was a lot of stress,” said Lauren Gonzales, now 18. “The thought of it still makes us sad. I don’t think it’s something we can completely get over.”

The Leander school district, home to Vandegrift and other schools with families impacted by the fires, pooled resources to help the Gonzales family and others. And their work isn’t done yet, school officials say.

Counselors met with the students individually for weeks. Teachers worked with them to make up homework and get school supplies and replacement textbooks.

“We’re going to continue to do what we’ve done since the fires, which is to take care of those individual families as need be,” said Superintendent Bret Champion. “We worked very closely with families to get their basic needs met, as well as educational needs, because without the first, you can’t do the second.”

That support brought healing and the ability to move on.

“We pretty much adjusted,” said Gonzales, who is enrolled at Austin Community College. “When something like that happens, the only way you can get through it is to move forward.”

The Hardt family pushed forward, too, but did so in their place of familiarity.

From her balcony at the new home, Hardt is again seeing the sunsets from the spot she loved to frequent. When she walks the dog, she passes many of the same neighbors.

“I feel a lot better being back in our home again,” Hardt said. “I’m a lot better than I thought I would be this soon.”