RECOVERY PROCESS ONLY JUST BEGINNING
In the days immediately after the Marshall Fire tore through eastern Boulder County, the county and various nonprofit partners jumped into action.
They coordinated the Disaster Assistance Center, where people could receive everything from mental health support to food, emergency lodging and help navigating the insurance process.
At the same time, the Community Foundation Boulder County quickly set up a wildfire fund and provided direct cash assistance, with few strings attached, for those in need.
For those who lost everything in the state’s most destructive fire, such as Louisville resident Makia Minich, this was a lifeline.
“In those early moments of recovery, it was helpful and needed just to help us move a bit more forward,” Minich said.
But considering the Marshall Fire’s six month mark has come and gone, some community members are growing frustrated with the uncertainty of the recovery process and worried about how long it might take.
“But in all of this, money is an ongoing issue for everyone involved,” Minich said. “We’re all finding out that rebuilding is an expensive task, with many either being underinsured or … still unsure (of) the actual funds I have for rebuilding as the insurance process drags on.”
Since opening in the days after the Dec. 30 Marshall Fire, the Boulder County Wildfire Fund has raised $40.8 million from some 78,000 donors.
It’s dispersed just under a quarter of that, with about $8.5 million being used for direct cash assistance for fire-affected community members in need of immediate assistance.
Boulder County and the Community Foundation pooled the $1.4 million to hire recovery navigators, who will provide disaster case management services.
Right now, recovery navigation has begun in an outgoing way only, according to Boulder County Assistant Recovery Manager Katie Arrington. That means navigators are making calls to people, but people are not yet able to proactively contact navigators.
That begins the week of July 25, when recovery navigators will have completed training and begin offering availability for appointments for those in need of anything from a quick informational conversation to more extensive, ongoing support through the rebuilding process.
Recovery navigators ask questions and conduct an eligibility screening to determine whether people qualify for the up to $20 million being provided by the Community Foundation for rebuilding or the $2.5 million designated for unmet basic needs.
Hiring a third party to conduct this work is typical, Arrington noted. Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains is one of the entities leading recovery navigation.
But beyond that, “we felt it was a better serving of the public’s needs,” Arrington said.
Some people would prefer to work with a community group rather than a government employee and the nonprofits conducting the work have experience and training in doing it, unlike the county.
For those involved in almost every aspect of disaster recovery, every coordinated disaster response is a lesson.
One thing gleaned from the Marshall Fire response is the need for a coordinated disaster case management system, Community Foundation CEO Tatiana Hernandez noted.
“Because each disaster is unique, understanding what the challenges are of a particular disaster are critical in providing support in a way that is beneficial to that particular event and to folks who experience that particular event,” Hernandez said.
“Having information that allows us to understand where the need is is critical,” she said. “It’s fundamental.”
For example, it’s far easier to look and tally a home as a complete loss but much more challenging to understand what’s going inside the home. Do six people live there or two? Are the residents elderly or do they have small children?
“Not only are their needs different, but their risk factors in terms of helping to ensure that they stay within our community are different,” Hernandez said. “And the domino effects of one of those households leaving are different.”
As the Community Foundation has worked with Boulder County to coordinate support for recovery navigation, in which millions of dollars will be distributed to those in need, Hernandez said they’ve kept a focus on finding the “human-centered way of going about disaster recovery.”
The organization also has looked for ways to centralize information, services and support when possible.
“People have enough to deal with,” Hernandez said.
Considering her home was damaged by smoke from the fire but not a total loss, Louisville resident Amy Mitchell feels lucky. She still has her children’s baby photos and her grandmother’s hand embroidered tablecloths.
“Our pain is becoming more manageable, while the stresses of those rebuilding will last for years,” Mitchell said.
However, she’s been struck in many instances by how bureaucratic the recovery process has felt.
“The lack of communication, the lack of compassion is really what’s coming through to people,” she said.
Similarly, Minich noted that she felt hopeful after a Community Foundation meeting in early May, but has since felt in the dark about the process and the timeline for recovery navigation.
“This is where many of us are at, waiting to hear more,” she said.
Arrington acknowledged that recovery often cannot come fast enough, particularly for those directly affected by a disaster.
With each disaster a community experiences, the goal is to shorten the time from the end of immediate disaster assistance to recovery navigation, she noted.
Typically, it takes a year to get recovery navigation up and running, but in Boulder County, it will be available within eight months, Arrington said.
“It may seem slow, but it’s faster than normal,” she said.
“It’s not that nothing has been happening in the background,” Arrington added. “It’s just been a band aid solution for urgent cases with the holistic solution being launched (in the coming weeks).”