Inland fire recovery: MendocinoROC issues Year Two Report
More than $4 million distributed so far
Two years since the 2017 Redwood Complex Fire, Mendocino-ROC continues to work with fire survivors to help them get back home. This year our efforts have primarily focused on rebuilding, while also remaining aware of emotional wellness and other recovery needs.
To date, MendocinoROC has distributed over $4 million to help those affected by the October 2017 Redwood Complex Fire and 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire. Of this amount, over half has gone toward long-term housing in gap funding grants to buy or rebuild a home.
The year has also brought new partnerships, most notably a dedicated group of volunteers from Mennonite Disaster Services ( MDS). Joining us from throughout North America, a total of 67 MDS volunteers have come for one to six weeks at a time to help build homes for fire survivors. They have framed up four homes in the past three months.
Our other construction partners, Rebuilding Now and Hope City, along with Mendocino County Construction Corp ( MCCC), have completed three homes this past year, and have three more currently under construction. Shortly after MDS leaves in March, we hope to have a total of 10 homes built for our fire survivors.
Over the summer we held the second Camp Noah for children impacted by the fires, welcoming 40 children for a week-long resiliency camp.
To mark the second anniversary of the Redwood Complex Fire, we collaborated with Mendocino College’s Phoenix Project to host a community wellness dinner for those impacted by the fire. With 160 people in attendance, the evening was a heartwarming opportunity for volunteers and survivors to connect as a community and share in their collective triumph over the adversity of the past two years.
By working collaboratively, we have been fortunate to touch most survivors in their recovery efforts, maximizing our collective resources for broad impact. With roughly $500,000 remaining, right now it is our intention to get as many people home as possible by October 2020.
We thank our partners, our community, and the many volunteers who have made an impact in our recovery efforts. We hope our third year of recovery will get everyone home!
To learn more about the work we have achieved over the past two years, please review our brief Year Two Report.
To learn more about the Community Foundation of Mendocino County’s recovery efforts, visit https://www.communityfound.org/
Megan Barber Allende is CEO/president of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County.