My town is gone.
If youāve been watching the noise and paying attention to California, youāve heard about the Camp Fire.
In a matter of hours, the fire jumped to 20,000 acres. This morning it reached 70,000. My town of Paradise, where Iāve lived my entire life, was consumed entirely. Very little containment has been reached and the situation is absolute hell.
My house was one of the first to go.
My mom and my sisters and I barely got out, in separate cars, and we got separated for 10 hours. My mom and little sister were stuck in Paradise with all my pets in the flames until my stepdad was able to get gas to them so they could get out. My cat was lost, and I personally was only able to grab an extremely small amount of my own belongings because I was helping my mom to grab important documents and photos and to get the pets situated.
We are now homeless, with no clue where to go from here, and desperately in need of help to get food, clothes, supplies, anything. My mom has been disabled for 3 years and we survive on a single income from my stepdad, who is a firefighter. His friends have been hurt trying to fight this. We have a dog with us, and two guinea pigs, and a bearded dragon.
My mom set up a fundraiser, even though we are not at all the type to ask for so much help.
Cal Fire Family We lost our home in the Paradise Camp Fire yesterday. We didn't get to grab necessary items or clothing. We are lucky to be
āļø Thatās the last image of our house that I took this morning. It is now ashes and rubble.
If you can donate, it would mean the world to us, to help us get back on our feet. If you canāt, please share. Anything helps no matter how small.
Is this how itās going to be, individual families with go-fund-meās? When Fort McMurray burned down in 2016, millions and millions of people gave to the Canadian Red Cross, who have spent the last two years dispensing that money to fire victims. (I mean, the process wasnāt flawless, but I think it was a net good.)
Iāve heard the US Red Cross is shit, but is there no central body organizing help for these people, so that the rest of us can give money in confidence that itās going to help them?
Honestly no there is not. The American red cross has been known to squander funds and especially donations from people who want to help. There are news reports of food donations to Puerto Rico having been thrown out by the red cross and crates and crates of water sitting left behind and never getting to the people who needed it.
Red Cross donations are incredibly difficult to receive and only cover small small things like food and water. There isnāt much substantial and you have to go through lots of paperwork and hoops in order to gain benefits. FEMA canāt even do much yet because they havenāt been given the green light from the federal government, despite the fact that almost all of this land is federal forest land. Trump has blamed the āmismanagement of the forest industryā for the fire, despite the fact that since this is federal land, Trump is the management. He has threatened to pull federal funding. The state is largely on its own.
Direct donation is the only way to ensure that your donation can help out and for people like my family who have been affected to make use of donations. We havent even heard from our insurance yet, and PG+E is going to raise all of our rates and make us pay for the fire that they caused that we lost everything in.
I want to reiterate how grateful I am for everyones support. Whether its donating, sending information, offering nearby help, spreading the word or even just acknowledging the crisis - you are saving my families lives. We were able to go to Costco and get warm clothing and blankets, and weāve been able to eat every day so far, and we are taking steps in order to figure out the best course of action.
Our GoFundMe has nearly reached its goal in such a short time, and if you can, please continue to spread the word and donate - 5000$ is an amazing boost but it is not the magic number that will fix everything. GoFundMe also takes a percentage of donations, but itās our only option.
My PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/capessere
If you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask. I know that information can be muddled but having been directly affected by it I know quite a bit about the fire itself, shelters, and services. If you cannot donate to the GoFundMe but have PayPal or Venmo or Cashapp or anything else, I will list my accounts below. Two people have donated ten dollars each today which is almost enough to get a good lamp for my bearded dragon so his situation can begin to improve.
My PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/capessere
My Sisterās PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/Alyssa13527
My Venmo: @RyanāS (two dashes)
My Cashapp: $capessere
Thank you, people of tumblr. You are saving our lives.
