Sheriff, County administrator explain two phases of clean-up process for burned properties
By Debra Moore
Public comment was vocal and emotional during the Plumas County Board of Supervisors meeting Aug. 17. Those who lost their homes or still had their homes but remained evacuated, wanted to know when they could visit their homesites and when more help would arrive.
Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns, who is responsible for arranging access and allowing repopulation, explained why it will take a while.
“At this time there is a process for folks,” Johns said. He added that he would like to be able to allow people to repopulate, but he can’t.
Johns said his own family has been evacuated for almost 30 days, and he hasn’t given them a pass to visit the property. “The issue becomes infrastructure and safety,” he said. For example, he knows that a lot of residences are still standing, but they are on the water system that has been damaged. “I can’t even begin to tell them the hazards around,” he said.
Johns explained that state personnel are preparing for Phase 1 of the clean-up process, where they go out to the communities and remove environmental hazards.
Phase two is the actual debris clean up. County Administrator Gabriel Hydrick said that property owners have two options – the state will come in and do the entire cleanup or homeowners can hire their own company through their insurance and on their own dime. “There are pros and cons to each,” he said, and he suggested that people discuss the options with their insurance companies. For instance, a cleanup could cost as much as $100,000 and some insurance policies have limits that are less than that amount.
And he warns against people undertaking the cleanup themselves. “If someone says I have a backhoe and I am going to clean it up myself, you are not going to do that. No dump will take that material because it could be hazardous.”
As for people trying to find valuables on their property, they are warned that they need to be careful not to disturb the site, or it could result in homeowners paying the entire tab themselves.
Johns said that the county would be bringing “in folks from OES (Office of Emergency Services). “There will be an opportunity for people to look in their structure,” he said before the site is cleared.
Johns said that a structure group is coming up from OES as well to “identify areas where we can bring in housing for folks.” They will begin by looking for space to put trailers. If Greenville isn’t a practical area, they also would be looking at Chester and Quincy to locate people.
As for the pace of the cleanup effort and recovery, Johns said that it might seem slow, but the county is actually proceeding very quickly. He said that it’s possible that it will be completed by the beginning of the new year, which is quite fast. He said that it took a couple of years to clean up Paradise and work is still being done.
When asked about FEMA coming in, Todd said he was working with other counties to asses the damage level. FEMA has a dollar threshold for disasters, and he is hopeful that the combined losses would qualify, but if not there would be state funding available.
Johns said that his staff has been working nonstop and that he has amassed “well over $200,000 in overtime.” He is hoping to get a loan from the state to cover the costs until disaster relief is available.
Johns also announced that he would be pushing to open areas within burn scars that are livable if residents can provide their own infrastructure. “For folks like Indian Falls it’s easier,” he said. “They have their own water, their own sewer.”
Johns also addressed the many organizations that want to help and he asked that they call 336-9988 to coordinate the effort.
