Since our official inception,
we have been able to accomplish the following:
·
Produced 6 printed newsletters and a variety of post card
meeting reminders, mailed to every fire survivor in the
San Bernardino
Valley.
·
Organized over 30 workshops on a variety of subjects
including:
o
Insurance
o
Mechanics Liens
o
Working with Contractors
o
Legal Clinics
o
Tax Workshop
o
Debris Flow Q&A
o
Interior Design Basics
o
Using a construction bidding service
o
Getting a permit
·
Made contact with government officials in various
departments (such as in the Mayor’s office, the building department, the tax
assessor and code compliance) to help survivors through problems they might run
into.
·
Worked with other organizations such as the ASID to create
survivor information workshops outside of our own workshops.
·
Worked with State elected officials as follows:
o
Testified in a hearing in front of the Insurance
Commissioner.
o
Testified in a hearing in front of the State Senate
Insurance Committee.
o
Worked with a local State Senator to help craft legislation
for future disaster survivors.
·
Taken phone calls and met one on one with many survivors to
try to help them with their various disaster recovery issues.
·
Meet with other non-profit organizations in the local VOAD
to help create a better response to the next disaster.
·
Find a Spanish language translator to help Spanish Speaking
survivors.
·
Kept up a website with the resources we have collected
throughout the recovery process.
·
Create weekly email updates with up to the minute disaster
recovery information.
In
addition, the city will be recognizing the Old Fire Recovery Group in a city
council meeting in the beginning of August, 2005.
Although the Old Fire Recovery
Group is officially coming to an end, through the two year anniversary I will do
the following on a voluntary basis:
·
Update our website.
·
Create email updates as we continue to gather
information.
·
Keep our voicemail active.
·
We will meet once a month in a more casual, social setting
where fire survivors can celebrate the past two year’s accomplishments.
This year has been a fascinating
journey for me, but it is now coming to an end. I look forward to using the knowledge I
have gained to help future disaster survivors. Since we started 9 months after the fire,
we were already pushing our limits; it would’ve been much easier to burn out
months ago on a volunteer budget. We want to thank Community Partners and the
California Foundation for making this past year possible.
Lila Hayes
Coordinator
Old
Fire Recovery Group
---
2. Dealing with Stress after
a disaster
---
In my research, this week I found many links to
articles and studies on dealing with stress after a disaster. You can find
the results of my research on our website at www.oldfirerecoverygroup.org then
click on "Resources" then "Stress Relief"
---
3. Date of City Council
Proclamation might change
---
To accommodate some people who want to come to the city
council meeting in which the Old Fire Recovery Group will be presented with a
proclamation of thanks by the city, we are in the process of reviewing the dates
of future meetings to determine which will best accommodate everyone's
schedule. If you were wanting to be at the meeting, please stay tuned to
find out the results!
---
4. Book Review: I Can't Get
over It: A Handbook for Trauma Survivors
---
In the past I have included reviews of insurance books
I have personally read and reviewed. I have NOT read the above named
book, but out of the 16 people who reviewed it on Amazon.com, all 16 gave it 5
stars. In this issue I am going to use, verbatim, a review from a reader
of this book from Amazon.com's website. You can find this book HERE
or at:
I actually did purchase this book today. I found
it on eBay for less than $4 plus $3 shipping. If you have not used eBay in
the past, please learn about it before jumping in!
This is the best self-help book on the topic of trauma
recovery. I have used this book with literally hundreds of patients who have
experienced severe trauma -- and have yet to find a better single reference. The
author guides you (and your therapist, if you have one) step by step through the
entire process of recovery. She takes a psychoeducational approach through out.
This approach helps to create necessary cognitive frameworks that trauma
survivors desperately need in order to begin to make sense of the strange
experiences they are often frightened to share with others. The careful building
of these frameworks buffer the survivor against overwhelming emotions and
feelings of helplessness. The author includes exercises for each phase of
recovery, helps you with pacing and timing, and most of all, normalizes the
subjective experience of the survivor. One of the most important things she
articulates is the phenomenon of "secondary victimization." In brief, secondary
victimization results from the well-meaning but damaging responses of your
friends and loved ones to your trauma. Often, these ignorant reactions amplify
the original trauma and complicate, or completely prohibit, healing. Her
description of the biological reaction to traumatic incidents is priceless. Many
fail to connect the many possible negative physical reactions to trauma with the
traumatic experience itself. Because the physical symptoms sometimes occur weeks
or even months after the event, people fail to see them as connected to the
trauma. They often see them as isolated entities, adding to the feelings of
craziness and being out of control. Just understanding how trauma can affect us
biologically (sometimes permanently) lessens the pain and confusion of those
reactions and can help the survivor reduce feelings of weakness and self-blame.
This enables a person to begin to design effective strategies to address these
symptoms. One of the other strengths of this book the inclusion of various kinds
of trauma -- from childhood sexual abuse to military terror to auto accidents.
This normalization of the survivor's reaction across domains of trauma helps to
de-emphasize the event and to refocus the individual on moving through the
sequel to complete healing. Healing is truly possible. This book is a wonderful
tool.
---
In The News
---
1. New
beginnings, same deadly threat
More than 2,500
building permits issued in fire-risk regions
01:45 AM PDT on
Sunday, July 17, 2005
By JIM MILLER and BEN
GOAD / The Press-Enterprise
In the 18 months after the firestorms
of 2003, Inland cities and counties issued permits for more than 2,500 homes in
areas the state identifies as facing "very high" or "extreme" fire danger, The
Press-Enterprise has found.
--
2. Wildfires: We can stop the destruction
10:40
PM PDT on Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By THOMAS M.
BONNICKSEN
The annual cycle of destruction
from wildfires has begun to plague Californians again in 2005. More than 1,000
counselors and children at summer camps in the San Bernardino Mountains were
evacuated July 5 when a wildfire approached their cabins.
We know where wildfires will
burn. We know why fires become catastrophic. We even know how to prevent them.
What we lack is the will to do what's right and necessary.
--
3. Protection at a premium
INSURANCE: Critics say it's not just those who live in
fire-risk areas who pay the price.
01:44 AM PDT on Sunday, July 17, 2005
By JIM MILLER and BEN GOAD
/ The Press Enterprise
Buying a home in a
fire-prone area is one thing. Insuring it against fire losses is another.
Insurance companies paid
out more than $2 billion to settle about 19,000 claims following the 2003
firestorms. Afterward, some companies refused to renew policies in wildland
areas.
Today, though, insurance
is readily available for homes in Inland areas the state considers to be at a
"very high" or "extreme" risk of fire. But it's going to cost more, experts say,
with more homeowners in fire-prone areas having to turn to the state-sponsored
insurer of last resort or to carriers who write high-risk policies, such as
Lloyd's of London.
--
4. The Place Once Called
Home
Laguna Beach residents face the June landslide's long-term effects as
they grapple with where to live and how to rebuild with little outside
aid.
July 11, 2005
By Roy Rivenburg and Sara Lin, LA Times
Staff Writers
When the news copters were hovering
overhead and strangers were handing out $100 checks, it was easier for Lori
Herek and her Bluebird Canyon neighbors to feel optimistic about recovering from
Laguna Beach's June 1 landslide.
More than five weeks later, though,
reality is setting in. Mortgage payments are due on destroyed houses. American
Red Cross assistance has run out. The welcome mat is wearing thin with friends
who have provided temporary shelter. And federal or state aid is
doubtful.
--
5. Where there's brush
...
This year's higher-than-normal fire danger keeps hillside
homeowners on their guard.
July 10, 2005
By Jennifer Lisle, Special
to The LA Times
Anthony Bowles and his wife, Judy, built a house on top of Kite Hill in
Mount Washington in 1997 because they fell in love with the view from downtown
Los Angeles to Catalina and Rancho Palos Verdes.
But on May 19, Bowles couldn't see anything from his windows because of
thick smoke from a nearby brush fire. He went outside to see flames raging
toward his house.
--
6. But it has a view
July 17, 2005
LA
Times
Disasters are no deterrent where the market is hot and memories are
short.
Bluebird CANYON residents Robert Cassard and Bara Waters sympathized with
neighbors a few blocks away who lost their homes last month in the Laguna Beach
landslide. But the disaster that destroyed or damaged 18 homes just days after
the couple opened escrow on their four-bedroom house may as well have been in
another county for the lack of slide-related fallout the sellers have
faced.
---
On The
Web
---
1.
riskinformation.com
The author of this website
was quoted in article 3 above. I found his statement about underinsurance
intriguing so I found his website and thought I'd include it
here.
2. Two
Year Later: The Prolonged Traumatic Impact of a Fire Disaster by Viola Mecke
Abstract
The Pebble Beach fire of 1987 destroyed 30 homes. Eighteen months after the
fire, ten adults, whose homes and belongings were destroyed, were administered
the Rorschach Test and the SCL-90-R Test. Comparison with the means of the
normative groups for each test yielded significant results above the p < .01
level. The long term traumatic impact on the personalities was clearly reflected
by interferences in thought processes, perceptual distortions and depressive
reactions, inter alia.
3. A Year Ago Today: The Psychology of a
Disaster's Anniversary by Lennis G. Echterling
Abstract
This article describes the concerns of survivors
one year after the November, 1985, flood in Virginia, and the efforts to help
them prepare for, and cope with, the flood's anniversary. In follow-up
interviews with 103 households with significant flood losses, it was found that
many survivors had, in addition to post-traumatic stress symptoms, certain
common concerns regarding the anniversary of the flood. Program interventions
included outreach crisis counseling, support group activities, and consultation
and education. By helping survivors use the disaster's anniversary in a
productive and positive manner, mental health workers can reinforce the healthy
resolution to a traumatic experience.
4. The Anniversary of the Disaster: Mental
Health Issues and Interventions
Even people who have rebuilt their homes or found
new dwellings to rent frequently feel a sense of loss at the anniversary. One
fire survivor explained that their new home resembled the one they lost.
However, they would still go to certain parts of the house, expecting to find
what was there before. At the anniversary of the fire, they particularly thought
back on what was gone.
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