I participated in a meeting this afternoon held at the Salvation Army in downtown San Diego. A group of volunteer organizations got together to take inventory of what resources were available. We turned out to be the only ones with heavy equipment and connected with a man by the name of Don Hargis, Director of the CA Southern Baptist Convention.
Don was excited about the heavy equipment we brought from NY. He explained that he heard about an Indian reservation called La Jolla that was in need of help and asked me to join him for a meeting with the governor’s chief of staff later that evening on the reservation. Of course I agreed.
We had only been in CA a few days but when we arrived at the La Jolla Indian reservation I can tell the damage was bad. From what we could see, more than 150 homes were destroyed and 8,000 acres were burnt to the ground. Most of the Indian reservations in this part of the country have casinos but this one does not, which means they don’t have much money.
We met with the governor’s people only to find out that no one has insurance here as well. There is a push to get home sites cleaned up and to get trailers moved in as quickly as possible in order for some of these people to get back to their home sites. I took a quick tour of the reservation only to find out that most of the roads were old and dangerous and had many overgrown trees encroaching on roadways. Not only will we have to clean up these home sites but we will also need to repair roads and cut our way through so there is enough room to pull out the destroyed homes and bring new trailers in.
Don was excited about the heavy equipment we brought from NY. He explained that he heard about an Indian reservation called La Jolla that was in need of help and asked me to join him for a meeting with the governor’s chief of staff later that evening on the reservation. Of course I agreed.
We had only been in CA a few days but when we arrived at the La Jolla Indian reservation I can tell the damage was bad. From what we could see, more than 150 homes were destroyed and 8,000 acres were burnt to the ground. Most of the Indian reservations in this part of the country have casinos but this one does not, which means they don’t have much money.
We met with the governor’s people only to find out that no one has insurance here as well. There is a push to get home sites cleaned up and to get trailers moved in as quickly as possible in order for some of these people to get back to their home sites. I took a quick tour of the reservation only to find out that most of the roads were old and dangerous and had many overgrown trees encroaching on roadways. Not only will we have to clean up these home sites but we will also need to repair roads and cut our way through so there is enough room to pull out the destroyed homes and bring new trailers in.
As hard as I try, I simply cannot put myself in the shoes of these people. Tonight I sat in a meeting with the Indian tribe leaders and heard their discussions about the difficulty ahead. Now that the vegetation on the mountain has burned away, and with the heavy rainy season just a month away, mud slides will be devastating. And as the ash washes down into the water system, they will face the further challenge of a contaminated water supply.
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