As wildfires rage in the West and hurricanes pummel the Gulf Coast during a pandemic, disaster aid has been forced to evolve, for better or worse.
— evacuees are being housed in motel rooms, not fairgrounds or school gymnasiums.
A Red Cross volunteer delivers meals to Bill Rauckman, who had to leave his Concow home because of the North Complex fire, at the Motel 6 in Oroville.touched by fire in recent years. “This pandemic has added layers of complexity to what we do,” Kern said. “This is the health and safety of our workforce, as well as the people we serve. It’s important we take the extra steps.”Lea Bickford, right, is staying at the Motel 6 with her 11-year-old daughter, Madelynn, and her 12-year-old son, Jessie , and their two chihuahuas, Sugar and Mary.
In a group shelter, with dozens of people arrayed on cots, “my son would have done OK,” Bickford said, “my daughter not so much. She doesn’t understand what’s going on…. She’d have just run. She’s a runner.”And Bickford fears the coronavirus because of her own health problems. She has congestive heart failure. Her heart works at about 30% capacity. If she contracted the virus, her doctor told her, “I’d probably not survive.
On Tuesday evening, the low-slung stucco motel hard by Highway 70 was quiet. Wood had not yet arrived with dinner. Patricia Baker, 82, was out walking Rascal, her companion dog with fluffy Shih Tzu hair and stumpy dachshund legs.Baker was the rare motel guest wearing a mask. She hasn’t had the flu in 50 years, she said. She takes blood pressure medication and has a bum hip, but said, “I’m very healthy.
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