Oregon

Oregon fire survivors share message of hope, resilience with Los Angeles community

Published

on


Oregon vet who lost clinic in 2020 fire shares lessons of loss and rebuilding, offering hope to L.A. fire victims as communities adapt to natural disasters.

PHOENIX, Ore. —  The owner and employees of a southern Oregon veterinary clinic are sending warm thoughts to those who lost homes and businesses in the Los Angeles-area fires.

Glen Winters and his family lost their veterinary hospital in the Almeda Fire in 2020. Winters told KGW he can’t imagine what people in L.A. are experiencing after losing homes filled with sentimental items and photos.

Advertisement

“I can’t imagine losing a home with all those memories,” Winters said.

Winters and his staff evacuated all pets from the hospital during the fire. One veterinary technician loaded a 35-pound tortoise into his pickup truck and drove to Walmart to meet the owner.

Advertisement

“Truly terrifying,” said Dakota Titus, recalling the rush to evacuate. “They were scared but so relieved to get their tortoise.”

Winters said the last thing he saw was a wall of fire approaching. “When I looked down the street, there was a 30-foot wall of flames a block and a half away, with embers flying everywhere,” he said. “It was time to leave, so I got out.”

The next day, only his hospital sign and American flag remained standing. Winters said his daughter had nightmares after learning the building had burned. It took 18 months to get approval to rebuild, and they constructed a larger facility.

Advertisement

“It’s a different community,” Winters said about Phoenix nearly five years later. “It doesn’t make it better, not worse, just different now that people we all knew are gone.”

Daniel Aldrich, director of the Resilience Studies Program at Northeastern University in Boston, lost his family’s home during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said disaster survivors might expect government or insurance help, but most support comes from friends and community.

Advertisement

“Do we just go back to how things were?” he asked. “We have nostalgia for the past. Things were better in the past. Or do we start encouraging a different approach?”

Aldrich suggested building with more space between houses and clearing vegetation up to 100 yards from homes. “Ways to redesign the community with mobility in mind, access in mind,” he said. “Think through ways homes themselves can be livable even if there are fires in the future.”

The community supported the Winters family through their recovery. “I had people sending me checks saying, ‘You took care of our animals and now it’s time to take care of you,’” Winters said.

Advertisement

Aldrich emphasized adapting to a new normal. “We have to recognize resiliency does not mean we keep things as they were,” he said. “It means we’re building a new sense of normalcy, a new sense of daily life, where we’ll have those connections and work together.”



Source link

Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Trending

Exit mobile version