Carren Sheldon, a priest of the Diocese of Northern California, wrote this essay a week ago while serving as a volunteer. Her family had to evacuate from its home in Suisun Valley.  

"When you think of an evacuation shelter, you might imagine a room full of cots, and you would find that at Solano Community College today, though more evacuees have taken shelter in the parking lot than inside . They've come with small pop-up trailers, Class A motorhomes, and 

everything  in between. They're parked in four large parking lots, and along the service road beside the football field. They've brought along the family cars, some also have collector's cars, trucks and horse trailers. Many campers have pets with them. It's hard to count the number of evacuees, but there are at least 40 campers and RVs, and several hundred cars.

Many thousands more of Solano County's evacuees from Green Valley, Suisun Valley, and Gordon Valley have found shelter in the homes of friends and family.

The fire which made headlines in Napa on Monday has spread. The evacuation zone expanded eastward into Solano County on Monday. By Tuesday, flames crested the Twin Sisters mountain ridge, about 9 miles southeast of the fire's Atlas Peak origin point. The fire hasn't moved very much since then, but it hasn't been contained either. So evacuees continue to wait.

 

Today, is their fifth day away from home. The air is smoky, and dry. They hunger to know about the fire, and when they can go home. Every day, they are told about the forecast for high winds whipping up the flames. They see news of devastation in Napa and Sonoma Counties, and they know they may be next.

 

I come to this shelter wearing the clerical collar. It's a uniform as recognizable as the ones worn by firefighters and police officers, though my function is not as well defined. I do whatever needs doing: folding and organizing a mountain of donated clothes, rearranging furniture to open up floor space, playing board games with bored children whose schools are closed because of the fire. Those projects always seem to lead to conversations: people need to tell their stories, they want to ask why this is happening, and why it's happening to them. That's the real mission of serving these evacuees. They are on the same mission as every church I have ever served: waiting together, living into the uncertainty of a transformation in progress."

 

Rev. Carren added this update: " The evacuees have re-populated the evacuated areas of Solano County. Most went home last Sunday.  

I believe that three houses were lost, in addition to a number of out-buildings, thousands of acres of grass, and at least one vineyard (Dan Capp, Wooden Valley Road)."

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From Emma Green, junior warden and Community Meals organizer at Epiphany, Vacaville: " The church, working through its Community Meals Program, continues to provide meals and supplies to local evacuation centers including centers for disabled evacuees and large animal evacuees. 

"As a community center, Epiphany's kitchen is used for food preparation and assembly for distribution by its participating churches, local caterers and volunteers. Their large network of food, health services, and church participants mobilized very quickly, especially during the first critical hours of need."

Please keep  Christ the King, Quincy, parishioner Dan Patterson in your prayers. He, along with many other first responders, have been hard at work fighting the wildfires in our area. Complementing the direct firefighting efforts, the Rev. Matt Warren has been working with volunteers in the Diocese and TEC to provide assistance for those effected by the fires within California. "Our offering for the month of October will be forwarded to the Bishop's Discretionary Fund to assist in those efforts."

FEMA grants   are available are available for residents who have lost a house or business in the following counties: Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Sonoma and Yuba. They can apply online at   www.DisasterAssistance.gov  or by phone at 800-621-3362, or (TTY) 800-462-7585. The phone numbers are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, FEMA said.  Applicants will be asked to provide identification and contact information, a description of the damage and insurance information. 

Free therapy at Incarnation this Saturday: The Redwood Empire Chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists is hosting free drop-in counseling at Incarnation, Santa Rosa, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for anyone who needs to talk about the recent fires. Therapeutic arts & crafts and games for children, and refreshments will be available. For more information on the effects of trauma on children, or adults, please see RECAMFT's  resource page .