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;
ST
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outages force school closures or endanger peo-
ple relying on electronic medical equipment.
Preparing more places for such possibilities
is now on the North Bay disaster agenda. In
May, Sonoma will host a “Rebuild California”
event, featuring 45 speakers over three days,
emphasizing RNBF’s tagline of “recover,
rebuild, reimagine.” The group will provide information on everything from how
to advocate for federal assistance to best
practices for serving underrepresented
communities post-disaster.
Rebuild Paradise Foundation’s Charles
Brooks will also be there. He says he’s adjusting to what now amount to dual duties:
facilitating the rebuilding of Paradise and
being a font of information as more organizations share what they’ve learned.
“Imagine a virtual toolbox that a Rebuild
Tuolumne County or Rebuild Placerville could
use if they have a disaster like ours,” Brooks
says. “We certainly hope that doesn’t happen,
but if it does, they’ll know that they have this
knowledge base and people who are willing
to help them figure out what makes the best
sense for their area. That’s what we need. With
Paradise, we learned that a lot of stuff was
unique to our disaster but a lot of it also corre-
lated with other communities in California.
The more we share, the better.”
In surveying the progress RBNF has
made, Thompson stresses that only someone
like Anderson could have put such a project
in motion.
“The thing that I think people need to
understand is that everybody had to bring
their talents to the table,” she says. “It was
such a huge disaster, the scope of which was
unprecedented. If you could cook, that’s
what you did. You did what you could: get
donations, organize, whatever it
was. Darius’s talent was that he
could bring together this incred-
ible board and he could find the
funding to make [RBNF] some-
thing real.”
RBNF has been scrutinized
for the methodical approach
it used to disburse funds, but
Thompson suggests that method
was warranted.
“It’s exhausting, difficult long-
term work,” she says, “and it’s OK
that it’s been treated with suspi-
cion, because it’s new and it’s different. With
disasters, the universal truth is that there are
three types of people who show up: those who
want to sell you something, those who want
to defraud you, and those who want to help.
We are absolutely in the third category. Giving
everything that this community has given
right back, because this place is worth it.” m
Many are looking at
ongoing recovery efforts in
areas affected by the
Tubbs Fire to figure out
first steps.
