STERLING INSIGHTS

Sterling’s “Office of Calamity Management”
Peutz Valley, East San Diego County

The immediate fire danger has passed for our valley…for now. The whole place is desiccated from the hot winds and still a tinderbox that we will have to monitor very closely.

We moved back onto the property - Rita, dogs, and carloads of stuff. The horse comes home today. We piled up all of our repatriated belongings in the middle of our big meeting room. I figure at least half of what we left behind, willing to let burn when we left it, should be tossed out. ‘Tis one way to prioritize for house cleaning and general en-lighten-up-ment.

When we came back into the valley after dinner we were greeted by last night’s sentry contingent. Four neighbors in highway vests, all lights flashing, and so on, but there were some new safety elements added to give the post more pizzazz.

The headgear for a silver fireproof suit had been added. So when the driver (surely terrified) of the incoming vehicle was approached for identification, the sentry was wearing the alien headgear with clear window in front and silver fireproof material draping down over his or her shoulders. It was right out of a B-Grade horror movie. Very effective for deterring would be villains.

Next, there was 70’s era Tom Jones and Barry White blaring out of one of the trucks. Consequently, neighbors coming home had the option to keep going or pull over to join in the dancing, in the street, under the yellow highway safety [disco] lights. So, when we weren’t serving “customers” we were laughing and dancing in celebration of having dodged another bullet. So this is is what Neo in the Matrix felt like at the end of the first Matrix movie! One does what one can to keep spirits high to cope with the fear, grief, and pain. The devestation is not ours this time.

Next week the work of resetting our place for serving our broader region begins. I have been asked to join a group of community leaders convened by the San Diego Foundation with hard won wisdom from the 2003 Cedar Fire. At the SD Foundation site you can download the 2003 After-The-Fire Report where some of the insights were captured. You’ll find photos of action (in 2003-2004) at our Alpine property in the report. [Note: I am credited on some photos in the report that I didn’t shoot. I simply provided a compilation of photos collected from fire agencies and others.]  Though the numbers of structures lost in the county this time is less than the losses in 2003, the sense of impact is just the same.

In the coming week I will help to develop strategies for bootstrapping our brothers and sisters around the county through the disaster phase, clean up phase and recovery phase. For the moment, our neighborhood is celebrating being alive and having houses to come home to. Soon we will begin attending to the needs of those who can’t celebrate…yet.

Cheers, Joe