{"id":2825,"date":"2021-12-02T11:54:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T19:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2021-12-02T12:38:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T20:38:06","slug":"mr-president-keep-your-promise-to-caldor-fire-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2021\/12\/02\/mr-president-keep-your-promise-to-caldor-fire-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. President: Keep Your Promise to Caldor Fire Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
[Congressman Tom McClintock]<\/pre>\n
The Caldor Fire raged in the Sierra Nevada of California for 68 days last summer, consuming more than 221,000 acres of forestland, making it the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0largest and 16th<\/sup>\u00a0most destructive fire in the history of California.\u00a0 It literally wiped out the Gold Rush-era town of Grizzly Flats and for days threatened the City of South Lake Tahoe.\u00a0 It destroyed nearly 800 homes, leaving hundreds of families homeless and destitute.<\/p>\n
On September 13th<\/sup>, President Biden visited the scene.\u00a0 On that occasion, officials from El Dorado County and the California Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services apprised him of the need to assist these displaced families.\u00a0 He said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to take care of them\u2026there\u2019s a lot that we can do, and it starts off being a federal responsibility, in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The President was absolutely correct in that assessment.\u00a0 The fire exploded in the El Dorado National Forest that was catastrophically overgrown due to federal environmental laws that have made removal of excess timber all but impossible. According to local officials, the excessive use of back-fires by the Forest Service also appears to have needlessly exacerbated the fire.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This fire is indeed a federal responsibility, and the federal government owes to every one of the fire\u2019s victims the full resources available to get them back on their feet.<\/p>\n
And yet, despite multiple appeals, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has refused to approve Individual Assistance for the victims of the Caldor Fire.<\/p>\n
The FEMA denial is a stunning double standard when compared with the assistance granted in other fires that did far less damage.\u00a0 For example, the California Office of Emergency Services identified nine other Individual Assistance grants that FEMA approved in 2021 for fires that cumulatively destroyed fewer homes than those destroyed by the Caldor Fire alone.<\/p>\n
Survivors hoping to rebuild their homes face an insurance deficit of $200,000 or more.\u00a0 Many survivors are uninsured, and nearly all of them are underinsured due to the severity of recent wildfire seasons.<\/p>\n
Moreover, residents of Grizzly Flats \u2013 the town completely wiped out by the fire \u2013are disproportionately low-income, elderly, and socioeconomically vulnerable.\u00a0 Their homes and their belongings were all they had, and now they have nothing.<\/p>\n
Even those who did not lose their businesses to the fire lost many months of income as evacuations shut everything down.\u00a0 The regional economy will continue to suffer if survivors are not able to rebuild.\u00a0 Critical infrastructure has been either damaged or completely destroyed, including schools, fire stations, and the Grizzly Flats Post Office.\u00a0 While local officials, residents and organizations are doing everything they can to provide support to one another and rebuild, they will not be able to recover without the federal assistance that they desperately need and deserve.<\/p>\n
Last year, FEMA denied the request for Individual Assistance for the Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera Counties.\u00a0 When I appealed to President Trump to correct this injustice, he immediately reversed FEMA\u2019s decision and granted Individual Assistance to these homeowners.<\/p>\n
President Biden made a solemn promise to the victims of the Caldor Fire to help them to rebuild.\u00a0 He personally saw the damage and heartbreak caused by the fire.\u00a0 He has the authority to reverse FEMA\u2019s denial and fulfil his promise.\u00a0 I have now written three letters to him drawing this to his attention and making this request.<\/p>\n
So far, I have not even received the courtesy of a response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to take care of them (and) there\u2019s a lot that we can do.\u201d\u00a0 Those were the President\u2019s words spoken to these families in September.<\/p>\n
They have now passed their first Thanksgiving without their homes and many without their livelihoods that were taken from them by this federal fire.\u00a0 They are approaching a dismal Christmas, waiting and praying for the President to fulfill his promise.<\/p>\n
The President has a moral obligation to keep his promise to the victims of the Caldor Fire.\u00a0 As President Trump did for the victims of the Creek Fire, he should reverse FEMA\u2019s outrageous decision without further delay and release the funds these families are depending upon to rebuild their lives and their communities.<\/p>\n
\n
Congressman Tom McClintock represents California\u2019s 4th<\/sup>\u00a0Congressional District<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year, FEMA denied the request for Individual Assistance for the Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera Counties.\u00a0 When I appealed to President Trump to correct this injustice, he immediately reversed FEMA\u2019s decision and granted Individual Assistance to these homeowners.<\/p>\n
President Biden made a solemn promise to the victims of the Caldor Fire to help them to rebuild.\u00a0 He personally saw the damage and heartbreak caused by the fire.\u00a0 He has the authority to reverse FEMA\u2019s denial and fulfil his promise.\u00a0 I have now written three letters to him drawing this to his attention and making this request.<\/p>\n
So far, I have not even received the courtesy of a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[41],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-600x300.jpg",600,300,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-768x384.jpg",640,320,true],"large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",640,320,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"darknews-slider-full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed.jpg",1200,600,false],"darknews-featured":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"darknews-medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-720x530.jpg",720,530,true],"darknews-medium-square":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Feeling-Flamed-350x350.jpg",350,350,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2830,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}