Camp Fire: Rita & Nimbus

Rita Miller had hit a wall when we met. The stress of the fire traumas, loss, displacement and then, life inside a Red Cross shelter full of hundreds of other evacuees who were also battling respiratory illnesses was sending her into depression.

Note: FEMA was overwhelmed by the job of sheltering so many survivors and announced in mid-March that they were only able to secure 228 trailers/mobile units at a time when an estimated 14K were still homeless. News Link.

Her dog Nimbus was still grey from ash when we met them. He was crated at the Red Cross shelter along with dozens of other fire-stressed dogs. Learning about there situation was just too much to bear. We donated $1000 towards a trailer so Rita, Nimbus and her boyfriend Aaron could get out of this impossible limbo. 

They immediately purchased a tiny trailer so they could leave the shelter and Aaron was able to get back to work. It was small, but so much better than the shelter. We brought them groceries and celebrated their determination. Two months later, they purchased a bigger trailer and gifted the other to another Camp Fire evacuee. We salute them for their fortitude in the face of debilitating circumstances.