By DPA
San Diego : “This was a black Mercedes,” says Robert Buckenmeyer, pointing to a burned out car wreck covered with a layer of white ash. Hardly anything is left of his $2.5 million villa in Rancho Bernado after devastating fires swept through southern California this week.
“We were hoping to dig and see what survived, maybe a computer or pictures, but you can’t even go in there and dig. It’s nothing but twisted metal,” said Robert, who was on vacation in Hawaii with his wife, Maggie, when the destruction happened.
But the couple are among the lucky ones – their insurance immediately kicked in and temporary housing has already been found.
Despite the fire danger, the pair hope to build again. “That was our home,” Maggie Buckenmeyer said. “You have to come back and build it again. You can’t kill your dreams.”
The Buckenmeyer’s are one of thousands who face the reality of rebuilding, after one of the nation’s worst series of wildfires.
People with paperwork and insurance questions have gathered at evacuation centres. More than 870 insurance evaluators are on their way to the region, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said.
“It was a very busy day,” said Patti Kelly, a spokeswoman for Allstate Insurance.
The first cheques are already on the way, and those who lost a home can count on $28,000 in federal aid. The heavy criticism of FEMA’s slow response to Hurricane Katina two years ago has apparently quickened the pace this time.
Standing on a trampled lawn in front of their burned home, Pat O’Sullivan and daughters Lauren and Erin pick up a few remaining items of memorabilia – porcelain plates, partly broken, and the wedding ring of their grandfather. Nothing more remains. The blaze reduced some 24 houses on their street block to soot and ash.
Lauren stands bravely in front of the glaring light of television cameras, insisting they won’t lose courage. This was, after all, the best neighbourhood they could wish to live in, she says. Her mother Pat seems a little more concerned.
“We’ve gotten $5,000 from the insurance to use for a deposit for a new place. I also applied for federal aid. But I’m sure this is all going to hit us in six months or so,” she said.
In San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, where more than 10,000 people sought shelter at the height of the fires, some calm had returned as the week came to a close.
“It’s winding down. A lot of people were allowed back home,” said Jim Fix, a psychiatrist. “We’ll see the real problems in a few months, when reality sets in for these people who lost everything. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg.”
Matt Johnson only barely survived the firestorms. The 30-year-old father of a one-year-old child entrenched himself with family and neighbours in the swimming pool of their country house in Rancho Bernadino. Their flight had been prevented as flames blocked the road out Monday night. The road was still closed Thursday night, but Johnson made his way back anyway, on foot through blackened shrubs.
Johnson has already turned his attention to the next potential disaster.
“We want to get an assessment on the mudslides that could potentially come with the rains,” he said. “It’s not worth saving the house if it’s gonna be gone with the mud in the next rain.”