Recovery

More than 40 people had been placed in hotel rooms as of Friday through a state disaster program, said Logan Stolpe, a public information officer for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

For more than a month, FEMA has worked with county and city officials to bring various trailers and modular homes to the area for residents whose homes were destroyed by the hurricane.

A privately owned vacant lot in Chico will be the site of 250 homes, and officials in the nearby city of Gridley on Monday will consider a federal plan to locate 405 manufactured and mobile homes there, a federal official told the Butte County Board of Supervisors.

The storm produced an EF2 tornado, which passed through five different counties, extending nearly 60 miles.

Construction and demolition, vegetation, computer component, appliance and household hazardous waste were all hauled away and disposed of, FEMA said in a news release.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the contract includes the periodic nourishment scheduled for Carolina Beach and Kure Beach every three years, but "is unique because it also includes additional repairs to the shoreline for sand lost due to the passage of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018."

The cost, which is speculative at this point, is more than twice the $1.3 billion it cost to clean up the destruction from the Wine Country fires in October 2017. The funding will come from a combination of federal, state and local governments.

Among other failures, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management did not apply for more than $12.7 million in available FEMA funds earmarked for disaster management costs including grantees’ salaries, benefits, and supplies.

On Saturday, more than 200 volunteers, along with response teams from the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and Team Rubicon, were deployed to the tornado-ravaged streets of Taylorville to offer a helping hand to those in need.

Many victims of natural disaster find themselves left out of the recovery often relying on the generosity of others to bounce back. Nonprofits and others provide assistance, but the process is difficult to navigate.

Damages recorded by the city included flooded basements and vehicles, damages to boilers and electrical systems, water damage to personal belongings and furniture, property damage, damages to business equipment, collapsed walls near brooks and appliances damaged.

The damage assessment for Crawford County after the F-1 tornado fell short of the 125 points to qualify for relief assistance from FEMA.

The epicenter was just north of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. It violently shook the most populous region of the state as people were settling in to work and school.

Some 50 vehicles including a Cal Fire truck also were temporarily marooned. Those vehicles were eventually able to make it down the road when the rains eased and water stopped sluicing across the mountain road.

'I had to wait for every house to burn down so I could see where I could take shelter and that’s when I saw the laundry room was not touched … I tried the laundry room door and it was open.'