Northern California Wildfires Force Latter-day Saints to Evacuate Homes
Contributed By Jason Swensen, Church News staff writer
Article Highlights
- All affected members and missionaries are safe and accounted for.
- The Church is providing basic supplies such as food during the evacuation period.
Latter-day Saints living in wildfire-threatened areas of Northern California’s Sonoma County have become something of reluctant experts on responding to fires and other natural disasters.
It was just over two years ago that dozens of member homes in California’s Santa Rosa and Napa stakes were lost to wildfires. Many more Latter-day Saints were forced to evacuate.
Now a massive blaze—fueled by arid conditions and high winds—is again threatening thousands of structures in Northern California. Nearly 200,000 people were under evacuation orders Monday, October 28, mostly from the city of Santa Rosa.
And once again, local Church leaders stand ready to help.
“A large portion of our stake is under evacuation orders and our members are pretty scattered,” Santa Rosa California Stake President Gary Kitchen told the Church News on Monday.
Fortunately, all affected members and missionaries are safe and accounted for, he added.
The homes of Latter-day Saints living in the communities of Healdsburg, Windsor, and northern Santa Rosa are in jeopardy, said President Kitchen. Winds died down a bit on Monday, “and we’re hopeful there will be progress on the firefront today.”
The so-called Kincade Fire in Sonoma County has destroyed 96 structures and caused damage to 16 others. More than 4,000 fire personnel have been assigned to fighting the blaze, which was only 5 percent contained on Monday.
Meanwhile, millions in the region were without power at various times over the past few days after Pacific Gas & Electric cut off power to prevent electrical equipment from sparking more fires, the Associated Press reported.
“There are a lot of us without power,” reported Napa California Stake President D. Shawn Barlow.
Power outages forced the cancellation Sunday, October 27, of two ward sacrament meetings in the Napa stake.
The Church in Sonoma County is utilizing Santa Rosa’s Yulupa Avenue and Stony Point meetinghouses as shelters for anyone seeking refuge. Meetinghouses in Healdsburg, Windsor, Sebastopol—along with the Santa Rosa stake center and the Badger Road building in Santa Rosa—are all located in evacuation areas and have been closed.
Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff said the Church is providing basic supplies such as food wherever it’s needed during the evacuation period.
President Kitchen said he is grateful for seasoned local Relief Society and priesthood leadership in his stake during a difficult time of uncertainty and fear.
“We’ve been through this before,” he said. “That leads to experience and we know more about what to do in these situations.”
Wildfires are not isolated to the north end of the Golden State. Fire erupted early Monday on the west end of Los Angeles, where tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate.
