Mora County Commissioner Veronica Serna said that the situation is dire when it comes to funding and resources. So there’s a lot of people out there that went for help and couldn’t get it.” Destroyed property on a backroad to Morphy Lake (Photo by Shaun Griswold / Source NM) There was just so many people, they couldn’t really handle the load. It was so busy that they started turning people away. “I would say, Try to make it easier for people to apply for assistance. John Montano said he would tell Biden that getting assistance shouldn’t be so hard. “We’ve had a lot of people have trouble with getting through the bureaucracy of FEMA, and trying to navigate that system, and a lot of people are very unhappy about that.”Įven though the help is here, it’s a matter of just how difficult it is to get that help, Elbring said, especially for elderly people and those who aren’t as internet savvy. Given the chance, he would ask Biden why FEMA is so hard to deal with. “I don’t have a lot of hope that he will actually be able to come and set boots on the ground here in Mora,” Elbring said. “And to get a feel for what this community is like, because this community is unique as far as culture, as far as poverty, all those kinds of things that make it a little bit different than, say, Houston during the hurricane, or something like that,” he said. Elbring said it’s one thing for Biden to fly over the burn scar to see the extent of the fire, because it’s huge, and it would show him how much area is really impacted.īut he said he also hopes that Biden gets on the ground to see up close some of the places devastated by the fire, like burned homes and other damaged property. Greg Elbring is a retired Sandia National Laboratory manager who lives with his husband Tobias Lovato on his family’s ranch in Mora. And we can’t go camping or hiking or bury our parents or whatever we do in our mountain.” We live in our backyard where we can’t get wood anymore. … We don’t live in the national parks or the national forests. We’re the people who live here, and who are really impacted. “It’s better because we’re going to show him where we’re coming from. Naomi Montoya, an evacuee, said Biden should go on a tour led by the locals. Forest Service as prescribed burns, according to investigators. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source New Mexico)Īnd they asked every person they spoke with what they would say to President Joe Biden, who’s heading to Santa Fe on Saturday for a briefing on several fires charring New Mexico, the largest of which was ignited by the U.S. Montoya incurred hotel and food expenses after evacuating from her home due to the fire, and she said she was disappointed to not be able to get reimbursed by FEMA. Naomi Montoya smiles while standing in the FEMA disaster recovery center parking lot on Tuesday. Source NM reporters also heard from folks about FEMA’s response so far. They talked to folks about the statewide primary election in a region where campaigns had for weeks morphed into emergency food distribution efforts. Voters who may have lost homes or just returned to scorched properties in northern New Mexico went to the polls anyway this week to cast ballots for the next round of local leaders who will help shape the rebuilding process.Īs they did, Source New Mexico reporters spread out up north and stayed most of the week to hear from communities still reeling from a wildfire, the largest in the state’s recorded history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |