Hello to everyone, and thank you very much for the help that you guys have contributed both individually and together. It helped immediately and immensely. We didn't get out with a lot, and as of this writing we have not been able to return to even see our former home.
You may have seen the photo on my website. It looks like our house is been put through a Blacksmith's Forge, and since then it's seen about 7 to 10 inches of rain. Whatever I can find that will be left will not likely be pretty, and if viable, will take time to refurbish. unfortunately I will have to tool up for refurbishing as well. Most of the steel that I can identify in the photos looks like it's been through too much for any real recovery. Still I am hopeful. I've got to be. Everything that I can refurbish is to our good.
I did consult a blacksmith about what happens to tools after a fire and he said it isn't good. Most of the steel gets annealed so that it's got no hardness, and in some cases it becomes too hard and is brittle as glass. As for everything else, if it isn't steel or concrete, it is most definitely burned to ash. And now, that which is steel has been sitting in wet ash for over 15 days.
We still do not know when we can return to see what's left. With over 14,000 single-family homes destroyed and 18,000+ buildings total, along with many large trees, Power lines that need to be made safe, gas lines that need to be capped, pressure tested and made safe, roads that need to be repaired, and the safety of those who are not accustomed to the dangers. The recovery will take more than likely longer than a year just to haul out the clean up of toxic waste and ash. Based on my former career in infrastructure development, I would estimate that it'll take 2.5 years before the town of Paradise, California has any semblance of being a small town again, and it'll be a longer time before it has a population of almost 29,000 again.Many people do not want to return. Many will leave the area for economics as well as bad memories. Before the fire it was a very peaceful and beautiful place to live. In spite of what has happened, we are very thankful for our time there. It was a nice place to live and make tools for woodworkers, and a nice place to just enjoy life.
Our local county doesn't have enough housing to handle this disaster, and so people are still living in shelters, there is no available housing on the real estate market, and rentals are on waiting lists of 70 people deep or more. Even storage lockers are hard to come by. Jobs are also scarce owing to the fact that entire town has been shut down because of the destruction by fire. I was self-employed in my own shop with my own tools, and now I have no shop or tools to be employed with. I'm uncertain about what kind of work I can find but I am looking. Having an income is important. We have a lot of rebuilding to do. We are staying with family and are safe, but we don't really have any personal space, and there is not room for us to replace things we lost in the fire or for a shop at the moment. However, I am interested in some tools, as long as they will work with the space I have. Of course being self employed for last 10 years, my ambition is to get back in it in some way shape or form, but until a number of things come to pass locally, the state and county will be dealing with an overwhelming situation. It's an elephant we have to eat one bite at a time unfortunately, and a lot of small steps will need to be taken to create room for progress.
I have had some offers for large tools and shop machines, and while I don't want to decline those offers, I'm currently not in a position to accept them. There is just no place to put anything. However if any of the offers can stand, there is a chance I will be talking to you in the future. It's an uncertain future and I don't know exactly how it's going to play out or what will be possible, but as I said before, I am interested in remaining self-employed as much as possible, and trying to figure out what I can do with what I have. You can destroy my tools and my shop, but you can't take away my skills or my ambition. This didn't.
Again I wanted to thank you all for your contributions and help, it was and is immensely helpful to us - we needed everything, and we are very thankful for all of you and your concern for us. I'm sorry it is taking me time to get back to everybody here, but there has been a great deal of stuff to do when something like this happens, and there still is a lot to do ahead. If anybody would still like to help out, I still have the links available on our website.
Thank you again, everyone for your help and support.
Best,
Rob Hanson, Evenfall Studios
