SANTA ROSA (KRON) — With the Sonoma County Fairgrounds doubling as an incident command center and shelter for evacuees, the constant presence of firefighters and law enforcement in Santa Rosa is making it difficult for those forced out of their communities to take their minds off the flames raging around them.
“I’m not doing well at all. My house is burnt down to the cinders,” said evacuee Richard Toyfoya.
Richard Toyfoya, his wife Latonia and the rest of their family spent the night in a car.
Their home in Healdsburg no longer exists.
They’re seeking shelter at the fairgrounds and the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building — two of several facilities housing 2,500 evacuees throughout the county.
“They need to open up some more resources cause there’s people that really, really need some help. Like, us, we lost everything,” Latonia Toyfoya said.
Virginia Biteng’s home is still standing in Santa Rosa’s Rincon Valley neighborhood.
She was not forced to evacuate, but is using the shelter as a place to charge her electronics and receive information.
She’s been without electricity since Saturday.
“Luckily, we’re not on well-water. People with well-water can’t even flush their toilets,” she said.
She says her grown son with special needs is struggling to cope with the outage.
Overnight temperatures were low, and Biteng says it may be too cold for her and her family to sleep at home until power is restored.
“We’ll probably be out of power, I would think, until at least Friday, or Thursday, or Friday. So, you know, I’m just rolling with it,” Biteng said.
“We’re just trying to do whatever we can possibly do and be together as a family,” Richard Toyfoya said.
Because when you get down to it, that’s what matters.