A Fire-Devastated Northern California Takes Care of Its Own

People often expect disasters to be populated by distinct groups of victims and rescuers, but in reality they're often the same people. Tierney told me that the most important rescuers are often the ones who are there if and when the so-called first responders show up ”the neighbors there to help one another”and that they often evolve into groups that stick together for months and years after the most urgent phase of a disaster has passed.......

..... Sonoma County's population is a patchwork of Latinos and white people, many of modest means and countercultural persuasions, and though grapes dominate the area's agriculture there are also apple orchards, redwood forests, grasslands, and small farms.......

Read the article written by Rebecca Solnit for the New Yorker:  A Fire-Devastated Northern California Takes Care of Its Own