100% of
donations to the Grand County Wildfire Emergency Fund will support the needs of
Grand County residents who have been evacuated, displaced,
or have lost their homes due
to the East Troublesome Fire. We will work with our
nonprofit partners as much as we can on the funding and then pay
vendors directly for
costs. The fund does not grant monies directly to individuals nor
reimburse monies already paid.
Please email completed
application with pertinent documentation to rachel@grandfoundation.com.
Download Application
Grand County Wildfire Fund & Stats (Updated thru 5/31/2022)
There was 384 Homes destroyed and an additional 189 structures
(barns, sheds, etc.). Of the homes, 184 were primary residences and
approximately 25% were uninsured, of those it is assumed that 32 were mobile
homes from a mobile home park. The Grand County Office of Emergency
Management is also calculating over $190 Million in damages. But we have
noticed that these numbers have been increasing every time we have
calls. The fire burned just shy of 193,812 acres and as of 11/30/20
100% contained.
Please find some info below
on the fire, fund scope & fluid thoughts going forward. The fund is just
over $4 million, of which we have awarded out over $3,008,073.
Grand & Larimer
Counties were given a disaster declaration by the President in January for
Public Assistance, but Individual Assistance (IA) was denied (Boulder County
was denied for both). The Governor has asked the 3 counties to appeal. All 3
counties decided to deny moving forward on an IA appeal and instead go towards
SBA loan assistance program. Of which Grand County was approved for in February
this loan program provides up to $200K at a 1.88% interest. We had 43
households apply for the loans and thus far 18 families have been approved for
$1.94 million in loans for rebuilding.
Recently Grand County opted not to do a FEMA Debris removal Program and
run it internally. The projected project budget, with free labor from Southern
Colorado Baptist Relief, is just over $1.1 million of which the wildfire fund
has committed to funding half of the costs, helping over 161 homes.
IMMEDIATE NEEDS (All of the needs will be continually
replenished with funds as needed)
Basic
Needs ~$35,000
Food/Clothing/Household
needs
We
have given our family resource center (Mountain Family Center) a large grant to
purchase grocery, clothing and furniture gift cards. For renters who lost
their place due to the fire and did not have renter’s insurance.
Shelter
~$45,000
We
are working with the Grand County Emergency Response team. They are
matching available units with those that are in need of housing. We gave
an additional large grant to Mountain Family Center to distribute rental
assistance monies to those in this category.
Mental
Health ~$20,000
We
have given Mind Springs Health $20,000 to provide scholarships for counseling
sessions to all of those affected by the East Troublesome Fire.
Grass
Seed ~ $97,205
We
have given Middle Park Conservation District over $97,205 to procure and
distribute grass seed. This is not
covered in most homeowner’s insurance policies and while we wouldn’t think
grass seed would be an immediate need, now is only one of 2 times a year that’s
the best time to seed. Each home/landowner can get a 100lb bag of seed at no
cost. Over 280 homes have been helped.
SHORT
TERM NEEDS
Renters
~405,760
For
renters that were renting units that were burned down, we are referring them to
our housing team to match them up with an available unit. Then with the
funds we gave Mountain Family Center, then can help those affected pay rent,
get grocery cards and clothing at their location. We also plan on
assisting, if they didn’t have renter’s insurance, on their housing needs (i.e.,
furniture). We have a couple options here, we have a nonprofit that
stores furniture from properties that sold, but the new owners didn’t want the
items inside. We can also purchase gift cards for individuals to go
shopping to get new things. We are still in the process of this one,
working out the kinks, but do plan on using our nonprofit partners first if we
can. So far this represents 115 renters we have helped.
Home
Owners $1,655,108
This
is a work in progress as well. For those owners that have homeowner's
insurance, all of the above steps for pairing housing would apply, but
typically here, their home owners insurance will pay for the rent and any items
they need inside the home. Once this was worked out with their insurance
companies, we have been helping with insurance deductibles to contractors for
rebuilding, the county with debris removal program, building permit fees, legal
fees and more to be identified. So far, we have helped 241 homeowners thus
far.
The
harder one here, is if they didn’t have homeowner’s insurance. We have
had many of these, that they owned a mobile home on a property that was owned
by someone else and didn’t insure the home. We are trying to figure out
what threshold here applies. At the very least all the funding we gave
(and will continue to give as requested by Mountain Family Center) will apply
here with rental assistance, food and clothing. We have also been helping the
uninsured primary homeowners with new furniture, clothing, housewares,
appliances and so much more.
In addition, as noted above, we have committed $550,000 for the county debris
removal program.
LONG
TERM NEEDS Allocated $750,000
On
this one we are in the beginning stages of how we will map this out and save
funds for.
But
the things we are listing to help, but not limited to are, Water Quality,
Re-Forestation, Flood Mitigation, Nature Conservancy, and mitigation efforts
for our fire departments to name a few. Thus far we have awarded or committed
the following:
1)
$125,000 to Grand County Wildfire Council for recovery needs
(i.e., chipping of hazardous trees) and long term fire mitigation.
2)
$100,000 to Grand County Wildfire Council for cost share program
for removing hazardous trees.
3)
$50,000 granted to Grand Fire Protection District #1 for GIS
mapping for all of Grand County for future emergencies.