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 documentaton to rachel@grandfoundation.com.
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There were 366 Homes destroyed and an additional 189 structures (barns, sheds, etc.). Of the homes, 137 were primary residences and approximately 25% were uninsured, of those it is assumed that 32 were mobile homes from a mobile home park at Highland Marina. They are 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 is 100% contained.
Please find some info below on the fire, fund, scope & fluid thoughts going forward.
The fund is just over $3.9 million, of which we have awarded out over $2,783,554
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 commited 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 $60,000 to procure and distribute grass seed. This is not covered in most home owner’s insurance policies and while we wouldn’t think grass seed would be an immediate need, now is only one of two times a year that’s the best time to seed.
Each home/land owner can get a 100lb bag of seed at no cost. Over 280 homes have been helped.
SHORT TERM NEEDS
Renters ~360,760
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, they 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 $1,475,589
This is a work in progress as well. For those owners that have home owners 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.
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 of 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.
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.
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 the county for future emergencies.