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 megan@grandfoundation.com.
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There was 370 Homes destroyed and an additional 188 structures (barns, sheds, etc.). Of the homes, 106 were primary residences and they are gathering 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 I have noticed that these numbers have been increasing every time I have the call. The fire is just shy of 196,000 acres and as of 11/30/20 100% contained. While pockets of heat still exist, they’re not expected to threaten the containment lines. They calculate that it won’t fully be out until the snow season
is in full gear and possibly later than that.
At this point, we are mapping out our immediate, short-term, and long-term needs. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and will be over many years to come.
Immediate Needs
All of the needs will be continually replenished with funds as needed
Basic Needs (Food/Clothing/Household Needs)
We have given our family resource center (Mountain Family Center) monies to purchase gift cards for groceries, clothing, and furniture that will be distributed to renters and homeowners who lost their homes.
Shelter
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 additional monies to Mountain Family Center to distribute rental assistance to those in this category.
Mental Health
We have given Mind Springs Health $20,000 to provide scholarships to all of those affected by the East Troublesome Fire.
Debris Removal
We are renting equipment for Southern Baptist Colorado Relief. In this partnership, they have graciously offered to help with debris removal as we know it is a time consuming, expensive, and often underinsured on an insurance policy.
Grass Seed
We are giving monies to Middle Park Conservation District to purchase grass seed. In this partnership, they will be distributing grass seed at no charge, as we know it is one item that is typically not covered on an insurance policy.
Short-Term Needs
Renters
For renters who were renting units that were burned down, we are referring them to the recovery housing team to match them up with an available unit. Then with the funds are giving to Mountain Family Center, they can help those affected by helping pay for first and last month’s 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 of 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.
Home Owners
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 homeowner’s insurance will pay for the rent and any items they need inside the home. In the future, once things get worked out with their insurance companies, we are still wondering if the fund could help with insurance deductibles, legal fees, etc., but still in discussions.
The harder one here is if they didn’t have homeowner’s insurance. We have had many of these, that they owned a 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 above (and will continue to give as requested by our partners) will apply here with rental assistance, food, clothing, seed, and debris removal (while this lasts with the snow coming in). We will be updating this one as we go along.
Long-Term Needs
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:
- Water Quality
- Re-Forestation
- Flood Mitigation & Prevention
- Nature Conservancy
- Mitigation efforts for our nonprofits and fire departments
Please find some info below on the fire, fund scope & fluid thoughts going forward.
The fund is just over $3.8 million, of which we have awarded out over $721,212.
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.
Grand County Wildfire Fund & Stats
There was 370 Homes destroyed and an additional 188 structures (barns, sheds, etc.). Of the homes, 106 were primary residences and they are gathering 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 I have noticed that these numbers have been increasing every time I have the call. The fire is just shy of 196,000 acres and as of 11/30/20
100% contained. While pockets of heat still exist, they’re not expected to threaten the
containment lines. They calculate that it won’t fully be out until the snow season is in full gear
and possibly later than that.
At this point we are mapping out our immediate, short term and long term needs. Right now we are focusing on primary residents.
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 to all of those affected by the East Troublesome Fire.
Debris Removal $60,000
We have given over $50K to rent equipment for debris removal. We have a group up called Southern Baptist Colorado Relief and they donates their labor to remove debris, we pay for the equipment. To date over 80 homes have been assisted in this area. Dennis noted they plan on being back up here in the spring. In addition we have paid out homes for debris removal for various vendors.
Grass Seed ~ $47,205
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 2 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 200 homes have been helped.
SHORT TERM NEEDS
Renters ~ $149,500
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 36 renters we have helped.
Home Owners ~ $364,507
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. In the future, once things get worked out with their insurance companies, we are still wondering if the fund could help with insurance deductibles, the county with debris removal program, building permit fees, legal fees and more to be identified. So far we have helped 41 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. In the future, once things get worked out with their insurance companies, we are still wondering if the fund could help with insurance deductibles, the county with debris removal program, building permit fees, legal fees and more to be identified.
LONG TERM NEEDS
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.