Category Archives: Discussion

Lincoln County Recovery and Preparedness Expo… 2

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Lincoln County, NM (June 27, 2012): Lincoln County and cooperating agencies are hosting an expo to provide information about recovery after the Little Bear fire, and preparedness for future fires and floods. Representatives from Lincoln County government, New Mexico Division of Forestry, NM Environment Department, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USFS BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) team, US Forest Service, Village of Ruidoso, local service clubs, and numerous volunteer organizations are expected be on hand to offer assistance, or to direct residents to sources of assistance.

Information on available assistance for homeowners who have lost property, recovery of burned areas, and preparedness for flooding and future fires will be provided.

Lincoln County Recovery and Preparedness Expo

Saturday, June 30, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Ruidoso High School Auxiliary Gymnasium

100 Warrior Drive, Ruidoso


Questions and Answers… Reply

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Lincoln County, NM (June 27 2012): Here are some good answers to some questions that have been circulating out there:
Q: Where can I get information about flood mitigation?

A: Questions about private land flood mitigation should go to the Upper Hondo Water and Soil Conservation District (575)354-2220.

Q: Where can I find answers to insurance questions?

A: Insurance questions can be referred to High Country Agency in Ruidoso.  They have pledge to help people even if they are not their customers.  706 Mechem Drive – (575)257-4651

Q: Where can I get information about well testing?

A: Free well water testing for private owners can be reached through the NM Water Department.  There will be some paper work dropped off sometime today at the Recovery Center and they will have a booth at the Saturday Expo.

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers…

Q: I am a contractor. How can I get involved in the recovery efforts?

A: There will be a contractors meeting at the Lincoln County EOC (Copper Ridge Road) this Friday at 8:30am.

What we are working on… 2

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Hello neighbors. In the absence of things to report this morning, I wanted to help clarify some confusion by letting you know what we are currently working on. Before I list them, I want to make a very clear promise about this site. We will not release information about the long-term recovery effort on this site unless we know for sure that the information is accurate and sustainable. We want you to be able to trust this site as a good source of timely, accurate information. There are lots of other sources of information concerning the recovery efforts, some of which are inevitably going to release information sooner than we do because we won’t do it until we know for sure. A good example of that is the Donations Center. Many people are saying that they are getting conflicting information about donations and support centers. We will continue to try to answer your questions that you have based on other information that you are getting. But rest assured, when we can announce anything that is accurate and sustainable about donations, support centers, telephone numbers, etc. we will. Thanks again for your patience.

Donation Center: We were working very hard to officially open the donations center that we secured over the weekend in Ruidoso Downs. However, that facility was closed down because of code issues. So we have now secured a new location. There are many conflicting stories about where that facility is and when it will open. Please know this, as soon as we have that facility open, we will release all of the accurate information right here. We would like to ask you if you have donations to please hold onto them until we can open the center.

Recovery Center/Personal Assistance: We have secured an excellent location for the Little Bear Recovery Center. This center will be a place where people can go and meet with someone in person to help them manage their situation from simple things like filing for new paperwork to complex issues like insurance and government support for rebuilding their house. This will also be a central location for many of the wonderful organizations that are coming here soon to provide support to the survivors of this fire. Lastly, it will be a center for the coordination of volunteers who want to help once we can start getting back into these areas and offer assistance. We hope to announce the opening of that center in the next few days. This will be a very exciting time when we have this center open for the public.

Volunteer Coordination: As a part of the Recovery Center, we will be offering Volunteer Coordination Services. W will be helping volunteers become trained and informed on how they can help. Be thinking about what skills and assistance that you may want to offer to the survivors or even to the other volunteers. For instance, we will need people who want to provide baby-sitting while the parents are doing on-site work with the survivors.

As we said in the post last night, we know everyone wants to help. We hope to have some news on some ways that you can start to do that right away.

Thanks for your patience… Please click Follow… Then take a deep breathe… and exhale too! 2

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Hello all you awesome people of Lincoln county and beyond! This has to be one of the best places on earth as far as people who have compassion for their fellow man, woman and child. That is what this site and this recovery effort is all about. We are not victims, we are survivors. And believe me, some of the most beautiful things rise out of the ashes.

I want to just take a breath for a moment and say a few short things. There will be lots of informational posts coming up as we get official word on some concrete developments along the recovery front.

1) I want to make sure that everyone knows that many, many people are working very, very hard and long, long hours to make sure that we can get things organized and available and legal and safe and sustainable for the long haul in terms of the efforts of the recovery team.

2) Please, please, please click follow on this site (look to your right…) We (all of the public information personnel) are trying very hard to begin to direct as much traffic as possible to a single source of information for the human recovery efforts. You can help us in 2 very important ways. Click Follow (can you say broken record?) and then share the posts that you get with everyone on the planet.

3) Take a deep breath. Make a committment to pace yourself and stay committed to the long haul for the benefit of our neighbors in need.

Pace yourself and stay committed…”

We know you are compassionate. We know that you want to help. We share that heart with you, believe me. So please be patient and kind with one another. Let’s work together to bring this community back and grow something far more beautiful than ever before right out of the ashes!

Blessings,

Phil

Supplies available for immediate distribution to anyone who needs them… 1

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The Gateway Church of Christ in Ruidoso has released information that they have received a truck load of supplies for anyone affected by the fire incident in this area. Please disseminate this information immediately to anyone who needs these supplies. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come and get what they need.

Gateway Church of Christ

415 Sudderth Drive

Ruidoso, NM 88345

(575) 257 – 4381

Here is the list of items that is currently available:

  • All purpose cleaner
  • Beef Stew
  • Blankets
  • Bleach
  • Box Fans
  • Boxes, baby
  • Boxes, family food
  • Boxes, personal care
  • Brooms
  • Cans, Chili
  • Cereals
  • Cleaning buckets
  • Chest of Drawers
  • Chips, Palet
  • Detergent, Laundry
  • Diapers
  • Dinette sets
  • Gloves
  • Mask, dust pack of 50
  • Mops
  • Pillow Cases
  • Pillows
  • Rakes
  • Sheets
  • Shovels
  • Snacks, Combo
  • Tarps
  • Tote Bags, Disaster Relief
  • Trash Bags
  • Water

Mandatory Boil Water Advisory 3

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Please pass this along to those who might not be on line…..

Good morning,

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Drinking water Bureau has issued a mandatory boil water advisory for customers of the three water systems located in the burn area of Ruidoso: Enchanted Forest Water Corporation, Bonita Park Nazarene Conference Center, and Villa Madonna.  The water system customers are advised to use an alternate source of drinking water, such as bottled water, or boil the water for five minutes before drinking, cooking, and dishwashing.

A precautionary boil water advisory remains effective for  the rest of burned area.

Please, let me know if you have any questions regarding the advisory.

Thank you,

Barbara

(505)841-5892

Survivor Registration Form Added Reply

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Hello neighbors! We want to update you on a few developments that we are working on here at the Little Bear Recovery Team. Since we were formed on Saturday, June 16th, we have been working everyday to try to get our resources in place as quickly as possible. We have had some success and some setbacks, but we are determined to persevere so that we can reach our goals of providing help to those who are most in need from this disaster. We are working together with many people in this area to set up a long-term assistance and support group that will be here for the long haul. This group is made up of volunteers who are all permanent Lincoln County residents with a heart to help our fellow neighbors in need. We know that we need to have all of these support services up and running as soon as possible, so please bear with us as we strive to get them all operational.

One of the main services that we plan to offer is personal comprehensive survivor management for any survivors that wish to receive our assistance. In order to identify those needs, we are asking all survivors that have suffered a loss during this fire to please register with us through the secure contact form that we have supplied on our Survivor Page. Please click the menu at the top of the website called Survivors and it will take you to the form. This form is a first point of contact between you and us. Please pass this information onto anyone you know that may need us to contact them for assistance. We will make every effort to contact each person in a timely and confidential manner. And we will make every effort to help you or direct you toward the solutions to your immediate and long-term needs.

Things are really coming together… 4

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Wow! What an amazing first few days! The amount of support and coordination that has happened within the first 2 days of this task force is nothing short of staggering! Since our first meeting on Friday night here are some of the things that have taken place:

  • An administrative team was formed (see details below) with volunteers ready, willing and able to carry out their duties for the long haul.
  • Thanks to the coordination of Jon Ogden, the Ruidoso chapter of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints has donated a beautiful, fully functional facility right off Highway 48 right in the center of the hardest hit areas. This facility will be the primary face of this recovery team. We will use this building for case management, emergency food distribution, media support, inter-agency communications and coordination, volunteer coordination, volunteer babysitting, you name it! Thanks Jon and the LDS church!
  • Vic Currier and his donation support team have secured two large buildings directly across Highway 70 from Wal-Mart as a warehouse/distribution center. They then cleaned the facility and started receiving truckloads of donations by Saturday afternoon! Since then, they have done further enhancements, arranged help from the National Guard to help secure the facility, and even started to sort and catalog all the donations! Great work Vic and team! Vic has said that the warehouse will be open for donations drop off starting Monday, June 18th from 9am to 4pm.

“Please do not bring any more clothes, used mattresses or perishable items.” – Vic Currier

  • We have decided on a short but descriptive name for the group: Little Bear Recovery Team. The official address of the website is now LittleBearRecovery.org
  • We met as an admin team with Governor Martinez this afternoon (Sunday) at the new Recovery Center. She was very, very supportive of this team and has offered her support in many substantial ways. She also charged the whole team with making sure we keep good notes on the formation of this group so that she can use it elsewhere in the state during future incidents.

“Take good notes, we may need to duplicate this again soon in New Mexico…” – Governor Martinez

Meet the Admin Team Members

  • Ryan Arnold – Facilitator
  • Stephanie Harmon – Case Management
  • Dr. Jon Ogden – Case Management
  • Margo Mayo – Financial Manager
  • Michael and Vicki Buckley – Volunteer Coordinators
  • Minerva Davalos – Animal Coordinator / Sheriff’s Office Liaison
  • Phillip and Laurel Appel – Information Technology / Internal Communications

There are a ton of other developments that we will be announcing over the next few days as we get all the details. But suffice it to say, this area is full of quality, selfless people who are willing to work hard to make this recovery a real benefit to the survivors as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for more information soon!

Let the community support begin… 4

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Working TogetherHello out there Lincoln County and beyond! This new blog will be the primary location for information regarding the relief efforts for survivors of the Little Bear Fire. I just returned from a meeting at the Gateway Church of Christ here in Ruidoso, NM that had about 100 people representing dozens of organizations from churches to governmental agencies to local businesses. The only thing we all had in common is that we represent a large contingency of people who are ready, willing and able to offer assistance to the survivors of this tragic event. Led by Ryan Arnold of First Christian Church, we will be forming a support team that will help to solicit, coordinate, manage and distribute resources to the people that are most in need as a result of this fire. This blog will be updated regularly with the information about the activities and efforts of this group. Please check back often. Also, please click the Follow Link to the right to automatically follow this blog and get email updates.

  Be Safe and Work Together!

May God bless you and may God bless these efforts.