Sonoma wildfire stories--Lou Zweier

for me, it was about seeing how community came together to support one another. That's what it wound up being about. And you know, there was terrible destruction that happened and there were people that lost their homes and that was awful. My wife works works with several

people who lost their homes. I didn't have personal, um, I didn't know anyone personally that lost their home. Um, but many people lost everything and actually a good friend of ours who was in the fire areas, she and her family came over and stayed with us

one night because they were evacuated and they did not have a place to go uh, and wanted to stay near enough by that. You know, they could go back to their house when the danger was gone. And so, um, they came when their mother was living

with them actually living in a different place, but they were concerned about her safety. So they went and got her and then all came over to our house and they stayed, you know, we, we slept on the couch or on the floor and they slept in

our beds and, and so it was, you know, it was, And, and then the other major thing I participated in was going down to the fairgrounds in Petaluma, which I mean there were centers all over petaluma that we're housing people, I think 2000 people came into

Petaluma and I went down to the fairgrounds uh and spend time, uh, you know, helping sort things that had been um, donated by people and it was just, it was amazing to see like you went there and there was this giant area and there's just like,

people have donated everything from clothes to sleeping stuff to food to, you know, everything that people might need, that people are just bringing over and giving because they want. And then, and then you have tons of people, they're just showing up like me didn't sign up,

just went over there and they're like, okay, what needs to be done. People are just standing around what give me something to do, and people are in sorting canned goods. And I, for a while, I was working in the kitchen and then for another while I

was working like over in the clothes area, men's clothes, women's clothes, tops, pants, but you know, so, and then loading them on trucks so that the trucks could go and provide things to people that needed them. And it was so inspiring to see people coming together

trusting each other just showing up ready to work. They don't care who they're working with, they don't care what the job is, They're just like, let's get it, let's get it done. People need help