GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – The Gridley Relief Group, formed from area organizations, churches, nonprofits and volunteers wishing to help in recovery efforts after the devastation of the Camp Fire has held its final meeting, a week after the Butte Wildfires Distribution Center closed its doors.

With all the smoke that has been in the air lately and the multiple communities that have met the same fate as the communities of Paradise and Berry Creek – being leveled by forest and wildfires – it is a little strange to see recovery efforts ramping down in the area.

According to updates from its last meeting, the Gridley Relief Group reports that there are only eight households now at the Gridley FEMA site – once home to over 320 households. The program, which was extended multiple times to allow Camp Fire survivors the ability to find long-term housing solutions while staying in government funded housing, ends September 12^th. Bruce Yerman, originally with FEMA, has transitioned to the Camp Fire Collaborative group to continue facilitating recovery efforts for those in our area and those transitioning out of our area. The Disaster Case Management program, which he was a part of, remains intact and is funded for another two years.

The GRG never took the step to becoming an official nonprofit but worked hand in hand with liaisons from Federal Government and State agencies focused on recovery efforts, non-profits, and an amazing group of volunteers to provide information, services, relief, resources, food, clothing, household necessities and a sense of community to the survivors living at the FEMA site at Gridley’s Industrial Park over the last 3 years. The Camp Fire Distribution Center, run by Lynne Spencer, operating in a building donated to the cause by Dan Boeger, was a large extension of the GRG’s relief efforts.

A force behind the GRG and an active advocate for fire survivors, Margaret Hughes said the last meeting was “the beginning of a ‘long goodbye,’” and thanked the nonprofits and agencies that aided the GRG and Gridley in the recovery process of Camp Fire survivors saying, “Thank you for coming to our little town. We don’t have much, but we have heart.”