Where I live was the Nuns Fire, just south of the Tubbs, same county.
The FEMA thing had nothing to do with the state. FEMA contracts with all sorts of vendors. It was bizarre. There were crews from North Carolina driving trucks licensed in Ohio for companies out of Iowa.
There were FEMA officers that oversaw everything. The federal contractors were paid by the ton. Fortunately, I was here when they came. They were about to haul off stuff that wasn’t even damaged. They wanted to remove the barn slab, the barn had burned. They said they had to take it down a minimum of 6 feet below the foundation.
I had a friend whose home wasn’t affected by the fire who got just shy of $600 for what he lost in his refrigerator due to a 3 day power loss. My girlfriend thought we might get something as we were without power for 23 days. The FEMA officer who showed up gave us crap for staying and said had he been here during the fire he would have had us evicted because there was no power or running water. Oddly, we could have lived under a bridge with the homeless and been left alone. She got a FEMA check for $89.33 that she had to pay tax on.
I would never seek help from any government agency under any circumstance.
There are still homes here that haven’t been rebuilt.
“They wanted to remove the barn slab, the barn had burned. They said they had to take it down a minimum of 6 feet below the foundation.”
My God, are you serious? Whatever could possibly justify that? A gold vein under the barn?