June 19, 2000
Los Alamos recovery ongoing
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___LOS ALAMOS, N.M.--The army of relief workers deployed in the wake of the May wildfire that destroyed a third of Los Alamos has gone home, but the disaster is far from over, two New Mexico pastors said.
___"The immediate crisis may be past, but we have only just begun dealing with the disaster," said David Sims, pastor of First Baptist Church of Los Alamos.
LOS ALAMOS-area pastors David Sims and Chuck McCullough review plans for ongoing disaster relief coordinated by local churches. (Photo by Dan Martin)
___While Sims and fellow pastor Chuck McCullough are grateful for the assistance provided by Texas Baptists and others, they know the hard work of following through on helping people rebuild their lives has just started.
___"We have been told it will be a recovery process of at least 18 to 24 months," Sims explained.
___An estimated 13 family units in the Los Alamos church--which averages 150 in Sunday morning attendance--lost their homes in the fire.
___Another seven families from nearby White Rock Baptist Church also were displaced by the fire, according to McCullough, who is pastor of that congregation.
___Everybody in the small county of 17,000 around the Los Alamos National Laboratory either knows someone or was kin to someone burned out by the Cerro Grande fire, whichwas caused when rangers at Bandelier National Monument set a "controlled burn."
THE SHELL of a station wagon is all that remains of one family's home.
___A month after the fire, the best estimates were that 285 housing units were destroyed in Los Alamos. These included single-family dwellings, duplexes, quads and apartment units. The two pastors estimate about 400 families were displaced.
___The recovery work assumes many shapes and sizes.
___One part involves driving along Arizona Avenue and other streets on the northern edge of town and looking at the debris of once lovely homes. In front of some of the rubble are the burned out hulks of automobiles.
___One relief worker said many children are afraid to go back into the area, which now features burned tree trunks and blackened, sooty hillsides where tall, stately pines once stood.
___"It all looks so different to them," she said.
___For Sims, the shape of the disaster is a fifth-wheel travel trailer parked in front of a burned out home "and the people are going through all sorts of efforts to get the necessary permits to live there while they try to salvage something from their lives," he said.
___Many of those who lost homes are engaged in the process of seeking permits, licenses, utility hook-ups and all the hundreds of other details that follow a disaster.
___A recent drive through the area saw people still attempting to salvage something from the debris of the homes.
___Some homes in the area were not damaged by the fire but suffered extensive damage from the smoke. The smoke from the burning pines was acrid and heavy and caused extensive damage, the pastors said.
___Both the men and their families have personal memories of the hours the wildfire burned across thousands of acres of beautiful forest in the mountains of Northern New Mexico.
___Sims and his family--wife Marthe and son Micah, 12--left town after fire officials ordered an evacuation.
___McCullough and his family--wife Karen and twin daughters Joy and Grace--worked first at their new church building and then, when White Rock community was ordered evacuated, went to Albuquerque and then to Glorieta Baptist Conference Center.
___Neither church building was badly damaged, although First Baptist of Los Alamos did suffer smoke damage and had to be thoroughly cleansed before it was reoccupied. It sits only a few blocks from the nearest point the fire touched in Los Alamos.
___On the Sunday following the evacuation, the congregation worshipped under the trees on the church property. "The people just wanted to get together, see each other, talk to each other, be with each other," Sims said.
___Out of the fire, McCullough said, a ministerial alliance is being formed to make sure people don't fall out of sight who really need assistance.
___Both McCullough and Sims said they hope the experience will forge closer bonds between the evangelical Christian groups in the community. Such a unity could make a strong impact in the county, where they estimate only 10 percent of the 17,000 residents attend church anywhere.
___They also are planning to form a non-profit organization to receive and distribute funds--some of which are being contributed to the Baptist Convention of New Mexico. By early June, $26,526 had been given by Baptists across the nation in response to a letter by BCNM Executive Director Claude Cone.
___"I feel we are going to have a lot of opportunities to minister and witness," Sims said.
___
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