Targeted DEW Microwave Fires in Paradise, California and Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii & Lessons Learned!

Summary

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The meeting discussed the devastating effects of wildfires and the need for better communication and warning systems. Angela Casler shared her personal experience surviving the Paradise fire and offered suggestions for future evacuations, including the need for sirens and emergency alerts. Dr. Robert Young expressed his gratitude for Angela sharing her experience and offered support to those affected by the Maui fires. The discussion highlighted the need for improved emergency response systems and better communication between emergency responders and residents during times of crisis.

Angela Casler provided detailed updates on the ongoing recovery efforts in Paradise, California, including the construction work and establishment of a recovery center. She shared her personal experience with applying for an SBA loan and advised caution when giving DNA samples. She also warned about the potential risks of signing over land as collateral and encouraged people to choose their lawyers carefully. Overall, she provided valuable insights and advice for those affected by the disaster and emphasized the importance of being engaged and informed throughout the recovery process.

The meeting also discussed the tax relief and deductions available for losses due to the fire. They advised checking with a CPA to see if state taxes also offer relief. Additionally, they suggested seeking help from state government officials to create legislation for emergency relief.

Angela Casler and Dr. Robert also discussed the environmental impact of the fire and construction in their town, sharing their experience of the toxins in the soil and water, and the debris from the burnt homes. They emphasized the importance of protecting the environment and living away from the debris pile to avoid the toxic soil.

Angela Casler shared her personal experience of rebuilding her town after a disaster and offered practical advice on how to advocate for the community and protect the rights of the people who lost everything. She highlighted the importance of sticking together and making noise to ensure that the community's needs are met. She also discussed the issue of disaster capitalism and how some people profited from the disaster while the victims struggled to rebuild their lives. Overall, she urged the community to stay strong and work together to rebuild and recover from the disaster.

Key Questions

1. What actions can be taken to prevent or mitigate the impact of future wildfires? 1:54

2. How can we find emotional and mental support during this difficult time? 32:43

3. What is disaster capitalism and how does it affect the recovery process? 55:04

4. How can affected individuals and communities rebuild and recover after such devastating events? 1:08:03

5. What support and resources are available from government agencies and organizations? 1:30:56

Action Items

1. Local government agencies and organizations will educate and inform residents about the risks and precautions related to handling and cleaning up fire-damaged properties. 25:26

2. Government agencies and legislators will provide financial assistance and tax relief for those affected by the wildfires. 27:03

3. Local government agencies will establish a recovery center to centralize services and support for affected individuals and businesses. 39:58

4. Legal professionals and advocacy groups will advocate for fair and compassionate legal representation for those affected by the wildfires. 47:35

5. Local government agencies will conduct soil tests to assess the level of toxicity and contamination in the affected areas. 59:22

6. Citizens councils will be set up and meetings will be attended to advocate for the needs of the community. 1:04:57

7. Meeting attendees will watch out for the elderly and low-income residents and ensure their needs are met. 1:05:43

8. Meeting attendees will advocate for the rebuilding of essential businesses and services. 1:07:03

9. Meeting attendees will utilize social media to connect with doctors, pastors, and community members. 1:07:37

10. Meeting attendees will safeguard digital pictures and important documents for insurance claims. 1:23:21

Discussion on Wildfires and Lessons Learned

Dr Robert Young
0:05
Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Robert Young. We will be having Angela, join us here in just one moment, so uh. I'm, happy to say we're gonna be uh, talking with her, intention is to, to get more information and understanding. It pertains to what has been happening over the last few years. Specifically, various areas such as Pass Paradise up in Canada through both Northern and Southern Southern valley center specifically where I've resided for over twenty five years. With that.
Increased Engagement

We're just waiting for her to join us. Behind me is a representation of the the wildfires associated with twenty eighteen wildfire in paradise california And of course, that took place in October, over five years ago. So it's It's a difficult topic to speak about or even to even think about. You see horrifying events in the day, not only these wildfires, but the after effect from them. And so there are a lot of questions come up within our minds and a lot of opinions As it relates to what were the underlining causes and how these people that are affected by these wildfires put their lives back together again, I'm happy to uh.
Decreased Engagement

Angela, join us here shortly. I believe she just came on. Angela, are you there?
Angela Casler
2:42
Hi, yes, I am, just getting my video started here and hold on just a moment.
Increased Engagement

Dr Robert Young
2:47
Oh, great, yeah. Nice to have you, today. O what a beautiful environment behind you.
Increased Engagement

Angela Casler
2:56
That's the cheapest day where I work.
Dr Robert Young
2:58
Fun, Fond memories of Whenever I see rose bushes. In fact, in front of the ranch I planted over a hundred rose bushes, to have that type of, reminder of when I was growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the rows of rose bushes that I had to care for. Of course, I was just an assistant to my mother that had me teal the ground and pull the weeds and provide an environment that was conducive for them to thrive. But I, I enjoy it. I enjoyed taking care of the plants, enjoyed uh, you know, having that relationship with my mother, and so, it was just part of some of the fond memories I have growing up in Sulk City, Utah.
A lot of people don't know my background, but I'm the great, great, grand son of Brigham Young and the great grandson of Don Carlos Young, who is the finishing architect of the Salt Lake City Temple, and for those who have been to Salt Lake City, monument that stands for for righteousness, at least from my perspective, is an important of In fact, they they carved all that granite that it's made of uh, from the mountains of of uh, you know, many, many miles away. They carted it on. Well, they brought it in on cards, with oxygen and with oxen, and brought and built the foundation.
A lott of folks don't realize that the foundation is not granted. The foundation is, I think, a sandstone of sorts. Apparently it it does better as far as holding a a structure like this up, but the the foundations are like 30 ft. In diameter, and The walls of the of the temples are anywhere from several feet up to six to 8 ft. In thickness, so it to withstand to withstand whatever might be presented. In the way of whether or even when we say tornadoes. In fact, believe it or not, in Salt Lake City there was a tornado that came down North Temple.
Quite a surprise. 1st time it that we know that's ever happened before but didn't do any damage to the temple, but it did some damage to the visitor's center or the the event center across the street, which still bears its marks from that tornado. I can't imagine A tornado going down the streett of Salt Lake City. It is just unbelievable that that would happen. So when these events happen, it kind of brings in mind, you know, how is that possible, is, is it was nature involved or uh, you know, or, or are these, are these men made and You know, if you don't have a, I guesss, a background in physics and and engineering.
It's hard to even come up with the solutions that in one's mind. And whether or not it's being reported accurately or completely is another thing. But this is not about me and it's not about, you know, what happened in Salt Lake City per se. Even though we dealt with wildfires there, we dealt with mudslides and I lived right behind, you know, fault line. Of course, we experienced tremors like on a daily basis. It was just We just got used to it,
Angela Casler
7:03
Wow.
Dr Robert Young
7:04
living on a living on a fault line. Here again, we've never seen any opening of the earth to, to totally consume uh, that valley.
Angela Casler
7:19
Let's knock on wood Dr..
Dr Robert Young
7:19
Hey,
Angela Casler
7:20
Yg.
Dr Robert Young
7:22
what's that?
Angela Casler
7:23
I'm knocking on wood Dr. Young that we won't see opening.
Dr Robert Young
7:26
I know, I know you are because, because I'm anxious to, for you to, to share with, with us and I, and I don't know that you've actually done that in a in a major public way. But I you know I thought it You know, I know I feel better when I can talk about something and share with something and particularly what's happened, you know, just a little over four weeks ago, well, not four weeks, but three weeks, it was uh, August 8 in. In Lahaina. Maui, Hawaii, and and not just a single out that island.
There were fires going on on all the islands. It was just not localized to that particular area that seemed to go get the most attention. For a lot of different reasons. But I, what, what has slipped through the cracks from my perspective, And maybe people have forgotten. I know you haven't forgotten, but what happened in Paradise, California? And that terrific. In fact, I have, fire, that happened. In fact, I have a picture of paradise that was part of your presentation. I, I, I put that behind me because The Fi, the fires there were just as devastating, in fact, even more so in in many ways, and you can corroborate that.
Statement. What happened in Pad Paradise was just a forerunner to what we see in Canada and what we've seen in other parts of the world. And so.
Angela Casler
9:16
All over the world right now.
Dr Robert Young
9:19
So, Angela, why you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background and And then, I believe you have a Powerpoint presentation that you wanted to share.
Angela Casler
9:31
I do, and thank you so much for this opportunity. We really wanted to make sure that Perhaps we could pass on some of our lessons learned and if I couldn't share a little bit about dos and don'ts that I would suggest to help you get through this time. Anyone who's listening in Maui and all the people that are helping, but significantly for the people that have gone through the event itself. You know, we absolutely understand in Paradise what you're going through. And I just wanted to start with how eagerly similar our two situations are.
You know when I am watching the news about what's happened to you all in maui we use the same language that you know there was a blizzard of embers and that there was a football field burning per minute and which was true both of us had very windy days uh the firefighters really didn't stand a chance and this was very early morning for us as well where this fire started around a quarter to six way out in the mountains in a town that takes me forty forty minutes to drive to and pull and we call that the pga gap it's a series of mountains and valleys and uh one of my properties is very close to there and um so I just wanted to share some of our similarities between our fires that uh we find to be very eerie we shared the same occurrence that two days before the camp fire that occurred on november eighth we were just getting bombarded with power safety shut off messages from our electric company called pg e and uh we were told the power would be shut off on november eighth when we woke up that morning at four thirty a m the power was still on and it was a blasting winds coming through that we usually call the santa ana winds Uh, we didn't receive alerts for the fire.
It was. Silent. There were no planes flying. We live in fire country, so our our firefighters are amazing. I have seen them put out two fires at both of my properties, two separate fires at two separate locations, with planes, and they drop off the uh, firefighters from a helicopter and they just take off with a pickaxe and a shovel and it's just amazing what they do. This time there were no planes flying in the morning and uh, basically there were no sirens blaring from any emergency responders.
All I heard about seven seven. Oh, six in the morning was a brief announcement on the news that said, There is a fire in Pulga. So I stopped working and then called my husband, who was at work already an hour and a half away, and asked him to come home. And then I called my father in law, who lives right across the street, and asked him to uh, pack up and come over. Now all of us who live in the mountains, we have go bags and so only needed you just pick it up and put it in his car and come on over well that was at seven thirty um I asked him to also call his ninety one year old girlfriend and have her start evac you waiting as well and so he came to my house at ten a m and so here I had meetings at eleven and I had taken a shower gotten dressed and I packed a couple of things that I wanted to take with me and so at ten a m I open the front door my father in law comes and there is this roaring fire coming up our canyon the very farthest street away in paradise from the fire we were the furthest point on the map away from that fire and so the fire was burning from both sides like you showed in the picture that was behind you and I don't really want to share my my story with everybody but what I do want to share is that for the next town that this happens We would like you to ask your sheriffs and your local police and firefighters.
Yes, please blare your engines. Don't care if you scare us. We would prefer to be woken up in the morning from hearing sirens and then checking it out to see what's happening. So same things. We have put up sirens in our town now like you have in Maui for the tsunami warnings and uh, we've been testing them all summer long and uh, basically you can only hear them in the core of the town, the downtown area. But it's been nice that they've been testing that really giving us good warnings to let us know it's not an emergency and the communication has been really good.
What I did get We didn't have any code red alerts. So what we understood was what was happening was people in paradise. This is the 2nd town over after the fire passed through Concow and it hit Concow. Early in the morning at six thirty am um and people in paradise were starting to call dispatch saying I have fire in my backyard and dispatch was telling them no you don't the fire is in pulga everything is fine and they said well there is fire in my backyard and I think we should evacuate and they said no there is no fire in paradise and this this happened for about an hour and then they only alerted the east side of town on Penns road and so those people were actually sent a code read which is our alert system to start evacuating af the aftermath the town shared that they wanted to do an orderly evacuation that they wanted to make sure there weren't enough weren't too many people jamming up the roads trying to evacuate all at once and they wanted to evacuate slowly so that the roads wouldn't be all crammed up and that makes sense right but if that fire was moving a football field every every second We needed to all be alerted and so that wasn't done.
And then from my understanding, our dispatchers how to evacuate before they, alerted the rest of the town. I was told by the sheriff's department that we don't put emergency warnings on the Tv or Fm Am radio unless it's ordered by the sheriff. And he was so busy he had forgotten to do that as well, so that we didn't have any warnings happening to at all. And so so here I on a ten fifteen evacuating and um the I did get this one alert that really helped me and it was at ten twenty one in the morning that I really knew uh and the first one came at nine thirty that I really knew we were in deep trouble up here and lots of friends started telling me that there was a fire on skyway but skyway is such a long road I had no idea where they meant and um like twenty six mile now a twenty six mile road this is a picture that I won't show of you but this is my side of the road this picture was taken from inside a car about two two thousand yards away and so this is what I drove through to get out and uh I live on the main road exiting from paradise and no one was evacuating our roads same similar thing our roads were blocked by down trees or poles and uh people couldn't drive around them in their vehicles and then eventually a very smart person in our town um on the down side where they were letting the emergency vehicles come up into town uh they were allowing um them to come up so they weren't allowing any residents to go down well a bra very brave man just ran out and moved that guardrail and uh started driving down the wrong way and uh everyone followed him and everyone was safely evacuating that way so that's what's At this time there is no traffic down flow out of Paradise on the correct road on this side.
And then this is what people were seeing on my street and so this is about.
Angela Casler shares her experience surviving the Paradise fire
Dr Robert Young
18:05
are you sharing, Are you sharing that picture? Can you, can you, go ahead and push, share screen and show us what you're speaking about.
Increased Engagement

Increased Sentiment

Angela Casler
18:15
Am I not sharing screen with you, Dr.? Ya?
Increased Sentiment

Dr Robert Young
18:18
I mean I'm seeing you. But if you push share screen, there you go,
Increased Sentiment

Angela Casler
18:22
Oh, so sorry.
Dr Robert Young
18:23
okay, there you go. So.
Angela Casler
18:26
Let's just start with I'm Thank you for telling me. Hang on just one moment.
Dr Robert Young
18:31
That's fine. Yeah, I'm, I'm glad to, you know. To have you show these pictures. I think it's important. How many, how many people did this actually affect?
Angela Casler
18:44
there's about twenty six thousand people in magalia and paradise are two towns up on the ridge and uh we lost fourteen thousand homes in business Um,
Dr Robert Young
18:44
in all the
Angela Casler
18:57
and so.
Dr Robert Young
18:58
I see.
Angela Casler
18:59
to date around sixteen hundred people have rebuilt and we're nearing five years this november sixteen hundred people have rebuilt and a lott of people actually rebuilt sold their homes to uh what our chamber of commerce was calling millennials who have moved to paradise a lot of people are not sure they want to go home or and some people are still trying to get home it's everybody's in a different place for sure but this is the picture taken from across the road about two thousand yards from my street and this is what I survived driving through and so I um I'm really grateful to be here today to be able to share uh what we went through some of the,
Dr Robert Young
19:43
Is that a video that you can, you can play for us or is that, you just.
Angela Casler
19:48
it's a video of a family that's evacuating and it's very distressing. So I would, the children are in in the car with the dad and
Dr Robert Young
19:59
Okay.
Angela Casler
20:01
Like to see it. It was,
Dr Robert Young
20:03
Well,
Angela Casler
20:03
it's on Youtube,
Dr Robert Young
20:03
I, I think people would like to see it.
Angela Casler
20:04
so it's public.
Dr Robert Young
20:05
I just, maybe a warning to those who are watching this, that if you have young children. You're already distressed about what's happened, or what, what you're li, I mean, if, if you can handle this, just make sure that the, this, the information or what you might see might be disturbing to you on a mental and emotional level. So, so I, I put that warning out. There is To not watch this video if you're having any sort of uh, emotional challenges.
Angela Casler
20:43
Yes, and Dr., Young, my apologies, this is literally just a screenshot and uh, it does not include the video. But uh,
Dr Robert Young
20:49
Okay, well,
Angela Casler
20:50
I said this to my lawyers because they asked me after,
Dr Robert Young
20:50
that's fine.
Angela Casler
20:54
you know, going through a ton of stuff. They're like why didn't you take any pictures and they said well I was really just trying to save my life and I was not thinking about taking videos and so they were bewildered by that and so with our selfie world uh that we live in today uh I guess that can be expected right but I was shocked that they even asked me well why didn't you take any videos and so um uh as you can see this is a thirty forty foot wall of flame and so I was busy. I'll have to say God was with me and I don't know how I survived that, and my father in law was right behind me in his car and he also survived and I just actually can't believe.
Dr Robert Young
21:37
So you both uh, drove, drove into this uh, wall of fire. How long did that last while you were driving?
Angela Casler
21:45
that w fire is about a quarter of a mile and uh, it was a lot of people decided not to drive through it and went back up into town and tried to get out and go. Stuck in traffic and I decided to see and test my luck. The reason why is we live on a canyon and a ridge and um, the year before that had burnt down in a fire. Somebody started you know, just in their tool shed doing some work and the fire came right up the hill. So it had burnt down the year before. What I realized was everyone says, oh don't worry, we're safe now because everything burned down.
I said no, actually what's gonna burn like is going to be hotter than than the usual fire and it's gonna be pitch black smoke. And so I learned that, driving through that area and so that's about a quarter mile. And it was terrifying. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't. It was hot. Just watching the flames hit by window and just, you know, searing my car. And so it was. It was a truly, truly surreal. And so I just I just didn't know how brain I was. This picture.
Dr Robert Young
23:01
Well, I'm sure, I'm sure it's difficult even. Today to even think about or speak about. But thank you for, Angela, for for sharing your experience,
Angela Casler
23:13
Well, I wanted the people of Maui to know that what they went through horrific and it's going to really affect your mental state and we, personally I, I'll tell you, I didn't take care of myself for probably a whole year. I, you know, sometimes didn't brush my teeth or wash my face or, or like I didn't eat or I just cried every day. And so I just, it was just horrific what we've all been through. And I didn't want to trigger anyone who may be watching this video. Because why I'm doing this presentation today is more so about what we learned and to share our aftermath with you, to know what you might expect since our, the beginning of our fire starts were so similar.
And if I may, I just wanted to share, you know, just the picture in your background. Here's a different picture These are some photographs that were taken as and as you can see here, this is a full raging, our whole town is now engulfed and um, there are still people coming out and so, I, I don't know what time this picture was taken. I also wanted to share with you that I just remembered from a colleague of mine that shared that five Hawaiian Islands were in Paradise immediately after our fire, and what we found out was Fema was here a week before, just like in uh Maui.
They were in Oahu two days before and had taken a tour of Maui, and so uh, Fema was here before our fire as well. Same similarities. And then your Hawaiian Crews from the electrical company came and worked with our electric company to put out power poles. And so I just thought that was something really important that I just remember because there's just so much that happened that you don't remember everything. So what did they learn from our fire when you came? And uh, I'm sure that the people that were here were absolutely doing their job, but you know, it's not the people that you see on the front lines that are knowing about some of these things, but maybe learning from teaching and sharing uh, best practices on, how to recover or you know, what's gonna happen when a fire does occur in your particular town.
We also have this same excuse as you did that our utility company did not shut off the power because they, the weather conditions were not dangerous enough and so, you know, we have at least 50 mile hour wins to 70 mile Gus and so. And then right after our fire we also continued to get power safety shut off. Messages all the time because the fire was followed by flash floodings, pineapple express rains, where we had, you know, seven inches today, eight inches tomorrow, seven inches the next day and we were flooding out.
And so it was getting alerts every single day, multiple times a day that my property was flooding. But we were not allowed back into paradise for quite a long time as they tried to remove the block gates from the roads and also search for loved ones that were missing. And we, it was a horrible event. Just like you all going through Same similarity, Our government facilities didn't burn either. Fire departments are still standing. They all have uh, Fema money and federal tax dollars and grants from all over to get new fire trucks and um, our police officers as well, town Hall stands and so did our United States Postal Service and so, same situation that you're experiencing in your town as well.
Couple of uh things to share with you this is my property on the east side and our structure was a barn and pretty much the week before the fire we had just dried in with tai vec to get ready to put the siding on and we put this metal roof up in july and uh this was our property is twenty three acres over here right near lake orville and uh this whole thing was back burned by cal fire meanwhile on the news they were telling us that oh the fire crossed and jumped over the lake. And meanwhile they were back burning our properties.
So I just wanted to share that with you. Yes, watch the news, but also seek the truth and try to. When I called up Cal Fire to seee if they're coming back because they're required to come back and clean up our property, the person who answered the phone said we're done without fire, we're not doing any cleanup. And that was basically my response. And so we haven't been able to get any help. Not only after those flash floods, then we had two years of drought and these poor trees trying to live, just just couldn't.
It was just so much stress between the fire, a flood and then a drought and uh, so just everything's falling down. None of this is here now.
Dr Robert Young
28:46
So in on your property were were the trees burnt or just your, just the buildings,
Angela Casler
28:52
Oh well, this was back burn, so this wasn't part of the major inferno that I'm about to show you what it looks like,
Dr Robert Young
28:56
okay?
Angela Casler
28:59
Afterwards I snuck my father in law into his place because by uh, December he, he just couldn't take, not he didn't know if his place had burned down because do you see, there were units still standing at his, you know, this is a senior living complex. That was very nice and a, so we finally was able to talk a Chp officer into letting us just go right behind him and just take a look to seee if his house was still standing and so finally he knew. On December, I think it was December 12. So this is, you know, a whole month after just not knowing and uh.
All of these units that are standing are right by the main street where the wind was blowing. His is in the center and right across the street from him the buildings are standing as well. So fire makes its own wind and I don't know if we should get into that, but um. All of the buildings on the main street are all standing and the center was burned. And so, my father in law, got a hold of, we were able to find his property manager. Just, just by a fluke, I was looking to replace my car and I went into this used car dealer and he said, Oh my gosh, we're looking for your dad.
And it was just amazing. And so, we were able to get him in contact with them and then, they were gonna renovate these after, cleaning them up after the smoke and embers and uh, damage to them and so, he was fit on the list, to move in and so, that was, that was good news at the time. Up at Lime Saddle, we have, we're so lucky. We live amongst the bears and the mountain lines and all kinds of wildlife and uh, you know, just, just showing you some of our wildlife that really suffered and, you know, people had already gone to work in Paradise, and they couldn't get home to their children and pets and all kinds of terrible things, and so the suffering was great.
Not just to our people and our pets, but also to our wildlife. This is still while we're not allowed to get in.
Dr Robert Young
31:17
today you can't go in.
Angela Casler
31:19
no this we weren't allowed to go in for thirty six days um we were able to,
Dr Robert Young
31:23
Thirty six days I speak.
Angela Casler
31:26
you know, get some help to have the sheriff escort us for a 15 minute visit to pull our safe out and uh, for anyone who is listening, best thing to do is if you have a safe, is to put it on the outside wall because when your roof finally crashes into your house, it will continue to smoulder and burn. And ours was on an outside wall in the garage and the contents inside are safe, actually survived and Consequently, after that, basically we got that safe open with the help of a lot of people and um, then the safe company, which was uh, American security, they warranted our safe, sent us a new one, but they only drop it at the curve.
So at the, our temporary location, Jim and the Jim and a safe company gentlemen who were putting that safe in the house and at the last step, the, the safe lift, the battery died and they were did one last push and my husband tore his Achilles and so off to Sary he went.
Dr Robert Young
32:30
Oh, dear.
Angela Casler
32:32
And so you guys, this is this, you have survived one piece of of the puzzle and it continues on and on and on for years. And I just wanted you to know that, that we're here for you as well throughout this time. And we want you to know that you're going to experience a lot of loss that is going to continue in consecutive your family and friends that notices our continuing power safety messages that our electricity will be shut off tomorrow for high winds. That's what's happening today.
And it's smoky outside from the fires up north because we just had dry lightning about a week ago. So this is what my house looks like, that W. This is the main road. We were lucky to be able to get an escort for that. And I also wanted to share with you, those of you who have been through this event, if you're watching. People are gonna say the darkest things to you right now. They're gonna say at least you're alive, you're gonna start saying things well, at least my situation wasn't as bad as yours.
Angela Casler shares her experience of a house fire
Angela Casler
33:52
At least, at least, at least what I want you to do is take your time. A grief. Right now, this is hopefully the worst thing that's ever happened to you. Not hopefully, but when we say the worst thing that's ever happened to you, maybe it won't ever happen again, or, you know, does that make sense? And so people are just gonna try to console you and then they're gonna tell you their worst nightmare story as well and so just walk away if you can't mentally handle it. They're just trying to be helpful, they don't know what to say.
And I learned a valuable lesson from this because I used to do that to people that were going through tough times. I used to try to give them advice. Now I just simply say, I'm so sorry that happened to you, I'm here for you, I'm here for you any day, at any time. Meaning it and uh, just let don't spend your time being angry about things like this. People don't know what to say to you right now. Okay, I lived in Europe for ten years and was very lucky and The place that we lived was kind of a temporary place and we had all of our stuff in storage and all of my world trans are were in this shed and I was a young girl collecting all these things on a limited budget, and pottery from Portugal, and crystal from Poland, and these wonderful, beautiful pieces from the Czech Republic, and hummels from Germany I mean you name it, and so it just Just amazing.
You know, all of my, one of my Delft bosses from the Netherlands made it, but it's all black, so you can't display it, and it steams to high. Evan, this is what a metal will do. This was out in the open, not next to anything. Here's our fire hydrant, never untapped, never used. There was no fire fight, though there was no warning that there was a fire coming from both sides. Here's the canyon right there. That's how close the canyon is to our Uh. Fema uh, did a process. And the people who were searching through our properties, they would put an X on, on things such as vehicles or big out buildings that it had been searched.
They were looking for the people who were missing and they were also removing items that were hazardous. And so we had a lot of people trap sing through our property. We never found some things where we knew exactly where they were. One day I went there when we were allowed to go back in and somebody had left. I lived Texas. They left my Texas, plates for my car out, but took my European license plates. And I thought that was so helpful. And so, you know, just taking little souvenirs from your property, we didn't appreciate that whatsoever.
So people who are helping clean up those souvenirs may be the only thing that somebody can find in their, in their rubble. And it will, it's meaningless to you. But it may be so meaningful to that person. Again, this is my advice, just keep this is my freezer in the garage and my file cabinets and you open this up and it's just all black charred paper. And so there was food in the ref, in the freezer actually from frozen meals and uh, they looked like they had been microwaved. That was crazy.
And so just uh, giving you some tips here.
Dr Robert Young
37:23
Oh, maybe, maybe they were microwave.
Angela Casler
37:27
I agree, right? And so how did our cars just uh, you know, melt like that? And this bush is still standing right next to it. Look in my car. And so, you know what I'm saying? So uh, this is my house, this is my neighbor's house. Our entire street burned down and uh, the sheriff just couldn't believe it. He was out taking pictures himself and so, our toilets were gone. This is a picture of my, one of our restrooms and So here is our couch and then, where is our This is part of a a shower. Where is our toilet and our sing?
And here's my laundry machine.
Dr Robert Young
38:11
Did you have did you have a porcelain sink or a stainless steel sink?
Angela Casler
38:16
It was porcelain and so a porcelain, you know, toilet pool and they're all gone. But you know, we were all just like, wow, where is our, our bathroom? You know, kitchen sink with stainless steel. It might be maybe it's still in that rubble. I didn't actually take note of the kitchen sink, but Funny enough, my late my neighbor left her car out on the street and it's perfectly fine. My car right next to it, literally her car is over here and my car completely burned down in this car. Just fine.
Dr Robert Young
39:00
So maybe the,
Angela Casler
39:00
so.
Dr Robert Young
39:01
maybe, maybe the fire had its boundaries it couldn't cross.
Angela Casler
39:08
so this is that same story, just to share with you. Hawaiian Electric was here, working with Pgi, and uh, they you know they were working with a company need Badger to put up our post. So what you can expect is your Your town is about to become a construction zone for at least the next five years, heavy construction and then ten years 1st thing is going to be infrastructure. So hopefully the 1st thing that your electric company will do is underground your electric if that's possible and to make sure that you never have to worry about down power poles in your way again, obstructing you from being able to get out of your town.
Recovery Efforts and Legal Issues in Paradise, California
Angela Casler
39:52
And so a couple of things I wanted to share, if that's okay, is what you expect.
Dr Robert Young
39:56
Hey.
Angela Casler
39:58
Basically our uh, city of Chico, which is our neighboring town, we had a vacant building and one of the town councilors, suggested we use that vacant building to set up a huge recovery center. And what worked so well was our county, all of the services came there so people could replace their deeds, get their Dmv, driver's license and titles. I'm sorry we had to go to Dmv, but you could get, some of your records from the county offices, like if you, it was property tax time, so I, I didn't, you know, I had that on my desk and so then I could pay my property taxes.
And so, you know, the insurance companies were there, Fema was there and they told us we should register, right? And so we did. Basically, they told us we waited in a big long line and we waited a few weeks to go because we didn't You know, we were still in a hotel and it's an hour drive and we were in no rush to like go stand in line and it literally felt like I was a refugee. Standing in a food line. For the very 1st time in my life I was homeless. I didn't know where I was gonna live and I was literally a rain soak standing in line in a giant long line.
Two weeks after this opened and uh, waited 4 h for us, say, nope, you have a job and you have insurance, we can help you. And then next was my father in law who we encouraged to get, rental insurance and um, and they were like, oh, you don't have insurance, here's a check. And so years later, there are some people that they're requiring to pay them back. So just see, just to share that with you. We were told because we couldn't get help from Fema, that we should have apply for an Sba loan because I ran a home office out of my house and uh, so we went over to the Small Business Administration area and we sat down and all the paperwork went to the Irs website, got all of our income statements that we no longer had.
See how many safety alerts we're getting just being on the phone with you right now. Dr. Young This is the 3rd one you might have heard.
Dr Robert Young
42:24
Help.
Angela Casler
42:27
So anyway, the Sba. We started this process and they advertised to you it's a low interest loan of 2 %. There's posters going out all over Facebook, come on down, get your Sba loan. And as you go through the underwriting process, they call you up and they say, Well, we're gonna take your land as collateral,
Dr Robert Young
42:49
Oh, boy, I see.
Angela Casler
42:52
please don't do that. Y'all don't sign over your land to, the Small Businesss Administration if you don't need need that loan, don't even apply for a waste your time. They're just gonna make you mad. And uh, yes, there's triggers right there. I honestly felt like they were trying to make us mad.
Dr Robert Young
43:11
Well,
Angela Casler
43:11
Please.
Dr Robert Young
43:11
I, I do have, do have a couple of questions. Did do they make any, exceptions or changes within the property tax? That would be since it changed the fact that you no longer had a home there on the property. We're just talking about dirt.
Angela Casler
43:29
Oh, our poor accessors office. I mean, you're gonna be so busy. Everybody on your island and um, they did a great job, they, you know. Accepted our late payments until whenever and um, they had to reassess everyone's property and it took a while. So that year, I can't remember, I don't, I can't tell you the truth, I don't know the answer to that right now. And then afterwards, you know, of course, your property value is low. Because you didn't have your house. And so, and then every year they'll be asking you, have you done any upgrades, Can you send us some updates so we can reassess your value and things like that?
So yes, you can.
Dr Robert Young
44:11
What is the purpose of having Dna analysis? Is.
Angela Casler
44:16
Well, you've heard on the news, how many people are still missing and So they're asking everyone to give a Dna sample so that when they do find remains that they are able to match that up Dna to Dna. Which is a really smart thing to do. And our anthropology unit here at our university did a fantastic job with that. But since we've learned since the Covid, pandemic that Dna is being collected through the Pcr tests and antibody testing and, and that these labs all over the world by many different governments are being used to design bio weapons to target your dna so I would just recommend to really think that through as to who you give your dna to um you know we've you know ancestry dot com just got bought out by another company so you just never know where your data goes that's you that's your that's your human uh your human kindness right and so that's your footprint and so um if you haven't already done it um just give it some thought um lawyers we hear aaron brockovich is already there she did the same thing she came here um and you know just d so many people they you know she's a star and uh you know we all know her background how much she hates pg e and so um you know hods of people went to go hear her speak and then she uh turned everybody over to uh watt gara one of the law firms who was all in ma you already and um, so you know, they, they're quick.
And what I want you to know is choose your lawyer carefully. I'm gonna tell you, not one person from Paradise, California has told me that their lawyer cares about them. They see us as a cash cow. We are dollar signed and you're sign over a 3rd of anything that you might receive from whatever might happen in the future to your lawyers. So I would not sign any contract yet. You're in mourning and they're taking advantage of that right now. I would wait and listen to several of them negotiate your fees down to at least twenty five percent because right now the irs is also requiring uh taxes on any kind of emotional distress loss of income and uh for personal and business okay um so there's a lot that you're learn Uh, for that and You know, team up with our town, we could absolutely share so many lessons learned with you, if you'd like to and uh, we wanna try to help you to not make the same mistakes that we did.
So choose your lawyer carefully, know that they don't care about, you know that they are there to, to get the most horrific claims in their books, okay, so if you have a family member that died, they are going to be fighting over you, okay, and it's horrific, embarrassing and very humiliating. And so I hope any lawyers that might be listening here is, I hope that you will turn the tide and um, maybe you've done this for many, many decades where you represented personal injury, but we really would like you to actually care about us as well.
Dr Robert Young
47:54
so there was uh I think you mentioned earlier uh over twenty five thousand buildings in paradise and then I think you made a statement about fourteen Teen Thousand.
Angela Casler
48:07
fourteen thousand four hundred buildings burned down about twenty six thousand people live there.
Dr Robert Young
48:11
I see. So that was, I guess the simple math would be over 60 %. Paradise was destroyed.
Angela Casler
48:24
Oh no, 14. Hundred structures were less standing, so about 10 % was less standing,
Dr Robert Young
48:30
okay so you said fourteen hundred not four fourteen thousand.
Angela Casler
48:30
90 % was destroyed. no fourteen thousand were burned down fourteen hundred were left standing so that could have been a business with woman's yeah so ninety percent of her town burned down sorry Yes,
Dr Robert Young
48:39
I see 14 hundred, okay, well, that's, that's a diff, that's a different number. So that only, only 10 % survived the fire.
Angela Casler
48:48
and what was weird was it was a lot of manufactured homes that were still standing.
Dr Robert Young
48:48
so.
Angela Casler
48:55
and so when our town asked our community and we, they did a lot of surveys. Which I, which I highly recommend that you do, is what do you want to see your town re built like, And a lot of people are saying no manufactured homes, but when they did the survey, everyone responded all of the above. However, someone can get home, that's how they get home. And so Yorks our town was offered. I can't remember how many Yorks, but they sent them away. They said we don't want those Yorks. Even though our people were literally homeless, living in their cars, and so, yeah, there's a lot you need to be engaged.
We'll talk about that later. Did you have more questions before I go on?
Tax Relief and Deductions for Fire Losses
Dr Robert Young
49:39
Okay, what about the Irs?
Angela Casler
49:42
Oh,
Dr Robert Young
49:43
Do they, are they gonna give you a break at all? Or, you know, how's the best way to handle, taxes after a great loss like this? And and is, is the loss deductible?
Angela Casler
49:56
You're going to get so much. Information if they open a Fema center. So you have to do your homework and of course hire an expert. Okay, so your Cpa for your taxes, you need to hire your lawyer and um, you're going to need probably some financial assistance of some sort. And so, here's what we were told at the Fema center by the person who is staffing, who is an auditor for the Irs. He was staffing the table. He says you're not gonna have to pay taxes for the rest of your life because of your losses.
We were like, really What it really meant was you have to itemize all of your personal belongings and uh, calculate the amount of your loss. Your structural, losses that aren't covered by your insurance. So anything not covered by insurance is your loss. And so we did that. And then it turns out when you actually read the disaster research cours guide it is based on your adjusted gross income well Jim and I are at our you know top earning years of our lives and so for us it was super helpful the irs helped us and we got refunded for two years of taxes we had paid for twenty seventeen and twenty sixteen and um they did that very quickly and um we are grateful for that help because that really helped us to replace uh you know we lost our our two cars and um everything and so um and really just that helped a lot and that helped me not to have to take out that sba loan so I would say if you are looking to not um seek government assistance.
This would be your 1st route that you go ahead and you know, hire a Cp and help you, with your tax refunds to uh, file for your adjusted gross income, refunds and so What does that mean? Say your loss is a hundred thousand keep the mask simple and say you make a hundred thousand dollars okay that's your adjusted gross income is you make a hundred thousand dollars gross okay before you pay taxes and all your deductions so that means that um for that one year you can claim a hundred thousand dollars of personal loss due to your fire and then for your twenty uh twenty twenty two taxes you can get your your refunds back from that taxes that you paid last year but because your losses were a hundred thousand and you make a hundred thousand you you've exhausted the number of years that you can go back and claim refunds so say if.
Dr Robert Young
52:48
How many years do they allow you to go back? Three years.
Angela Casler
52:52
It is three years yeah um you know I'm not sure I I can't remember the details on that as far as I remember It's based on your Aj adjusted gross income to meet the amount of your loss. So say you a retiree, then it could years, you could still be able to clean your refunds back for years and years and years and so.
Dr Robert Young
53:15
So the reason for that is because the money that you use to purchase or accumulate whatever the wealth is, was done with after tax dollars. Is a real loss, that hundred thousand that you now can claim as a deduction to offset, up to a hundred thousand dollars worth of taxable income and depend, depending on your tax bracket, that could be substantial. Do the California state income tax, do they also Give uh, relief on taxes per state taxes if you lived in the state of California,
Angela Casler
53:56
I have to apologize. You really stretch in my memory. That I don't remember that. I think it's just the Irs, but it could be wrong.
Dr Robert Young
54:05
okay. So that's something you need to check with your, your, your accountant, your Cpa, because you,
Angela Casler
54:12
Yes.
Dr Robert Young
54:13
you know what's good for, you know what the Irs is doing may not be the case for the state, but you need, for those in the Maui fires that lost. Personal effects You need to check also if that's going to apply for Hawaii income tax relief for that state.
Angela Casler
54:37
exactly. And I'm sure if your Assemblymen and uh, senators from your state government are with you and uh, they wanna help you, this can be one of those things that they might be able to help you with, to create legislation in the amount, in the effect of an emergency. Great point. You're going to See construction for a long time. We call it disaster capitalism, where we saw tons and tons of government contractors in our town doing various things. This is our 1st driving to our friends house.
Discussion on the Environmental Impact of the Fire and Construction
Angela Casler
55:21
You'll just see, this is probably about 20 days after the fire.
Dr Robert Young
55:38
Trees are standy, but not any houses. Especially in such a dense wooded area.
Angela Casler
55:47
Yes, we lived in a forest. It was beautiful. It's still as beautiful in a different way,
Increased Sentiment

Dr Robert Young
55:56
Well, looks like the forest survived the the the buildings didn't.
Increased Sentiment

Angela Casler
55:56
this video. here is a badger truck right there. What are they doing? They were supposed to be putting up power pole. They were digging something out, construction, construction, construction. So just know, there is a lott of people gonna be in your town walking through your properties as well and so. Protect your town, and this is to all people. Maybe your town could be next. That's one of those 14 hundred houses is still standing. Just to give you a look, that's one another major route, within our town, what it looks like after the rain.
Increased Sentiment

Here is a video. Let me see if I can find our chem trails. We were being trails. Its afterwards and before, and we continue to be chem trailed. See that big X in the sky there? I don't know if I can capture the whole thing, but literally it was an X in the sky and I was just looking at that video. I couldn't believe it, so just wanted to share with you. That's also the same situation that you're going through now. We did as well and it continues Um, you know, we heard you had a hurricane warning right after your fire, we did to, and so this is our flood.
We live in orchards, this is all the way up to the tree canopy, the floods, and we were just coming back from meeting our progressive insurance adjuster to help us with one of our claims. We had nine claims with nine insurance adjusters and so we were just getting inundated with those. Weather warnings and flash flood warnings that, and of course all of the debris from all those homes and things is in the water system and uh, terrible.
Dr Robert Young
58:02
When you're saying between Ken trails, toxins coming from the sky, that gets into the soil. That gets into the water, but then also all of the worldly things that burned into the soil and into the into the water. So these, these ashes, this white ash that you see there was that also. Of your concern as it relates to the the pollutions into the soils and into the water.
Angela Casler
58:37
Yes, and I want to warn everyone, this is toxic, what you had in your home, you know, there's all kinds of chemicals in the fiberglass for your insulation. Like this is dry, well, this white stuff you see and also, the roof, what you're seeing on top is after those heavy floods, this is our roof that you're seeing, okay, so those are our shingles. 4th alert Since I've been talking to you, and we had pesticides, we had fertilizer, we had propane, we had, you know, natural gas heating our home.
So during the fire this all goes in the air and then it's all settle wherever it lands onto the ground. All of this with the rain, it's seeping into the ground. And when they did debris cleanup, they had all kinds of specialists come in to do the soil test to see how far they needed to dig down into the dirt to remove all of the toxins that seep through the dirt. So I believe the same thing is happening in Maui, that they had a hurricane warning right after. So they're gonna have the same situation.
They will get the same exact treatment that says you cannot be in your property because the soil is toxic. And that's what we were told that we were not allowed to live on our own land. And so, you know, just be careful and live, you know, away from your debris pile and um, please do not dig through this without protective equipment like a tie, Bac suit and gloves for sure. And I wore plastic rain boots. If you can get a hold of something like that, that really helps me a lot to walk through this mucky stuff.
And uh, for us it was all muck because it was like flooded after the fire. We never saw it when it was just ash.
Dr Robert Young
1:00:30
Go back? Could you go back to that last picture, that you were showing? Not that one, but the, the one before. Could you just comment on the uh, Italian cypress trees that uh, I, I notice that there is uh, at least two of them standing. Did you ever notice that or.
Angela Casler
1:00:52
you know, at my own property, our cypress actually took, took it pretty well, and I don't know how. They're all dead now. We've, we've cut them all down. They died during the drought. They were just so stressed from being treated like this, you know, overheated and then poured upon and wins and then, then you got uh, drop and you're starting the, and so yeah,
Personal Experience and Advice for Finding Belongings After a Disaster
Dr Robert Young
1:01:18
Okay.
Angela Casler
1:01:19
no one there to take care of that.
Dr Robert Young
1:01:20
Thank you.
Angela Casler
1:01:22
Thanks for pointing that out. There Landfall. So I wanted to just share with you, I, I couldn't sleep at night, I had terrible dreams about why in the world didn't you bring jam, any clothes, why in the world didn't you grab your jewelry, why in the world didn't you wear that ring that you just had on yesterday? And I couldn't sleep and so I would wake up with like night terrors and that might happen to you for quite a while and so I needed to dig. So when they let us back in, I think it was December 18, I 1st went for finding my, my pets.
I died, and so we had their urns, and so we knew exactly where their collars were and their urns were. It was so easy to pick out their remains, because Anna's were a little bit red, and Rogers were like bright white, and all of the fire stuff was grey, so like we found it within minutes, and It was right on top of our dresser in our bedroom where my husband's ring,
Dr Robert Young
1:02:23
Hello.
Angela Casler
1:02:28
that we had made together from his time in, serving in Afghanistan. He brought home these beautiful jewels and we made rings together. And so I, I had had mine on that day, but he, his was right in that dresser, right next to the dog's urns and that was missing. And this is my ruby necklace and There's, you'll find, you'll find some things. And so, I was lucky to work on a lot of military bases overseas and you know, the sergeant majors and uh, commander. Would give you coins. And so I was lucky to find these.
You know, they have forever changed, but they really mean a lot to me and the special people I met throughout my life. And boy, just to find anything is really exciting. And so, but wear gloves and you know, I wore a ti vec suit and then I brought a big huge toe with me and lots of water and I just chucked it all in there to get all the ash off of it as much as you can and then really put it in something air tight. Because if you put it in your car and if even just a little bit of that water gets in your upholstery, it's just going to stink to high.
Evans for years, and so my trunk still stinks. These are my doll colors. I don't care what they look like, they're on their current earns now. We brought new ones and put them back in there and so you totally meaningless to anybody but you, right? But these things will matter. So, you know, Sift if you want Home Depot, I don't know if you have Home Depot. They did a great job and um, their employees just one built a whole bunch of sifting boxes, and we couldn't sift because all of our stok was a mucky mess of mud, and so but I just scooped stuff into a big toe, and then took it over to my barn and left it there until summer, and then I sifted through it, and I was able to find just a few more things.
Rebuilding and Advocating for the Community
Angela Casler
1:04:24
You can expect to rebuild. You've seen it. We've all, you know, been through the pandemic and the shutdown and supply chain interruptions and, you know, the price changes and so, that happened immediately after, you know, trying to get settled back in. And so right now the cost to rebuild in our town is going for a million dollars, for a thousand square feet. And in our town you're just not gonna sell your home for a million dollars unless, you know, so, so immediately our town started making new codes.
So if you have the strength and if you convey in together, I suggest to set Citizens counsels, you know, go to the meetings, be engaged and if they're not listening to you, just fire them and uh, you create your own council and so, there are no rules right now, you have no town, right? So um, if they tell you no, you can't build on that on your land because you don't have enough egress or ease mins or whatever they want to say to you, stick together folks, no matter. I understand how tired and exhausted and grief you are right now.
This is super important. It will determine the next five years, what happens in your town, what happens in the next month, okay? Particularly watch out for the elderly and your low income residents. They're gonna come in and eventually they'll ship some of these Fema camps over to you and um, I remember, you know, we had short term evacuation centers, right? But I know a couple of people that lived in these shelters and they were very happy to have a roof over. They had, but every week they had to check in to say, did you look for an apartment?
It was kind of like going on unemployment where you have to send in that form where you're proving that you're looking for a job, that you looked and want you. An interviews the same thing with Fema. If you live in their housing, that they will make you check in. And it was really, really hard to get them to accept pets. And so it was, everything was a battle, okay, So just don't give up because your people need you and they need your strong voices right now, those of you who are strong right now.
And it's okay if you're not strong but still, you know, try to be, tactically, you know, assertive as possible, okay, And so please watch out for your elderly and low income and um, one of the things that I think really worked for our town was that, you know, we're really focused on getting our businesss owners. Back into the area because everyone was just You know, trying to seee what businesses we could start getting rebuilt. That people really needed and those that, you know, the 14 hundred homes that didn't burn down, they, they needed the grocery store and they, you know, they needed, They needed their doctors and their dentists and they were all over the place.
We all had to find all of them, and then many of them closed down, many of them moved away. It was just a mess. So it's, you know, your whole life is up ended, It's not just, it's not just you lost everything, your whole life is up ended. So we understand that. And so, you know, you utilize your social media to find your doctors, find your pastors, find your peoples and um, you know, I was able to find my dad's church, my church, you know, send us text messages that they found a place that we could meet in.
Chico, Another church just said we're going to give you our church, we're going to go meet in this little temporary location and you can meet in our church. I mean, amazing things happen, so much kindness and so, it's the people that are gonna recover, your help, your town recover for sure, Most of our bids to rebuild were from locals. And they were just outrageous. And so I again called out disaster capitalism, these are our neighbors, yes. For us, what happened is our electricity company, you know, one of the hooks, fell on the major transmission lines and uh, you know.
There's, there's a few things that remain to be seen still. But um, Pg filed bankruptcy immediately. Our Daa was really good at being able to secure the equipment and um, to start the investigation with the firefighters. And so that was a really important part of our recovery. A couple of things I wanted to say to you all, those of you who Out of the burn scar they're going call it the burn scar. I hate that word. I am scarred. I have a burn scar in my body, you know.
Dr Robert Young
1:09:15
Hey.
Angela Casler
1:09:15
but I need you to advocate for the people who lost everything right now, not just with donations and your help and all that you're doing, and I know you're tired, but I need you to get your people together, from local, state, and federal legislatures and um, you know, just really make sure that you protect your elderly and your low income people right away. You know, people in our town said, oh, we can't stand on the site of all these Rvs on people's property. So right away people went out and they bought an Rv, and or people, you know, had given them an Rv.
And so there was all these citizens that were doing tremendous things to like pick them up and drive them to their homes and, and place them and cook up water lines and You know, you know, your sewage was gone, so our septic tanks were gone, so you know, the septic tank guy was still, you know, still around, so he was like putting people septic in and Pg was hooking up temporary power and it was uh, it was really remarkable, but then people got really sick of it cause some people, didn't set up their infrastructure and they wanted the Rvs gone off people's properties.
So just just advocate for what you think is right as a town, what people need is a roof over their head and safety. And your home is, is your safety circle. And so, I would, you know, recommend setting. Our town refused to do t