Valley fire: Plenty of supplies, but money needed for relief efforts

Private efforts to assist thousands of evacuees from the raging Valley fire took shape while the moon was still full - and just kept going.

Rob DiPietro of Santa Rosa drove more than 200 cases of water to Lake County at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. By mid-morning, he had marshaled a fleet of flatbed trucks and pickups to caravan into Lake County with supplies ranging from dog food to feminine products to water, collected from individuals and chain and local stores.

DiPietro was planning to head for Hidden Valley Lake, where his nephew’s ex-wife and her children live; they are now staying with family in Windsor, wondering whether their home survived.

“We’re going to get in there as far as we can,” DiPietro said.

So many people had sent or delivered supplies to the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga and other locations that by the day’s end, the organizations on the receiving end were calling for at least a temporary halt.

“We have been inundated all day long with supplies - we had to tell them to stop because we couldn’t manage them all,” said Pam Ingalls of Calistoga, president of Wine Country Animal Lovers, a nonprofit animal welfare group.

“We have so much that now we have to manage it down,” she said.

The American Red Cross generally only accepts monetary donations and that is what is needed right now, said Kathleen Maclay, a public affairs volunteer with the agency, which is operating the Calistoga evacuee operation and also a 500-person site at Kelseyville High School.

“It is so early, there’s no way to estimate the financial needs,” she said. “And it is next to impossible to say how many people we are going to see.”

Officials were reporting late Sunday that as many as 19,000 people had been evacuated.

The Red Cross is partnering with the Church of Latter-day Saints to manage non-monetary donations in Clear Lake and Lakeport, Maclay said. Donations are being accepted at 14970 Lakeview Way in Clearlake, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and at 600 16th St. in Lakeport, she said.

“Yesterday evening, I don’t think anyone could have estimated the problem would be as massive in scale as it is now,” she said.

Financial donations can be made by calling 577-7607, by mail to 5297 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa, 95403, or through the American Red Cross of the California Northwest Facebook page.

Also, employees at The Engine is Red, a creative design agency in Santa Rosa, built an online resource of ways to donate, ?volunteer and otherwise support victims of the fire: ?www.lovelakecounty.org.

“A lot of people this morning were wanting to help and didn’t know where to turn,” said Chris Denny, the company’s president.

You can reach Staff Writer?Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or?jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay.