Smith: There’s no driving in or out for residents up Old Cazadero Road

Need you ask how things are going, post deluge, up above Guerneville on Devils Backbone Ridge Road and nearby Old Cazadero Road?

There’s no driving in or out since a slide undercut the first road and a collapsed section of pavement foils passage on the second. So a dozen or two residents are improvising, and at present the Wildwood retreat center on dead-end Old Caz is much harder to get to than it cares to be.

“I don’t want to scare people,” said Ron Wood, president of the board of the nonprofit foundation that operates the tucked-away, 210-acre sanctuary for gay men. “But, yes, we’re closed. We had to cancel the last two events we had scheduled.”

As Wildwood staffers and directors hope overwhelmed Sonoma County road crews will repair Old Caz sooner than later, they’re plotting how to get visitors to the retreat in the meantime.

It’s a pretty good hike from the slipped section of Old Caz to Wildwood. Wood envisions driving clients from Guerneville to the slip, then having them walk alongside the damaged section of road to all-terrain buggies for a ride to the retreat center.

People living in a handful of country homes along Old Caz and the private Devils Backbone Ridge Road are practicing patience and dealing with being isolated.

“We can’t go up or down,” said resident Harry Haigler, a professor emeritus at UC Irvine’s school of medicine. Fortunately for him, he owns a motorcycle that allows him passage on the damaged roads.

Even more propitiously, when last week’s storm struck, Haigler had a pickup parked down the hill. On Monday, he drove it into Santa Rosa to shop and run errands for himself and for neighbors.

He bought groceries and hardware, then drove up Old Caz as far as he could and was met by neighbors at the slip.

“We aren’t complaining,” Haigler said.

He and his neighbors and the people running the Wildwood Retreat Center know much effort has begun to repair storm and flood damage. They know also there are people in Guerneville and elsewhere who are far worse off than they are.

The souls beyond the slip on Old Caz don’t expect any special treatment. But they’d hope not to be forgotten.

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IT’S CHILI INSIDE: There’s a great deal going on in west Sonoma County as people dig out and clean up from the flooding, and pitch in for neighbors needing a hand.

On Friday there’s a meal to raise money to restore and reopen the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. Highlighting a buffet dinner from 6 to 9 p.m. will be chili with all the fixings.

The benefit happens at the Sebastopol Community Church on Gravenstein Highway North. Dinner is $15.

Donations to fix the community center also can go to seb.org/?floodfundraiser.

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GETTING SOME FOOD to people in and around Guerneville distressed by the flooding is Job No. 1 to community volunteer Jeniffer Wertz.

She asks that anyone concerned about Russian River folks in crisis donate to the Russian River Alliance at P.O. Box 904, Monte Rio 95462, or www.russianriveralliance.org.

Wertz is purchasing and distributing gift cards to the Guerneville Safeway.

“I’ve had to turn people away and it was heartbreaking,” she said.

You can contact Staff Columnist Chris Smith at 707- 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.