SPOKANE, Wash — More than five months after two wildfires devastated Elk and Medical Lake, much of the recovery is at a standstill.
Wednesday, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) held a roundtable in Spokane County to hear from state and local leaders, as well as those involved first-hand in the recovery effort, about what's holding up the process.
"They're waiting, those who lost their homes and those who want to help meet the need," McMorris Rodgers said. "Everything's on hold."
The meeting came just days after the congresswoman and Senator Maria Cantwell sent a letter, pressing President Joe Biden for a decision on a federal emergency declaration for the two wildfires. Between the communities in Elk and Medical Lake, the August fires burned 22,484 acres and destroyed 366 homes. A federal declaration would open up FEMA assistance, but more than 100 days since Washington Governor Jay Inslee asked the Biden administration to make such a move, there's been no word on if that will become available.
The issues with federal and state funding have left residents, like Kaye Peterson, caught in the middle.
"It's the indecision of not having the resources when we've got an immediate need," Peterson said.
She lost her home at the Silver Lake Bible Camp in the Gray Fire, along with several other camp employees who lived on site. Like many others between the two communities, Peterson hasn't been able to lay down a new foundation, even as winter closed in, because of building permit backlogs.
Many homeowners, Dick Ziehnert of Elk's long-term recovery group said, have dealt with frustrating red tape surrounding asbestos testing and debris clean-up.
"We'd never heard of that before," he explained to McMorris Rodgers. "So, the edict came down that you will not touch any clean up activity until asbestos has been identified or tested and then proper mitigation."
Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper elaborated that the testing costs around $3,500; it can run tens of thousands of dollars if asbestos is detected and needs to be cleaned up, she said. Many residents are fronting those costs themselves.
Ziehnert mentioned that while state funding was provided to help with the testing, there weren't enough labs available to test the thousands of samples from hundreds of homeowners.
"So, we had to do the same thing, get all our asbestos testing squared away," Peterson said. "We've got one person who is living at camp in an RV right now, to my knowledge he still hasn't gotten results back yet."
Mayor Cooper says much of the hazardous debris, asbestos "hot" or not, has yet to be cleaned up because of those delays. That's as snow and rain leach those chemicals into the ground and toward the Spokane River.
The backlog isn't the only burden still slowing down recovery. Ziehnert said other surprise costs, like the fires burning so hot they destroyed underground wells and septic systems, have eaten up insurance for many homeowners.
He explained "no one" was adequately insured, given inflation, to make up for the unexpected costs of cleaning up their own properties.
It's one reason Mayor Cooper is pushing for revamped disaster response within the state legislature, backing bills that would create long-term recovery programs and assistance.
"We need to start thinking about wildfires like hurricanes and tornadoes, the government comes in and does the public safety clean up because it's all hazardous waste," she said Wednesday.
Washington's director of emergency management Robert Ezelle explained Governor Inslee is stretching $5 million in state assistance to help those who are uninsured, and doing what they can to reach even more who were underinsured.
"Essentially [Inslee] drained his entire emergency assistance fund for the year," Ezelle said.
With no answers on possible FEMA assistance and lingering confusion over local and state resources, it's still not enough for many people. Ziehnert says some residents are waiting out the limbo until spring, not knowing if any expenses they take on themselves will be reimbursed. Others simply can't afford to tackle the mounting costs on their own.
"We just really want to impress on the White House and the president the importance of a decision," McMorris Rodgers said.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.