MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — As recovery in Medical Lake continues, people who lost their homes in the Gray Fire last summer are still waiting on an answer from FEMA.
Nearly five months ago, Kaye Peterson grabbed her bible, a pillow and her laptop.
"That's what I had when I left and God has provided everything else," Peterson said.
Two months before the fire, she started living and working at the Silver Lake Bible Camp. Now, she's living in town with friends.
"The experience, not what I would have signed up for, but I'm glad I'm here," Peterson said.
Other fire victims are still on their properties, but many are living in campers or RVs. The county has earmarked tens of thousands of dollars of state funds to winterize them. But, that added insulation may not be enough with negative temps in the forecast.
"If you are any of the folks who are currently living in your RVs, if you feel that that is no longer doable for you with the temperatures we are expecting, please reach out to your disaster case manager," Chandra Fox with Spokane County Emergency Management said. "If you don't have one yet please get one because we do have funding available for assistance to get you a motel room or something through this frigid cold weather."
During the first community meeting of 2024, officials reminded people to connect with a Salvation Army Case Manager if they haven't already. Case managers connect people with resources and funding they may qualify for.
"If you don't qualify for something now, it doesn't mean you will never qualify for something," said Andrea Reedy with the Salvation Army.
Case managers are also vetting fire victims to ensure resources are going where they are supposed to. Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper told KREM 2 they've uncovered some fraud in the process.
"Once we began working through case management, we found there's a few, not many, but a few that actually used somebody's address and either the home wasn't even burned and it wasn't even their home or that the home was burned and they weren't the owner or they were squatting on that property and they had no right to begin with," Cooper said.
Cooper is also working with the sheriff's office. She said there have been reports of people coming into town and stealing building supplies.
"They have been diligent to then step up the patrols, get information and try to find suspects and things but it has happened," Cooper said. "Even as soon as folks came back into their homes there were instances where maybe somebody came and stole the last thing they had which was their solar panel that didn't burn or something. It's just strange that people would do that."
As Medical Lake rebuilds and looks to the future, Peterson is counting down the months until she can move back to the bible camp she was forced to leave.
"I have got a new house coming in," Peterson said. "The goal is to be in by June 1."
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