These messages are from Doctors Robert "Lamebull" and Kathy "Spearaki" McDonald and their brave 12 year old daughter Natika.
Please feel free to send this message to all.
Freida
11/3/2007
I have just received a message from Dr McDonald. The need right now is for
blankets, canned goods and other necessities.
We have had a few donations and Dr McDonald will be working to
find a local source such as Wal-Mart to purchase what is needed most.
Kathy told me that there was a delivery of blankets to victims
staying at the fire station but they were moldy and unusable.
Sound familiar? Remember small pox?
Also, some of the Reservations are so remote there is only a small
dirt road to get there. Most of the vehicles were burned. Robert
said it was like a war zone, gas tanks blowing up everywhere.
Thank you to all who have donated so far.
Victor Rocha of the Pechanga Tribe will be submitting a press release.
When it is out I will post it.
Remember to pray for our brothers and sisters.
Freida
Hello All
Here are some photos from the fire zone. Our clinic in Rincon is open again
today for urgent care only.
I spent some time in the mobile unit at the San Pasqual tribal office today. Still getting a lot of smoke inhalation
and asthma exacerbations. Particulate matter will likely linger in the air for several more days. Thank God for
Dr. Hi Tran who hand delivered hundreds of albuterol inhalers, combivent and
Flonase!
Kathy, Natika and I, have just returned to our house today after a full week of
evacuation from the fire. We left when
we saw a wall of flame coming at us with an occasional burst of fire shooting hundreds of feet into the sky.
I did not even think that was possible. We found out later they were called "fire tornados" They make a very
hot wind which helped prompt our decision to evacuate.
Our house survived but we lost some trees, water, power, missing a cat.
Ashes are in our living room and garage
but we cant find any source of fire inside the house. I think the strong winds
somehow blew them in from the outside.
Natika's baby sitter and her family lost everything including all their horses,
cattle and even the chickens. All the animals are dead.
Her pregnant dog was scared and ran into the house and would not come out. It could not be found before it was too late.
Many of our friends and patients on the reservations we service also lost
everything.
Kathy and I try to help out as best we can by staffing mobile medical clinics
inside the road blocks and inside the fire zone.
The fire burnt right up to our clinic parking lot. We helped set up disaster relief centers
at Harrah's Rincon casino a few hundred yards from where we usually work at the Indian health Council Clinic,
one at the Pechanga casino, and we brought some meds and supplies in to the camp
at the Valley Center High School gym.
Our pharmacist was holed up in the dark at the main clinic and helped send
us boxes of meds we requested
from the mobile medical units. Our pharmacy ran out of inhalers and other important meds that we needed both
for the evacuees and the firefighters so Dr. Tran brought in several hundred
inhalers from Beverly Hills.
We will meet at the main clinic in about 10 hours to plan what to do next to
continue to provide medical care to the area.
Some of our reservations are still under road block, on fire, and people are
evacuated.
Hope all is well. I never thought I would say it but, I miss the rain.
Your friend,
Robert
Robert, our hearts and prayers go out to you and all of our brothers and sisters on the
9 reservations your clinic serves. I have set up a donation account for Firestorm Relief.
I hope all who read this can contribute.
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Even the Church was burned
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