Standing beside the burned-out remnants of her home in an Altadena community devastated by the Eaton Fire, Bridgette Bradley was overcome with grief.
She declared, “This is my home,” “My home is gone.”
For the past three years, Bradley, a single mother of three, has been renting at the Harriet Street house using Section 8 housing vouchers. The remains of her youngest son Nehemiah’s special needs chair were among the debris. It was determined that the 5-year-old had cerebral palsy.
He has previously survived multiple operations and other crises. Just as things were starting to get better, the Eaton Fire broke out four days prior to his fifth birthday.
Bradley has spent thousands of dollars staying at a nearby motel without a place to call home while she awaits financial support from FEMA and her insurance provider.
She questioned, “How do you even rebuild,” “Where do you even start?”
FEMA reported providing survivors of the Palisades and Eaton Fires with cash assistance totaling around $50 million. FEMA had received 112,000 applications, including Bradley’s. According to FEMA, little over 22,000 applications have been accepted.
They established their third disaster recovery center in Altadena on Monday.
Numerous county, state, and federal departments and agencies are available to help residents affected by fire at any of the three facilities.
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