- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Fundraising effort under way to assist displaced Will-O-Point families
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A fundraising effort has been launched to help the dozens of families still displaced due to flooding and damaged infrastructure at the Will-O-Point Resort in Lakeport.
On Friday, Supervisor Rob Brown announced that he is working to raise funds to assist the residents who remain evacuated in replacing food and other items that were lost when they were flooded out.
“As renters with simple means, few if any, had insurance,” he said.
Will-O-Point was one of four Lakeport neighborhoods placed under mandatory evacuation on Feb. 20 due to the flooding, as Lake County News has reported.
Since then, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which has jurisdiction over mobile home and trailer parks, red-tagged all 41 residences in the lakeside park. Water, sewer and power infrastructure are damaged, making it unsafe for them to return to live in the park in the short-term.
Many of those same residents met with county and state officials on Wednesday to find out what assistance is being made available to them as they wait to return home, which could be three to four months out, based on initial estimates.
The city has come up with a plan to transition them from the evacuation shelter at the Lakeport Seventh-day Adventist Church, which closes at month’s end, to longer-term housing situations, including rooms at Konocti Harbor Resort in Kelseyville.
Brown said he’s also working with local vineyard and orchard owners to look at other housing options.
In the meantime, the evacuees on Wednesday had reported needing assistance to replace food and other essentials that they lost when they left their homes.
On Friday, Brown announced he had launched the fundraising effort to respond to those concerns.
Brown said he’s worked out an arrangement with the Lakeport Grocery Outlet for gift cards to be purchased for the residents in order for them to get “an initial hand up for them and their families.”
He said anyone wishing to contribute can make a check out directly to Grocery Outlet and he will make arrangements to pick it up and distribute the cards directly to the survivors.
Anyone who would like to donate or to get more information is invited to call Brown at 707-349-2628.
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