A close-knit group of neighbors who live on Drake Road in Guerneville have been through a lot together. Recurring floods, natural disasters and now fire. In the face of a mandatory evacuation from the Walbridge Fire, the community once again confronted adversity together and evacuated to the KOA campground in Petaluma, calling it “Guerneville South.”
While some families are now starting to return home as evacuation orders are downgraded to evacuation warnings for parts of the lower southern Russian River area, Drake Road resident (and a photo contributor to the Sonoma West Times & News column, “Wild West County”), Shawn Boland shared his evacuation experience and how “Guerneville South” settled into the KOA.
Boland evacuated with his family from their Russian River home on Tuesday night when their neighborhood first got an evacuation warning.
“I was in San Francisco at work and it was my first of a four day shift and I was going to stay down there, but we saw the writing on the wall and I got my next three days covered and I raced home and we loaded up,” Boland said.
They utilized a cargo trailer that they had converted to house two small beds, loaded up their two kids and their cats and headed south.
“We’re in a neighborhood in Guerneville where we have friends who have been there as long as us and our kids have grown up together, so we’re kind of like a little family and we all decided to start calling around for reservations. The coast was filled so we found some spots here at the Petaluma KOA and off we went,” Boland said.
They made sure to grab camping gear, copies of important documents and a few other important items before departing. One of their community members stayed behind as long as possible and watched after Boland’s two elderly dogs, Jasper and Pluto.
“One of them is 180 pounds and can’t walk at all so I was worried about how to move him, but he (the neighbor) said ‘Leave him and I’ll take care of him,’” Boland said.
He said he thought their evacuation would be just for a few days but as the fire progressed and inched closer to the communities of Rio Nido and Hacienda, the evacuation warning turned into an evacuation order for a vast swath of river towns.
“We saw the wind forecast, we were just watching it constantly, and it looked like it was getting serious,” he said.
They decided to race back to fetch their dogs before it was too late and ended up transporting their dog in a towel. He and some friends carried the dog down the stairs, loaded him into a minivan, retrieved a few more items from home, sprayed the side of the house and the surrounding trees and made their way back to Petaluma.
“My daughter and I sprayed the side of the house and some trees, but it felt totally useless because by the time the fire might have come it would have been dry anyway, but it made us feel better to do something,” he said.
About 25 neighbors from Drake Road moved into the campground for the interim.
“We just had a whole gaggle of people and then we started seeing familiar faces show up down here, and on Friday when it became mandatory for Drake Road we started seeing everyone from Drake down here,” Boland said. “We would just say, ‘Welcome to Guerneville South.’”
To pass the time, Boland and his family had cookouts, including a taco night, made community meals and checked weather reports and fire updates incessantly on their phones. He said they found every kind of wind and weather app that could in order to try and monitor the situation.
“We had relatives that were watching TV constantly to see how we were doing and there was nothing about Guerneville really,” he said.
To information about the fire progress the Boland’s relied on neighbors who stayed behind and spent time driving around the area checking on homes. Boland recalled how lucky one of his friends was to have the family home on Sweetwater Springs survive.
He said the fire came right up to his friend’s property and thanks to the keen eye of some locals who discovered a hot spot and notified first responders his friend’s home survived.
Boland said his core group of friends in the Drake neighborhood is used to natural disasters at this point. During the Guerneville flood last year, he said his neighbors gathered together to weather the storm and kayaked the road together.
“It came through all of our houses and we jumped in our kayaks and paddled up to Drake and had a bonfire in the middle of the road and had some cocktails because there was nothing else you could do,” he said.
Boland said this scenario was a bit different considering they had to flee the area and couldn’t just jump in their kayaks that they keep tied to their house.
When asked of Boland what makes the Guerneville community so strong and united, he cited the strong feeling of family throughout the area and the wonderfully quirky and unique feel of the community.
“I think it’s the sense that we are family more than just neighbors, that’s the bond,” Boland said “Initially it was about geography and then it became about family. Our kids have grown up together, my kids call their friend’s grandparents ‘grandma’ and ‘grandpa’ and anyone from town that you know whether they’re near you or not just feels like family, it’s a river folk mentality.”
