I would like to respond to the article “Red Cross Shelter set up for evacuees.” It should be known that the Red Cross did not actually feed anyone at the Moose Lodge Sunday night. When the Wye Fire broke and had already jumped Highway 20, we loaded up the truck with huge ice chests and three five-gallon water coolers. We then headed to Red & White Market where we purchased more than $300 of water, Gatorade, ice and sliced bread. I then made a call to the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge and told them to get a crew together to make sandwiches.
I then dropped off the bread and headed to the staging area, where we supplied cold drinks all along the way from the “Y” to clear past the sand and gravel plant on Highway 20, in addition we the were told to head up New Long Valley Road to stage at the pantry, we were turned around when the fire jumped the road, a Yolo County strike team along with me, made a quick U-turn and got out of there. We then received word of food ready at the Moose Lodge. I got to the Moose Lodge where I picked up more than 200 sandwiches” that went right out to the fire line. In the meantime, hundreds of sandwiches, along with pizza donated by Fire House Pizza in Clearlake Oaks, made its way into the hungry mouths of the hundreds of evacuees at the Moose Lodge. The food including sandwiches, fruit, Gatorade, water and ice, was donated through the Frank Toney Memorial account, an account set aside for emergency situations such as this. At no time did Red Cross ever supply food, water, Gatorade or anything at the Moose Lodge for that matter. All the evacuees were fed by The Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge and The Frank Toney Memorial Fund.
Duane Toney and the Toney family
Lake County
