美国国家公共电台 NPR For Many Fire Evacuees, There's Still No Going Back To Paradise

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now to California, where a massive cleanup is getting underway in and around the town of Paradise, which was nearly wiped out by a deadly wildfire last fall. Disaster response officials say the country has not seen a toxic¹ debris² cleanup of this scale since 9/11. Just cleaning up thousands of destroyed homes and businesses could take more than a year. And as NPR's Kirk Siegler reports, rebuilding after the cleanup isn't guaranteed for a lot of people.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE³: I'm on what was a cul-de-sac near Paradise, and everything around me is reduced to ash and rubble⁴. There's a burned-out car over here. And it still smells like smoke. But right behind me, I can see a utility crew. And they're reinstalling all the telephone lines from burned-out property to burned-out property. Those phone lines and a lot of power and gas lines are going back up around here, but for whom? Who's going to really live here anytime soon?

DUANE CROWDER: Paradise will probably not see rebuild for a decade.

SIEGLER: Duane Crowder is coordinating⁵ disaster relief at this local Baptist church. He's the son of the pastor⁶.

CROWDER: As we look around, I mean, we've been staring at these same businesses and these same homes burned down in our neighborhoods for over two months. We've just been standing⁷ here in the parking lot staring at them. Nothing has been done with them.

SIEGLER: The church did not burn, and it's been transformed into an aid station. It's a lifeline for up to 600 people some days. They come for free meals, pick up donated clothes and shoes. As we talk, a man who looks exhausted⁸ pulls up in a worn sedan. He gratefully takes a few cases of bottled water.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, thank you very much. Yeah. So really appreciate it.

SIEGLER: Paradise's water isn't safe to drink. Benzenes from burning plastic, soot⁹ and ash seeped¹⁰ into the town's water supply.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: When you get hungry, breakfast and lunch every day.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, yeah. I appreciate it. I have come a couple times.

SIEGLER: Most of the people who are still here have few other options but to live in their cars or a camper on their burned-out property. A lot of people have left.

CROWDER: People have just said, you know what? Nuts to it. We're out of here. You know, there's not going to be anything here. And as the time goes on, people start to realize how much time this is going to take.

LINDA OSLIN: I mean, my friends are scattered¹¹ all over the country.

SIEGLER: Seventy-three-year-old Linda Oslin and her husband Bob, who's 85, lost their home.

OSLIN: If they were thinking about going to live near family, that was a decision that was made for them. And they're gone.

SIEGLER: The Oslins have been staying with friends in a little town in the Valley ever since. They don't want to go back.

OSLIN: The first thing I think of is the toxicity¹².

BOB: They figure - what? - it's going to take a year to clear those lots. And who knows when they're going to get around to ours? And then to get a contractor¹³. And they're going to be rebuilding - what? - 14 - 17,000 homes. At my age, I don't have years, you know.

SIEGLER: The Oslins lived in Paradise since 1972, watching as it went from a quiet country town to a commuter¹⁴ city built out into the woods. It was cheaper. It's a haven¹⁵ for retirees on fixed¹⁶ incomes. But the Oslins and a lot of other people were traumatized by the fire.

BOB: And we just don't want to go back up there. I don't know if I can sleep well in the middle of the summer if I woke up at 2 o'clock in the morning and heard the wind blowing 40 miles an hour and it's 80 degrees out. I'd lay there just wide awake thinking, oh, boy.

SIEGLER: The Camp Fire has again exposed the high risk of living in overgrown forests now prone¹⁷ to even more severe wildfires due to climate change. Its aftermath is also leading some to wonder whether our immediate¹⁸ response to disasters, the rush to rebuild and put everything back how it was is the right thing to do. Ed Mayer runs the housing authority of Butte County.

ED MAYER: We see these populations coming out of Paradise. They want to stay here. They want to stay with their community. They've been here for decades. But really, that's not an option.

SIEGLER: Not an option right now for a place that already had a housing shortage and is now basically a skeleton. They're trucking in water to make coffee at Starbucks. The hospital is shuttered. The Safeway is rubble. And upwards¹⁹ of a million burnt trees need to be cut and hauled away.

(CROSSTALK)

SIEGLER: At the church, Dwayne Crowder told me it's probably too soon to even talk about rebuilding. No one here has ever seen anything like this before.

CROWDER: How do you rebuild an entire city from the ground up? We don't know. How long does it take? We don't know.

SIEGLER: Should it be rebuilt?

CROWDER: You know, probably.

SIEGLER: A question that may continue to get debated as the recovery wears on. Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Paradise, Calif.

(SOUNDBITE OF DYALLA'S "SUNDOWN")

1 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

2 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 coordinating   

v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的现在分词 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
• He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的，难道我们不去请他？ 来自电影对白

6 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

9 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

10 seeped   

v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• The rain seeped through the roof. 雨水透过房顶渗透。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Icy air seeped in through the paper and the room became cold. 寒气透过了糊窗纸。屋里骤然冷起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

11 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

12 toxicity   

n.毒性，毒力

参考例句：

• The hoarse grunt or squeal is characteristic of toxicity.嘶哑的哼声和叫声是中毒的特征。
• Dieldrin is related to aldrin,and its toxicity to earthworms is similar.狄氏剂与艾氏剂有关，对蚯蚓的毒性是相似的。

13 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

14 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

15 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

16 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

17 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

18 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

19 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。