Rebuilt Pond community prompts celebration -- and concern

Aug. 13—POND — Forgoing the bus-reveal canonized in "Extreme Home Makeover," the displaced families here settled for a thoughtful, quiet tour of their new homes on Sunday.

Following a routine inspection by Kern Public Works inspectors on Monday, the four homes in the small community will be ready for a move-in.

"I'm grateful for my son letting us have this trailer but I'm ready to move back in," resident Sherry Mitchell said, adding that she slept inside her home for the first time Saturday night. "It's OK, I didn't need (the covers)."

Inside the three homes Sherry Mitchell and her family members own, everything is mostly as they remember. The carpets were swapped for vinyl plank. The ovens and microwaves are brand new. The windows were widened at the home of Sandra Mitchell — Sherry's sister who lives across the street — and shutters were put in to replace the venetian blinds at their mom's house next door.

Aside from some finishing touches — the corners need to be caulked, for example — everything is finished, said Chris Chiles, the response coordinator for God's Pit Crew.

The Virginia-based nonprofit has come back and forth to the site since March to finish renovations on the four homes damaged by floods in March. Volunteers with St. John's Lutheran Church also assisted. Originally intent on unveiling the homes last month, Chiles admitted there were delays with Sandra Mitchell's home.

"This was all exposed rafters," Chiles explained, pointing up at the freshly painted ceiling. "There was no way to get a wire so we ended up having to put in a ceiling."

On Monday morning, Chiles and his crew will head to Rolling Fork, Miss., to rebuild two homes destroyed by a tornado.

"I was on vacation, so I sent a team and they had a few little hiccups so I came out here to finish it — that's what I do," Chiles said.

It's been five months since the Mitchell family and other residents of Pond were displaced following the levee breach along Poso Creek, six miles away, that sent muddy water gushing through streets and fields.

Cities including Delano and the east side of McFarland were swamped, as neighborhoods evacuated and shelters were erected. State officials estimated a billion dollars in damage wrought by the winter storms and 360,000 acre feet of floodwater swamped California communities.

In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in May $290 million in flood investments throughout the state, including $17 million to raise the 14.5 mile Corcoran Levee about four feet to abate future flooding.

"California is facing unprecedented weather whiplash — we just experienced the driest three years on record, and now we're dealing with historic flooding," Newsom said. "Our investments must match this reality of climate-driven extremes. We're committing even more resources to support communities up and down the state as they continue responding to the impacts of this year's storms."

And while the funding, added into the state's 2023-24 budget, also includes direct assistance programs for agriculture-related businesses, little was offered in the way of payments to residents affected.

"They're still trying to figure out where this water is going to go and I think other people are going to suffer what you guys suffered," said Angelo Frazier, a pastor at RiverLakes Community Church who helped with the renovations.

Some lawmakers, like the representatives for Planada and Pajaro, secured funding in the state budget to pay for rent, mortgages and home remediation, among other things. The same relief has so far not been extended to residents here in Pond.

Claribel Gutierrez, a field representative for Rep. Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, said Sunday that a lot of work is going on in the background, and that families should try to stay positive and consider their blessings.

"I'm glad that people are willing to help," Gutierrez said. "Unfortunately, that was the sad part — somebody had to come from someplace else to be able for us to move forward. Unfortunately, our community's existence is 'out of sight, out of mind' and it shouldn't be like that."

Gutierrez did say before she left that she would try to connect the Ubadi family with CityServe, to see about providing them much-needed furniture.

Residents like Bilqees Ubadi and her sister, Sheeba, eye the creek to the north with anxiety, hoping that the incident doesn't repeat, despite record snowpack still capped along the Sierra range.

While Bilqees Ubadi celebrated her newly renovated home, she and her family are still unsure of how they'll repair her mother's home down the street.

Together they pooled together small grants — $3,000 each — they received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. With the sum of grants, they hope to afford a new floor at their mother's home, but not much more than that.

Without the personal savings to cover the costs nor the financial stability to gamble on a loan, the Ubadi family is unsure how they'll afford the needed repairs.

"So we're going to have to see what kind of bill they give so we can start on the business end and finish the home," Bilqees Ubadi said. "One thing at a time."

Bilqees Ubadi said she was told to "apply for an SBA loan and if they deny us, there might be a grant later on." Citing several reasons, the sisters said they have no interest in applying for a government loan.

"They tried saying, 'oh, it's extremely low interest and ... it's still interest," Sheeba Ubadi said. "With everything going on, we can't afford another payment."