Residents of Creekside Cabins ill-equipped to move on

Published: Jan. 26, 2023, 9:33 p.m.

Residents at Creekside Cabins, an RV park just north of Willits, have been ordered to be off the premises today, due to a public health emergency. An order ratified this week by the Board of Supervisors says anyone on the premises after 5:00 pm Wednesday will face misdemeanor charges.\n\nBut many residents have nowhere to go, and their vehicles aren\u2019t in any shape to get them there if they did.\n\nInformation about the pending eviction started to come out a week ago, but communications and other services at the park are primitive, according to Janet, who said the power went out the day she had to call an ambulance for her husband.\n\n\u201cThe county continually puts their press releases on their Facebook page, expecting all of us to have access to the internet,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are maybe five who have access to the internet. We are in a dead zone for cell phones. I use the wi-fi, and calls get dropped constantly. We can\u2019t even call 911 from here.\u201d \n\nInformation of all kinds arrives slowly. A boil water notice, dated January 18, is posted all over the grounds. Residents are advised to boil their water or add bleach to it, based on a sample of raw untreated water from one of the wells that took place on December 27th and tested positive for unspecified bacteria.\n\nThe county paid a private contractor to install the bridge yesterday morning. It\u2019s scheduled to be removed by 5:00 tonight. With less than two full days to complete the move, none of the trailers had been towed out by 1:00 yesterday afternoon. People were trying to repair vehicles, but many expect to leave most of their belongings behind as they head into an uncertain future.\n\nWoodrow Still is sure he\u2019s being wrongfully evicted. A woman in a truck beside him began to weep as we spoke. The truck runs, but the brakes make a lot of noise. \n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not right,\u201d Still insisted. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else to say\u2026They\u2019re breaking the law by saying we only got three days to move out, and not giving us a 90-day notice or anything. It\u2019s not our fault that they can\u2019t get the road fixed, or the bridge fixed. It\u2019s just wrong.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is my home,\u201d wept the woman in the pickup truck. Asked what they were going to do, Still said, \u201cWhat can we do? What can we do? We can sit here and fight, and get tickets, because I heard they\u2019re having sheriffs come here tomorrow, to make sure people get out.\u201d\n\n\u201cI think they\u2019re trying to scare us,\u201d said the woman. \u201cAnd it\u2019s working.\u201d\n\nSeveral residents have gardens, and elaborate outdoor shrines to dead loved ones. Still described some of what he\u2019ll be leaving behind. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of river stones,\u201d he said; \u201cA lot of picking and carrying and packing and placing, and art. It\u2019s art. It\u2019s a shrine to our dead sister. And now we gotta leave it. Because how are we supposed to pack it out? You can\u2019t pack something like that back up.\u201d\n\nA few spaces down, their neighbor Manny has trained a sucker from a bay tree to grow into an archway to the entrance of a postage stamp yard. He may be one of the lucky ones. \n\n\u201cI hope so,\u201d he said, when I asked him if he\u2019d be ready to be out by the next day. \u201cI\u2019ve got people who are supposed to tow me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I got an RV spot that I\u2019m trying to get. So I\u2019ve got to insure this by tomorrow or today.\u201d Asked if he was able to come up with move-in expenses, he said, \u201cI have most of it.\u201d\n\nRandy Feta is confident he\u2019ll find a place in San Francisco, where he and his wife originally come from. He knows just about everything about all his neighbors, and is quick to heap praise and sympathy on everyone.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m really hurting and really worried about all these people that are from up here, and the people who are settled and been here fifteen, twenty years in this one place,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re disabled. They can\u2019t afford to move. Even if they get help to move out of here, they can\u2019t afford another spot that they\u2019re going to\u2026I just don\u2019t see no sense to put all the money they\u2019ve been spending on all this manpower, and not fix the problem\u2026All these people are going to be out on the street, and going to the government for help.\u201d \n\nNear the back of the property, Denise, who\u2019s worked her way out of homelessness once, lives in a 35-foot-long 1973 green bus with a sign on the door that says, \u201cNo Hippys.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt usually runs beautifully, but my starter\u2019s been fried,\u201d she reflected. \u201cAnd I need to replace that. They didn\u2019t give me enough time to order the part, so that I can get out of here. I have a couple options in the next town north. However, feasibility is near impossible to get it there now. And I\u2019m not really comfortable leaving my stuff here.\u201d She\u2019s been hitchhiking to work or getting rides from friends, \u201cBut it\u2019s been really difficult, having to hitchhike, having to haul in all my own supplies and haul out trash. It\u2019s been a challenge. I don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to go from here. I\u2019m on the fence about what to do.\u201d\n\nA friend of hers who came to visit just before the sinkhole opened ...