--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: When Disaster Recovery Hits Home image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # When Disaster Recovery Hits Home ### For the fourth year in a row, TIME and American Family Insurance are honoring a Dreamer of the Year – a person or group working tirelessly to protect, restore, and champion dreams. ### Dreamers are committed to building a better tomorrow, no matter the size of the challenge. They embody resiliency in real time – seeing possibility where others see devastation; running toward crises when most are forced to flee; embracing suffering with instinctive compassion. These are real-world heroes, repairing communities and rekindling the dreams that hold them together.  ### In January, Los Angeles was devastated by one of the most destructive wildfire events in its history. Entire neighborhoods across Pasadena, Altadena, and the Pacific Palisades were reduced to ash. Thousands fled with only what they could carry. Clinics, businesses, schools – the rhythms of daily life – vanished in an instant. ### Headquartered just up the coast in Santa Barbara, Direct Relief, an organization known for responding to hurricanes, earthquakes, war zones, and humanitarian crises, found themselves facing a crisis unfolding in the homes of their neighbors, their friends, and in some cases, their own families. ### We visited Direct Relief to learn first-hand about their experience and meet the fearless dreamers who brought hope to their community.  ## Help in Motion ### In any disaster, the earliest hours are the most disorienting. “Having the fires erupt so nearby instantly made this hyperlocal for us,” said Staci Richard, Direct Relief’s Emergency Response Manager for California. For COO Byron Scott, the wildfires were more than a headline. “I checked on my family in Altadena and learned they’d been evacuated,” he said. “Nearly everyone on our team knew someone affected. It made our efforts deeply personal.” ### One of their first calls came from the Pasadena Convention Center, where health organizations were scrambling to set up emergency care for displaced residents. When Richard and her team reached the incident command post, they found exhausted responders, surging evacuee numbers, and urgent requests piling up. ### “We drove supplies there ourselves,” Richard said. “Passing burned-down houses in Malibu, one after another…it was so jarring. You could smell the smoke inside the car. But people needed help, and that's all that mattered.” ### Her team delivered PPE, medications, diagnostic tools, and portable equipment to support physicians treating patients around the clock. When traffic clogged roads, Richard met doctors in parking lots to hand off supplies. “Efficiency becomes compassion in moments like this,” she said. “Supporting others, offering hope – it’s incredibly rewarding.”  ## Health Under Fire ### While dramatic images of the fires dominated screens, quieter health emergencies unfolded behind the scenes. ### “With fires and hurricanes, you see injuries just from evacuating,” said Alycia Clark, Direct Relief’s Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer. “But the bigger crisis is people’s underlying health needs. Going without heart medication or insulin for even a couple days can be acutely life-threatening.” ### Clark spent the first days visiting shelters to understand needs firsthand. “It was chaotic and eerie,” she said. “But also deeply human. People were scared – but connecting in ways that only happen when everything else is stripped away.” ### Direct Relief helped fill the most urgent gaps: replacing medications left behind, offering respiratory support for smoke exposure, and delivering essentials like insulin, inhalers, liquid nutrition, diapers, and IV equipment. As needs evolved hourly, Direct Relief adjusted in lockstep. ### “The feeling we want people to have is: we’ve got you,” Clark said. But wildfires don’t end simply when the flames are extinguished. For families, recovery means navigating destroyed houses, disrupted jobs, and the emotional toll of losing irreplaceable belongings. For clinics and health centers recovery means repairing infrastructure and restoring patient records before they can reopen.  ## Paving The Long Road Back ### For CEO Amy Weaver, “hope isn’t just about showing up during the emergency. It’s about staying afterward. Nothing is more important than giving someone hope,” she said, “letting them know that people see them, care about them, and believe better days are ahead.” ### And stay they did. In the six months following the fires, Direct Relief distributed over $12 million in financial and material aid, supporting 65 community organizations – from search and rescue teams, to in-school support for students coping with trauma. They provided more than 54 tons of essential medical supplies to local health centers, distributed through the L.A. Fire Department, L.A. County Department of Public Health, and the City of Pasadena. ## Restoring Dreams, Rebuilding Dignity ### Across LA, hope now lives in every reopened clinic, every family returning home, and every community finding its footing again. For Direct Relief, the wildfires reaffirmed a truth they’ve always known: disaster recovery is about much more than delivering aid. It’s about restoring people's dreams and dignity, and reinforcing the belief that better days are not only possible – they're imminent. ### This year, TIME and American Family Insurance are proud to recognize Direct Relief as the 2025 Dreamer of the Year.  The American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation is committed to driving lasting social change. We build transformative partnerships to close equity gaps, strengthen climate and community resilience, and fight for social justice. We are continually growing our efforts to disrupt inequitable access, resources and opportunity – inspiring and protecting our communities’, customers’ and company’s ability to dream fearlessly. [Find Out More](https://www.amfam.com/about/sustainable-business-framework) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/"},"headline":"When Disaster Recovery Hits Home","datePublished":"2026-07-20T09:47:18.574Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T09:47:12.988Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/","name":"When Disaster Recovery Hits Home"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"2025 Time DotY Direct Relief Longform (1)","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rgdfhGDH/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2025-12-10T17:31:47.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rgdfhGDH.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/","duration":"PT1M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/when-disaster-recovery-hits-home/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```