Sleep, medication, work, school, pets, money, the road home: distress after a fire is not one problem. Start with the thing that cannot wait.
Trauma-clinician review is pending. Incident, access, and evidence facts are sourced below; no clinical-review badge is claimed.
Orders change faster than an editorial page can. Use your county alert, sheriff, fire agency, or 911. CAL FIRE says its own incident pages are reference information—not guaranteed minute-by-minute evacuation guidance.
CAL FIRE’s live record showed changed order and warning zones and an August 28 incident update when checked August 29. We removed copied zone names from this page because a correct list can become dangerous after the next update.
Open the live Plaskett Fire record →CAL FIRE’s live record still listed evacuation orders and warnings when checked August 29. Use that record and Monterey County alerts before travel, return, or deciding to stay.
Open the live Timber Fire record →Incident watch checked August 29, 2026. It is deliberately narrow: TherapyCalifornia does not copy a statewide fire table that will be stale tomorrow.
Call or text 1-800-985-5990. SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline is free, multilingual, open 24/7, and meant for distress tied to disasters—including anniversaries and trigger events.
Call 1-866-615-1060. The county says the line is free, confidential, open 24/7, and can connect callers to mobile crisis care. English, Spanish, and interpretation are available.
Call CalHOPE at 833-317-HOPE. It is a free peer warm line. It is not 24/7: current DHCS hours are 7 a.m.–11 p.m. Monday–Wednesday and Friday, and 8 a.m.–10 p.m. Thursday.
Ask your plan or county for an appointment and say if evacuation disrupted medicine, records, transport, housing, or privacy. California access rules still apply. Use the 10-day request script or the Medi-Cal county route.
Covered California lists a state-declared natural or human-caused disaster as a qualifying event for special enrollment, usually within 60 days. It also lists moving and loss of job coverage as separate qualifying events.
Check the current enrollment rule →Call or text 988. If there is immediate danger, a medical emergency, or an evacuation order, call 911 and follow local officials.
In the first days and weeks, practical help is mental-health help: safety, medicine, sleep, food, transport, accurate information, and contact with people you trust. The VA’s National Center for PTSD says most people with mild or moderate distress do not need formal treatment immediately.
Psychological First Aid is an evidence-informed support model, not proof that one early intervention prevents PTSD. Current VA guidance says evidence is insufficient for therapy or medication given automatically to everyone exposed to trauma—and specifically does not recommend compulsory critical-incident debriefing.
Assessment becomes more useful when reactions keep intensifying, do not begin to ease, or interfere with sleeping, parenting, school, work, medication, driving, or basic decisions. Persistent PTSD can be treated with trauma-focused therapies; the first week is not a deadline to diagnose yourself.
Compare trauma symptoms and treatment choices →Nothing typed here is sent or saved.
The TherapyCalifornia directory is not open yet. We are recruiting therapists and will publish profiles only after openings, prices, insurance details, and licences can be checked. Availability will be reconfirmed every month; nobody will be able to buy a higher rank.
See the directory promise or join the one-email opening list →Educational information, not evacuation direction, diagnosis, or individual medical advice. Incident watch checked August 29, 2026. Trauma-clinician review pending. Paid for by participating therapists. Inclusion is computed, never purchased. No ads. No data sold.