As residents affected by the Erskine Fire try to attain a sense of normalcy, more road blocks keep popping up.
Boil water notices and intermittent power supply made it difficult to buy essential groceries. People came in to Sierra Gateway Market buying soda, milk, and lots of ice.
"Oh! That's like every customer, because they want to keep their food cold and they lost all their food," Employee Brittney Settlemire said.
Residents who were lucky enough to have homes that were spared by the fire are now coming in in droves to stock up, but they're concerned with the continued power outages, just like the store itself.
After the fire, "of course the next four of five days, we didn't have any electricity. So the workers were here working on cleaning everything out, dumping the milk," Settlemire said.
She said the store smelled horrible, like a dead animal, and it took four days to clear everything out, wash it down and they're now finally able to restock.
"I've gotta get all of this up today, because we have another large load coming in today," William Craig said while he was speedily restocking the frozen aisles of the store.
He said he'd restocked all four freezer sections, filled with ice cream, frozen dinners and veggies, though there are still a few bare spots.
"The day before we lost some more product and had to start all over again," Craig said they lost power for several hours Wednesday afternoon, and had to close.
While the power was out, the store worked to help the locals, by using cash and IOUs. "Families who have a lot of kids, who weren't able to leave the valley, would come in here and ask if they could just have some cereal and Ensure, you know the milk on the shelf, just to get us by," Settlemire said.
The family owned company is concerned about the loss of the neighborhood behind their store, knowing those families won't be back for a long time.
"We don't know who's staying, who's going, a lot of employees here have lost their homes," She said.
Settlemire said she's optimistic about the business and hopeful everyone will rebuild.
Sierra Gateway Market started in 1929 with a wagon that delivered groceries. There are now two locations, one in South Lake and another in Kernville.
