Formation of a long-term recovery committee to aid survivors of the wildfires which ravaged parts of San Diego County moved ahead this week with more than a dozen community and faith-based organizations committing to the effort.

"Everybody's come up to the plate to help San Diego County and we really do appreciate it very, very much," said Don Read, emergency disaster services director with The Salvation Army who chaired a conference call Tuesday with nearly three dozen local, state and national organizations and agencies.

As the long-term committee comes together - a meeting was scheduled Tuesday in San Diego to formalize the arrangement - Read said it appeared that the recovery could be shorter than the recovery effort in the 2003 Cedar fire.

Some 7,772 homeowners registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after the Cedar fire, with 77 percent of them having insurance. The long-term recovery effort after that blaze lasted up to three years.

In contrast, of the 5,787 homeowners who have registered so far for federal assistance in the most recent wildfires, 93.7 percent were insured, reported John Chavez of FEMA.

"That's a real plus for the long-term recovery," Read said. "I think with those figures I would suspect most portions of the long-term recovery would be a little shorter than we had before.

"We think that the long-term recovery committee will have fewer challenges than during 2003 because a larger percentage of those affected by the fires have insurance," he said.

Despite that assessment, numerous challenges remained ahead.

In rural eastern San Diego County, for example, response groups estimated that 52 percent of the 283 homes destroyed by the Harris fire had no insurance and long-term assistance would be needed to help the families affected.

And even for homeowners throughout fire-stricken areas who had insurance, many might find themselves underinsured and unable to pay the additional costs for repairs or rebuilding, said Mel Curry of Mennonite Disaster Service.

"In the last (Cedar) fire, on several of houses we rebuilt they had insurance but the insurance was only enough to pay for materials," Curry said.

Until the long-term recovery efforts gets under way, individual faith-based groups and community service organizations were trying to fill the void by providing food, water, clothing and other essentials to people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Cleanup efforts were ongoing. Plans were also being made to hold Thanksgiving dinners at several locations for people who had nowhere to celebrate the holiday.

An estimated 300 local churches and national ministries were reported to be involved in emergency fire relief and long-term recovery and rebuilding in San Diego County.

The long-term recovery committee will attempt to coordinate the various efforts and provide long-term assistance to those affected by the fires who lack funds for basic needs. Some committee members will provide direct assistance, while others will provide support services to those organizations.

"What we're trying to do (with the long-term recovery committee) is not overlap one another," explained Harold Jackson of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. "This coordination will make that possible so we're not overlapping."

His organization was actively working to remove ash and debris from the La Jolla Indian Reservation that was burned by the wildfires. As many as 40 home sites were expected to be cleared by the weekend, with 33 completed as of Wednesday. The next project was expected to be on the Rincon Reservation, where as many as 70 lots may need to be cleared. Dozens of volunteers from as far away as Utah, Oklahoma, Nevada and Texas were assisting in the cleanup effort.

Tempie Beaman, the Southern California coordinator for Lutheran Disaster Response, agreed with Jackson about the role the recovery committee would play in coordinating recovery efforts.

"It makes no sense for an agency on one side to be doing something that an agency on another side is preparing to do in that same area," she said. "Without having some form of cooperation and communication and collaboration then that can easily happen because everybody wants to help.

"In this case, you have people who are talking to each other so that we know what the other person is doing and where they're doing it so that where there are gaps we can step in," Beaman said.

She said Lutheran Disaster Response would look to partner with another agency doing case management or would create a case management position for an area where there was a need.

Southern Baptist Disaster Response, Lutheran Disaster Response and Mennonite Disaster Service were among the faith-based groups who have stepped up to be on the long-term recovery committee. Others who have said they would be part of the committee include Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee), Jewish Family Service of San Diego, Operation Hope and the American Red Cross.

The early efforts have met with a favorable response.

"I think we're much further along than they were (at this stage) in 2003 in the Cedar fire," Curry said. "Last time we put together a disaster recovery committee it was a new situation to us and it sort of ambled along.

"This time, I think there's a little more thought being given to what the disaster recovery committee will be and what it will do and can do," he said.

The Rev. Jim Kirk, a volunteer with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance's national response team, agreed that plans to establish the committee were off to a good start.

"It sounds like they have a great start," Kirk said. "It sounds like all the people who need to be around the table are around the table. It seems like it's getting organized very well and very quickly. It seemed to me to be moving in the right direction."

Kirk, associate minister at Moorings Presbyterian Church in Naples, Fla., said he and colleague Rick Turner were scheduled to arrive in California Nov. 27 to work directly with the presbytery of San Diego. Other PDA members responded to California in the early days of the wildfires.

"We're going in to try to help and assist with Presbyterian involvement in the long-term recovery," Kirk said. "What the PDA hopes to do is partner with the presbytery to assist them in responding to their churches, to the congregational members and then to the community.

"We see our involvement as being as long as necessary and offering different things at different times," he said.

While addressing immediate needs is key, Kirk said emotional and spiritual care would need to be part of the longer term effort.

"These kinds of disaster are going to take their toll not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually," he said.