Sikhs in CA open their hearts and temples to flood victims

Gurdwaras across Northern California threw their doors open to aid and house nearby residents displaced due to spillways caused by the Oroville Dam.

Due to erosion in the spillway in Lake Oroville, a number of smaller towns could likely be flooded with water, so Sikhs in the region got to working towards a solution. They decided to house evacuees in any of the Gurdwaras falling within 100 km.  As tens of thousands fled low-lying regions on the Feather River this week amid warnings of flooding from the rapidly filling Lake Oroville, Sikh temples across in the Sacramento area opened their doors to evacuees.

 “We have decided to accommodate as many people evacuated from the flood-affected areas as possible.”  – said Jaswant Singh, president of the Yuba City Gurdwara.

No one was turned away in their hour of need, and members of the temple even handed out Valentine’s Day cards to everyone who had been displaced in this tragedy.

In order to help spread the word, the Gurdwaras also made announcements on local radio stations. The Yuba City Gurdwara is currently providing aid to 20 families that reached their doorstep by Sunday night.  Gurdwaras in Sacramento, Fresno and Turlock have also chipped in. In fact, at one point, one Gurdwara in Sacramento was helping as many as 250 people.

Sikhs in Sacramento, home to 10 temples and about 11,000 Sikh families, began putting out calls for supplies and volunteers on Sunday evening after 180,000 people living in communities downstream of Lake Oroville were given short notice for mandatory evacuations.

“This is their home,” said Singh of this week’s visitors. “Our faith teaches us to help everyone. The poor, the hungry, it doesn’t matter who you are.” – said Nirmal Singh of Shri Guru Ravidass Temple.

The crowds didn’t start arriving at Shri Guru Ravidass until the mayor of Sacramento posted a list late that night of temples that were set up as shelters. It was retweeted 2,500 times.

In Rio Linda, about an hour’s drive away from the dam, temple secretary Raj Kumar Sood said about 100 people had slept over, many in the prayer hall. Some temple leaders had offered their homes as well.  For the Sikhs of Rio Linda, where holy day festivals can bring more than 700 attendees but weekday prayers attract a handful at most, the acts of kindness are a religious calling. They’ve also hosted faces familiar to their own, with Sikhs fleeing flood-prone areas seeking refuge.  “Our temples — all temples — always have a rule of having an open-door policy to house and feed anybody. That’s one of the most important teachings of our guru,” said Raj Kumar Sood, a truck driver who is the temple’s board secretary. “But we’ve never seen a crowd like this.”

Inderjit Singh of the Gurdwara Sahib Sikh temple in West Sacramento said about 250 people, both Indian and American, came for shelter on Sunday. Many slept in the hallways and on the carpeted floor. By Tuesday morning, he said, about 150 or so remained. Members wrote Valentine’s Day cards for evacuees and were passing them out. Some read, “I hope you return home safely.”

A central tenant of Sikhism is “Vand Chhakna,” or share what one has with others. Sikh temples host langars, or community kitchens, to regularly feed members and anyone in need.  As people from all walks of life settled in these temples, ate in groups and slept in large halls with blankets, many Americans revisited the bias that exploded recently against immigrants and the prejudice that Sikhs have experienced in America due to their attire.

The Gurdwaras and the people who are ever ready to help the needy; no matter what religion, region or ethnicity the person may belong to, have once again set a high example of their humanity, which goes way beyond religion.

Sikh communities in Yuba City and nearby Sacramento date back more than a century, when Punjabi communities who had settled in England began immigrating to California. Some of the first Sikhs in Yuba City helped build Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Yuba City-Marysville area has about 40,000 Sikhs today.   About half of the country’s 500,000 Sikhs are estimated to live in California, with the majority of those in the northern part of the state, including the Bay Area.