Clearing the Way for CORE Humanitarian Efforts

To many, the sheer scale of the devastation caused by the 2025 California Wildfires seemed insurmountable. Yet, despite the logistical hurdles and dangerous ground conditions, the nonprofit organization CORE Disaster Recovery (Community Organized Relief Effort) answered the call to assist in cleanup and provide food, shelter, and other resources to those in need.
 

CORE specializes in organizing, implementing, and leading relief efforts to assist communities affected by natural and man-made humanitarian disasters. Since the organization's founding, CORE workers have provided humanitarian aid in disaster areas across the United States, impoverished regions in Haiti and India, and war-torn countries like Ukraine and Sudan.

Equipped with her years of experience in humanitarian relief, CORE CEO Ann Lee was mindful of the challenges she and the CORE team would face on the ground in Southern California. The cleanup in the wake of a wildfire of this size and intensity is complex and dangerous, and Ann realized early on that CORE needed the right machines and operational expertise to ensure expediency while keeping workers and locals safe. She knew just the person who could help.
 

Ann had previously crossed paths with Jim VanLue during post-earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Jim, a Caterpillar GCI market professional, was in Haiti, utilizing his skills as an expert heavy machinery operator to remove debris, tear down buildings, and clear roads. His work, along with that of others, was essentially about making humanitarian aid accessible to neighborhoods. He also assisted in training aid workers on how to operate the heavy machinery safely and precisely.
 

“Jim and I met when we were doing a lot of debris removal and taking down some of the schools,” Lee recalled. He was instrumental in teaching the CORE team how to handle heavy equipment safely in a high-stakes environment.”
 

After the California wildfires struck and humanitarian efforts began to organize, Ann knew that Jim could do a lot of good. He and Caterpillar were more than willing to help CORE’s mission in Southern California. 
 

Jim arrived in Southern California, ready to assist the CORE team as both trainer and operator. One project he provided support for was the cleanup of a 40,000-square-foot church leveled by the wildfire. Only the church's I-beams and concrete pillars remained in the wildfire's aftermath. Jim oversaw the use of excavators to lay the I-beams down on their sides, allowing volunteers to cut them with torches.

A project like this was where Caterpillar's technological advantages served Jim and the CORE team well. Modern Cat® excavators have E-fencing safety and precision technology, allowing operators to set digital boundaries for the machine—a floor, a ceiling, or walls—to prevent the equipment from causing unintended damage. "By setting up the floor protect in the machine," noted Jim, "we were able to accomplish that task without doing any damage to the concrete floors through the walls." Features like E-fencing, especially in extremely hazardous work conditions such as those found in the church structure, ensure that the operator and other relief workers make it home at the end of the day.
 

As Ann would note, Jim's contribution went far beyond the operator's seat or even training onsite workers. He assisted with the procurement process, advised on the suitable equipment for the job, and provided guidance on how to optimize the effort's time and resources.

His efforts didn't go unnoticed by those in the community either. Ann shared a story of a resident who was moved to tears, touched that "somebody like Jim, who's so far away, totally unaffected by this, would come down and help Angelinos to get back on their feet."

While Ann and the CORE team take the lead in humanitarian efforts like those in Southern California, Jim and Caterpillar are proud to lend them a supporting hand whenever they answer the call.

Read and watch how Caterpillar technology and expertise have helped other customers like CORE.