Rebuilding in Napa

Nearly a month after a powerful earthquake stunned Napa residents awake, the city remains abuzz with activity, as many labor to rebuild their lives.

Work crews are everywhere, hammering, adjusting and fixing. At night, their trucks fill hotel parking lots. The city has issued 279 construction permits in the past two weeks, more than double the usual number for an equivalent period of time, according to a Napa building official.

Outside a Waverly Street home last week, Bob Feenan, the 86-year-old owner of a Windsor masonry company, said he obtained four permits for chimney repair work for a grand total of $6.04, a pittance considering the jobs totaled about $10,000.

Bottom line, the quake has been good for business.

“It’s a hell of a thing to say,” Feenan said. “But what are you gonna do?”

Still, hundreds of Napa homes and businesses remain closed or subject to restricted access, and the city’s backlog to inspect structures remains stubbornly high. Many are pinning hopes on President Barack Obama to issue a second disaster declaration that will make aid available to individuals.

State officials are expected to submit the application for federal disaster aid this week. Local officials estimate earthquake-related damage from around the region to total ?$362 million, including nearly $60 million in damages to public infrastructure.

The estimates are based on models that factor in the number of damaged structures and the type and magnitude of the earthquake.

“It’s going to take years to know what the earthquake cost, in terms of what people paid,” said Molly Rattigan, a Napa County spokeswoman.

The quake’s psychological toll is another story.

Dolores Lara, who lives in Napa Creek Manor, a subsidized apartment complex for seniors, said at her home last week that she was so traumatized by the earthquake that she’s planning to move farther inland from Napa, in hopes she won’t have to relive the experience.

Lara said she awakens practically every night at 3:20 a.m., the same time the temblor struck, and that she lies there in bed, waiting for the shaking to start again.

“I’m a pretty strong woman. Usually I can deal with things,” she said. “I’m surprised how this has affected me.”

At another apartment complex across town, several residents welcomed the presence of two structural engineers who were there to assess whether the damage inside their homes or on the outside of the buildings posed any significant risks to life or property.

Bill Staehlin, an engineer from Truckee who helped revise the state’s manual for assessing earthquake damage, assured Fernando Lomelli that the cracks snaking across the walls and ceilings inside Lomelli’s apartment were not serious and they could be covered over with paint.

“That’s what I needed to hear,” said Lomelli, who lives in the apartment with his elderly mother.

Staehlin and his colleague, M.R. Karim, a supervisor with the state agency that oversees hospital planning and construction, were called into Napa as part of a mutual aid program to assist the city with building inspections. The pair were deputized by a city building official earlier that morning in a tent outside the Community Development Department.

The city has received about 2,000 requests for inspections through a call center opened three days after the earthquake. About 20 inspectors have fanned out daily to make the assessments, but as of last week, still had 900 left to comb through.

“The fact is, there are still people who are assessing what their damage is,” said Ken MacNab, the city’s planning manager. “We still have some way to go before we have a handle on how people are doing out there broadly in the community.”

The city’s one-stop assistance center was still in operation last week inside a former grocery store at the corner of First Street and Silverado Trail. The range of services included construction permits, legal assistance, property tax re-evaluations and mental health assessments.

Ross White, a St. Helena contractor, met with building officials at the center last week to make sure his plans for repairing a client’s chimney met city requirements.

White said he doesn’t normally work on chimneys but that he agreed to do so in this case because he’d done work for the woman before and she was having trouble finding someone else to do it.

Barry Martin, a spokesman for the city, said officials suspect “a lot” of construction work is taking place in Napa without the necessary permits.

Others are making do as best they can while waiting for contractors or for maintenance workers to become available.

Gina Reyes, who is Lomelli’s sister and lives at the same apartment complex as her brother, put duct tape on the doors of some of her cabinets to prevent items from falling out. She also refuses to put glassware higher than her head.

“I won’t go to the movies,” she said. “I don’t want to be in that big building.”

It will take much more than duct tape to fix the bulk of the quake-related damage in Napa, where city officials have identified nearly 300 damaged sidewalks and streets needing repair.

Napa attorney John Poole expressed frustration over his inability to apply for a loan from the Small Business Administration to help pay for a new foundation he said is needed on the licensed vacation rental he owns on First Street, adjacent to his private residence.

He estimates the work on the rental, which was built in 1892, will run upwards of $150,000, and said he’s already had to tap into his retirement account to shore up the structure so that it doesn’t fall over on his residence.

“We’re not asking for a handout or a grant. I’m just asking for a loan,” said Poole, the husband of City Councilwoman Juliana Inman.

A spokesman for the Small Business Administration said the agency will not act unless Obama issues a second disaster declaration. The state could appeal a denial of that aid.

President Bill Clinton in 2000 approved disaster aid for individuals following a less-damaging earthquake in Napa. As a result, the Small Business Administration approved ?1,025 disaster-aid loans totaling just under $17.4 million, according to the spokesman.

You can reach Staff Writer ?Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @deadlinederek.