Federal aid still out of reach for most Napa quake victims

Public agencies in Napa and Solano counties are in line for federal government help with losses from the Aug. 24 earthquake, but homeowners like Annabelle Montecino of American Canyon remained on their own Friday and none too happy about it.

“I’m not giving up,” said Montecino, who emailed Sen. Barbara Boxer about her plight.

Most of her four-bedroom home, close to the epicenter of the magnitude-6.0 temblor, was knocked off its foundation while wine bottles and antique glassware shattered, staining the carpet, and a water heater pipe ruptured, spraying water. Stucco is peeling off the front of her 2,100-square-foot home.

“It felt like we were right on top of it,” she said.

Montecino came up short in two ways, at least for now. A contractor estimated the damage at $33,000, far below the $51,000 deductible on her state earthquake insurance, and a Federal Emergency Management Agency hotline representative advised her - correctly - that no assistance to individuals has been authorized.

“We’re not going to get anything,” Montecino said. “This is my home and my grandchildren’s home. It’s not right to let it go.”

President Barack Obama’s official declaration Thursday of a disaster in Napa and Solano counties opened up emergency federal funding for local government recovery efforts.

The declaration will enable public agencies to recoup some of the costs of repairing quake-damaged roads, bridges, buildings and other public facilities, but it stops short of opening up FEMA funding for individuals.

The latest estimates in Napa County put earthquake damage at $55 million to public properties and $362 million to private properties.

“There is not yet an official movement that would allow individual assistance, which is where homeowners and business owners can make an application directly with the federal government for some of their losses,” said Barry Martin, a Napa city spokesman.

Martin said that 127 structures have been red-tagged, prohibiting occupancy, and 1,155 have been given a cautionary yellow tag. In both cases, the division between residential and commercial structures is about equal. Residents can remain in yellow-tagged homes and apartments, but must vacate mobile homes, Martin said, and customers are generally not allowed in yellow-?tagged commercial structures.

In a statement Friday morning, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, called the president’s approval of the disaster funds an “important step in our recovery.”

Thompson noted that the earthquake was the worst the Bay Area had seen in 25 years and that “many families have significant damage to their homes and personal property.”

On Friday, Napa officials said the quake had caused more than 150 water main breaks in the city, but that the city was lifting precautionary measures for drinking or cooking with water.

FEMA officials launched a reassessment of the damage to private property, inspecting 10,000 homes with about 1,000 remaining, Thompson said in an interview. Once the survey is completed, the administration will determine whether financial assistance is available to homeowners, he said.

Thompson said he had urged the FEMA administrator, the president’s chief of staff and other federal officials to expedite the process.

“I think they’re trying to do the right thing,” Thompson said, but he couldn’t say whether the decision would be made within the next two weeks.

Officials from the Small Business Administration are expected to be in Napa this weekend to help operators of some private, nonprofit organizations apply for low-interest loans to repair or replace quake-damaged buildings, inventory, equipment and other assets, Thompson said.

Organizations in Napa and Solano counties that “provide essential services of a government nature” are eligible for assistance, the SBA said in a statement.

By Friday, more than 600 people had visited the Local Assistance Center that opened Monday in downtown Napa, staffed by up to 40 representatives from government, social service and nonprofit agencies, Martin said. Their main concerns, he said, were about assistance from the American Red Cross and dealing with property repairs, such as obtaining permits and getting advice on hiring a contractor.

The center, operated by the city and county of Napa at 301 First St., will be open for permit applications from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, with all other services, including food and financial assistance and family and mental health resources, available from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. All services are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

The Napa City Council has waived inspection and permit fees for people whose property sustained earthquake damage.

Montecino, who visited the assistance center Friday, said that American Canyon, the closest city to the epicenter, has been largely overlooked. “It’s all about Napa,” she said.

Silicon Valley Bank estimated that the Napa County wine industry sustained at least $83 million in damage from the earthquake, mostly in southern and western parts of the county.

The disaster declaration did not apply to Sonoma County, and FEMA is still reviewing damage assessments to determine whether the county qualifies for assistance to individuals, said Peter Rumble, a county spokesman.

Officials are concerned that damage reports to date may be incomplete and urged home and business owners to report structural damage by leaving a message at 565-3856.

Sonoma County’s initial estimate put quake damage at $4.5 million, more than half of that to wineries. There were 11 damage reports from residents and businesses, all in the Sonoma Valley and Agua Caliente areas. Most of the damage was to contents of buildings, rather than structures, and one residence was yellow-tagged.

“I thank the president for his swift response in approving a major disaster declaration for California, which will help our communities rebuild after this devastating earthquake,” Sen. Barbara Boxer said in a statement. “It is critical that the administration move quickly to approve individual assistance to help families affected by the quake get back on their feet.”

Fewer than 6 percent of homeowners in Napa had insurance for quake damage, the California Earthquake Authority said. The statewide average cost of a policy is $798 per year, and the coverage comes with a 10 percent to 15 percent deductible.

“Many families have significant damage to their homes and personal property. Our government cannot turn their backs on them in their time of need,” Thompson said.

The funds for public agencies approved by the White House would cover 75 percent of what public agencies spend repairing roads, buildings, sewage collection facilities, drainage channels and power generation facilities.

State and local government will split the remaining 25 percent.

The funding includes support for hazard mitigation, which involves making improvements to ensure infrastructure is able to withstand future earthquakes, according to Thompson.

Meanwhile, the Napa Valley Community Foundation is planning to award $1 million to $2 million in grants next week to local nonprofit groups that are assisting people with earthquake losses. It’s the first phase of distributions from the Napa Valley Community Disaster Relief Fund, initially seeded by a $10 million donation from the Napa Valley Vintners, a trade association.

More than 200 other donors have since given an additional $230,000 to the fund, said Terence Mulligan, president of the community foundation.

The foundation is developing criteria for a subsequent round of cash grants directly to people harmed by the quake, he said.

“The idea is to help as many people as we can,” Mulligan said.

Napa County Public Health staff members and volunteers will conduct a door-to-door survey next week of randomly selected households in Napa and American Canyon to determine the quake’s effects on residents and how to plan for future emergencies.

For more information, people are advised to visit the Local Assistance Center, call 258-7829 or visit napaquakeinfo.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.