Biden approves disaster declaration
Comes in response to storms from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9
For the eighth time since 2017, the White House has approved a Presidential Disaster Declaration encompassing Santa Cruz County.
The latest declaration, OK'd Saturday by President Joe Biden, comes in response to powerful winter storms earlier this year that caused millions in infrastructure damage across the county as well as the death of a man in Boulder Creek after a tree fell into the home he was staying in.
According to a letter from Gov. Gavin Newsom sent to the White House March 22 to formally request the designation, wind gust speeds topped 70 mph on numerous peaks in the region during the storms and more than 70,000 customers were left without electricity. The Santa Cruz Wharf was damaged and a eucalyptus tree, toppled in the high winds, severed a 10-inch steel aerial sewer main at Arana Gulch in Santa Cruz. Several narrow two-lane residential roads in the mountains also experienced slipouts and may be in danger of further damage from upcoming rainstorms, according to the letter.
The county submitted more than $7.4 million in individual damage estimates for the window of storms that occurred Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal government's arm used to provide the assistance, concurred with about $1.3 million, according to the letter.
The declaration will allow the county to seek federal financial assistance as it embarks on various projects to recover from the storms. But welcome as the news is, officials told the Sentinel that the slow pace at which FEMA reimbursements from previous disasters have arrived has been nightmarish in and of itself.
“We still have $144 million in outstanding claims — the equivalent of an entire year of property tax
revenues — creating profound cash flow issues and leading the county to borrow money to fund operations,” wrote county spokesperson Jason Hoppin in a statement to the Sentinel. “The federal government's partnership with state and local governments needs to be revisited because the current system is going to cause one of two things to happen — either infrastructure damages from natural disasters won't get repaired, or local communities are going to go broke trying to keep up.”
According to Biden's declaration, federal funding will be made available to state, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a costsharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the storms.
Hoppin told the Sentinel the county requested that FEMA's individual assistance program be included within the scope of the declaration and toured private homes and roadways with federal representatives to demonstrate the need, but the request was denied.
Biden approved two federal disaster declarations last year that included Santa Cruz County in response to severe weather conditions. Last January, both Biden and Newsom took a tour of the county alongside local officials, making stops in Capitola and Seacliff as images of the region's battered infrastructure went viral.
In addition to Santa Cruz, the declaration includes Butte, Glenn, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sutter and Ventura counties.