National Disaster Insurance

Uptown Whittier is a disaster area. Great gaps in the once thriving Village shopping section, fenced-off buildings in the process of demolition, huge sheets of plastic covering buildings waiting to be repaired--all are evidence of the destruction caused by the recent quakes in this city that is currently celebrating its centennial. Hundred-year-old buildings that gave the Village its unique ambiance are now no more than piles of bricks. As a result, many small-business people who depend on their shops for a living face imminent ruin.

Grigor’s Shoe Repair is gone. So is Harry Ames’ bookstore and Mary Yoon’s Chocolate Treasure House and the popular yogurt place in the century-old Lindley Building. More than a score of business owners face moving and storage costs at the very time that all income from sales has ceased.

The Federal Disaster Program (well-meant, no doubt) has been, unfortunately, of little help. A lengthy application form requires 45 days for processing. Applicants are eligible for such aid only if a bank will not make the loan. But they must be able to repay it and--as you point out in your editorial of Oct. 2--this simply adds to the already heavy burden that for many will mean financial ruin.

The current estimate of $60 to $70 million in losses in Whittier alone has long-term implications for local, state and federal governments in lost tax revenues, increased unemployment, and the destruction of a business community that was once a cultural and historical landmark. Most merchants want to stay in Uptown Whittier, but reconstruction will probably not even begin for at least six to nine months and by that time it will be too late for many.

What is most needed is a national, federally supported disaster insurance program that makes aid immediately available to victims. The aim must be to help first and ask questions later. Every part of our country is subject to natural upheavals of every kind; floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards and sandstorms, earthquakes and tidal waves. By the time disaster strikes, it is already too late.

RUDY VALDEZ

Whittier