Governors Seek New Disaster Rules

Gov. George Deukmejian, criticizing restrictions in federal emergency relief procedures, called Friday on President Bush to change the rules so that states would be eligible for more aid in disasters such as the Oct. 17 earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area.

At a meeting of the Western Governors’ Assn., Deukmejian was joined by the governors of nine other states in urging the President to streamline the delivery of emergency aid so that help would be available more quickly in stricken areas.

“The lessons learned from these disaster recovery efforts have provided us with an important opportunity to make changes that will maximize the effectiveness of disaster relief programs in the future,” the 10 governors said in a letter to Bush.

On the whole, Deukmejian said in an interview, the federal government’s response to the earthquake was “excellent.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency, criticized for moving too slowly after Hurricane Hugo struck South Carolina, responded quickly to the California quake, he said.

But bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on the amount of aid available placed unnecessary hardships on earthquake victims and on state officials trying to coordinate recovery efforts, the governor said.

In particular, Deukmejian proposed in the letter to Bush permanently lifting federal limits on the amount of money available to rebuild homes, highways and businesses. And he called on the federal government to better coordinate housing aid so that homeowners seeking assistance are not required to fill out as many as three applications with different agencies.

Congress waived some of these requirements for California when it passed a $3.45-billion earthquake relief package, including eliminating a $100-million limit on highway reconstruction. But such waivers would not automatically apply in the event of future catastrophes.

“Some of the provisions were changed specifically to assist us with our disaster, but they’re not permanent changes in the law,” Deukmejian told a reporter. “There still is a need for improvement in coordinating how the federal agencies implement these relief programs in a way that would be less burdensome to the victims.”

The governor’s proposal also calls on FEMA to store some of the mobile homes used for emergency replacement housing in western states where they can be moved into position more quickly. They are now kept in Texas and Georgia.

It is only now--six weeks after the 7.1-magnitude temblor--that these housing units are being set up in Watsonville and Santa Cruz, where thousands of people were forced from their homes, the governor said.

And he called on the relief agency to hire Spanish-speaking staff members and provide forms in Spanish so that in the future they will be able to better help Latino disaster victims who do not speak English.

In a report to the governors, Deukmejian said the Bay Area quake killed 62 people, injured 3,700 and left 13,000 homeless. Of the homeless, about 500 people are still living in shelters. Many have moved in with friends or relatives.

Deukmejian noted that those hardest hit by the quake generally were low-income people who lived in older housing units that had not been reinforced. In many cases, he said, several families were crammed into each of these homes.

The permanent changes in federal law sought by the governors include:

* Reduce the amount of state matching funds required to repair public facilities and lengthen the period that aid is available.

* Eliminate the requirement that emergency highway funds be deducted from a state’s future federal transportation allocation.

* Permit the use of relief funds to upgrade transportation structures that are found to be unsafe in an earthquake but are not actually destroyed.

* Raise the Small Business Administration loan limit for housing from $100,000 to $250,000 and eliminate a $500,000 limit on emergency business loans.

At a closed session with the governors earlier in the day, Deukmejian invited other governors to join him on a trade mission next year to Canada.

Deukmejian, who has personally promoted California trade in Japan and Europe, suggested that other western governors might wish to join in a collective effort to promote their states in Canada.