Freeze-Ravaged Areas May Get Disaster Aid

Gov. Pete Wilson declared a state of emergency in 17 freeze-ravaged counties Friday, as representatives from Central Valley farm communities gathered near Fresno to assess the deepening impact on growers, workers and government.

The news was all bad: Damage estimates from the two-week Christmas freeze are soaring closer to the $1-billion mark, up from $700 million a week ago.

Lost agricultural wages and salaries because of layoffs in the San Joaquin Valley could exceed $100 million and weaken the area’s non-agricultural economy by another $100 million.

The hardest-hit rural counties--Tulare, Fresno and Kern--will be unable to absorb the human and economic costs, because they were in bad financial shape even before the cold threw thousands of workers off their jobs and overwhelmed social service agencies.

In Tulare County, which suffered at least $286 million in losses to crops and citrus trees, the food bank is running out of supplies for distribution to unemployed pickers and packers. FoodLink will need 1.5 million pounds of food to help those unemployed because of the freeze through the next month.

The county has a budget of $347 million for fiscal year 1991, but its contingency fund is only $750,000, Tulare County Supervisor Lorie Mangine told the Legislature’s Rural Caucus on Friday, during a hearing in the Fresno County town of Parlier.

The freeze will increase Tulare County’s costs by $500,000 to $600,000 in welfare payments alone, eating up most of that fund, she said.

“We didn’t think we’d get through the budget year with no disaster,” Mangine said. “We are in an extremely precarious position.”

Tulare County’s Department of Social Services estimates that county residents will apply for $6 million in direct aid more than what the department had projected for the year.

“We will have 5,900 aid applications in January--more than double the load of last year,” David Crawford, the department’s deputy director, told legislators. “This is as a result of losing employment because of the freeze. . . . And there are no benefits available from the state for additional county costs.”

Fresno County, which estimates $90 million in direct and indirect losses because of the freeze, is in equally dire straights.

“If we have a very large expenditure in General Relief, I don’t know how we’re going to be able to fund that,” said Fresno County Supervisor Vernan Conrad. “We’re facing difficult times in even keeping the county hospital open. If we have a large influx of patients, I don’t know how we’ll manage to stay open.”

Although the bipartisan group was sympathetic to pleas by government and growers--it was a case of the broke hitting up the broke.

“We’re reeling from the staggering impact of an $8-billion to $10-billion state deficit and we’ll be signing up for more cuts in June,” said Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno). “This state has not had a more difficult time in its history.”

Wilson took the first step in easing the bleak picture Friday, by proclaiming a state of emergency in 17 counties.

Disaster areas include the devastated Central Valley counties of Kern, Fresno and Tulare and Southern California’s Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The declaration allows counties to apply for aid under the National Disaster Assistance Act, which helps defray overtime and damage costs for public agencies. Wilson also said he would ask the U.S. secretary of agriculture to allow growers to apply for low-interest loans.

And the declaration enables the way for the state to ask President Bush to declare California a disaster area, thus paving the way for federal assistance.

“We are still assessing the damage as to whether federal assistance is needed,” said James Lee, Wilson’s deputy press secretary.

David Brown, a Fresno county citrus grower and chairman of the trade group California Citrus Mutual, was more than willing Friday to explain to state government just how necessary federal aid is.

The fourth-generation grower has already laid off seven workers. He must abandon experiments in non-chemical pest control. He may not replant his devastated lemon groves because of the combined wallop of freeze and drought.

“I won’t have any product in 1991,” Brown told legislators. “I’m sure I won’t have any product in 1992. I hope to have some in 1993.”

Gary Caviglia, a Visalia orange and avocado grower, said he cannot even afford to ship his ruined oranges to be salvaged by turning them into juice.

“I lost my crop this year,” Caviglia said. “I am concerned about having enough water to maintain my trees and have a crop next year.”

HELP FOR GROWERS * Gov. Pete Wilson declared an emergency in 17 counties. Counties can be reimbursed for costs incurred by public agencies as a result of the freeze.

* Wilson also said he would ask the U.S. secretary of agriculture to declare the counties disaster areas. This would pave the way for federal low-interest loans to farmers.

* The counties include Fresno, Monterey, San Mateo, Sonoma, Glenn, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Imperial, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Ventura, Kern, San Diego, Mendocino, San Benito and Solano.