State Plans to Open Another Disaster Application Center
A second disaster application center for earthquake victims will open Friday or Saturday in the Santa Clarita Valley, state Office of Emergency Services Director Richard Andrews announced Wednesday.
The facility probably will be in Newhall, and William S. Hart High School has been suggested as a possible site, Andrews said during a tour of the existing center in Canyon Country. A final decision on the location will be made today.
State and federal officials said they hope to relieve pressure on the current facility at Canyon Country Park--the only disaster application center north of the bottlenecked Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways. There are 17 other sites.
Hundreds of quake victims from Santa Clarita and other communities such as Northridge and Santa Monica have come to the center daily since it opened last week, said George Warner, the center’s director.
“We’re still trying to see what the aggregate level of this is,” Andrews said. “We’re not seeing a decrease of people coming through.”
The new site will allow applicants to avoid a daily traffic snarl, he said.
Santa Clarita has only one major east-west thoroughfare, Soledad Canyon Road, which has been packed with traffic as additional cars attempt to reach San Fernando Road to commute south of the city.
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