EAST VENTURA COUNTY : Earthquake Aid Is Criticized as Too Slow
Nearly three months after the magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck a sleeping Southern California, federal emergency aid is reaching most Ventura County victims, disaster officials and aid recipients say.
But some residents of Simi Valley and Fillmore--the Ventura County communities hardest hit by the quake--are still fighting with federal officials for the aid they say they expected long ago.
Simi Valley resident Mike Piper, for example, isn’t sure which was more upsetting--the earthquake that wreaked $60,000 worth of damage on his home, or the following weeks spent wrangling with federal disaster officials, trying to glimpse one penny of the emergency aid they promised him in late January.
“They said, ‘You’ve got to understand, we’ve got 400,000 of these cases,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘ You’ve got to understand, I can’t live in my house.’ ”
But representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency say the efficiency of their response and the friendly attitude of their employees have won them satisfied customers across Southern California.
“We have had people come in here, bringing us candy and cakes,” said Joe Garriga, FEMA’s spokesman in Fillmore.
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