LOS ANGELES : Additional Crews Working to Remove Quake Rubble
After a slow start to the city’s earthquake cleanup program, Los Angeles officials said Tuesday they have speeded up the debris removal effort by more than doubling the number of work crews hired to haul away rubble.
The Public Works Department had put 100 work crews on the street by Monday, compared to 40 crews last week.
“Now that we have a hundred crews we can really get down to picking it up,” said Andy Santamaria, manager of the city’s quake recovery program. The crews are expected to haul away 11,000 tons of rubble a day, he said.
The sluggish start was attributed to an unexpectedly high volume of debris dumped on the streets immediately after the Jan. 17 quake, forcing city officials to exhaust all the federal cleanup funds available at the time.
But after a new infusion of money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city added 20 new crews on Sunday and an additional 40 crews on Monday, Santamaria said.
Members of an ad hoc earthquake recovery committee of the City Council expressed relief with the accelerated cleanup effort.
“It’s really getting bad out there,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, the committee chairman.
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