L.A. County Declared Disaster Area

President Clinton presented an expanded package of federal aid Thursday to California communities hit hard by El Nino-related storms, designating Los Angeles, Orange and two other counties as disaster areas.

Clinton said his trips this week to Florida, where he viewed devastation wreaked by tornadoes, and California produced “painful examples of the successes of this El Nino,” which he called the worst in a century.

“We’re going to do the very best that we can to help,” said Clinton, who sat down with Bay Area community representatives at a U-shaped conference table to discuss federal efforts to help California prepare for future disasters.

The president said residents of Los Angeles, Orange, Stanislaus and Trinity counties who suffered losses in the torrential rains may apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for temporary housing, home repair grants, Small Business Administration loans and other assistance.

The federal aid is intended to provide some relief to those Californians whose homes and businesses were swamped by mud and water from this week’s storms, which claimed at least nine lives and caused extensive property damage.

With Thursday’s action, 35 California counties have been designated as disaster areas and given access to federal emergency funds because of the severe weather that has pummeled the state this year.

Clinton also announced that state and local governments will be offered federal financial assistance for removing debris, and financing improvements to mitigate the hazards presented by mudslides and other storm-related damage. As an example, federal officials said local communities could use the money to elevate homes that would be threatened by future floods.

In addition to the general aid, Clinton unveiled a package of targeted grants intended to help California cope with the disaster:

* $10 million from the Department of Labor to help people who have lost jobs because of the storms. The money will be used to pay displaced workers to help clean up the damage.

* $1.5 million from the Department of Agriculture to pay for watershed repairs in San Mateo and Santa Cruz. The grant doubles the assistance provided by the department over the last three weeks.

* $20 million from the Department of Transportation to repair roads damaged by El Nino-related storms and flooding that occurred this month. The allocation doubles that department’s emergency assistance as well.

“We are particularly concerned about damage to roads and bridges, because transportation is vital to people’s daily lives and the economy,” said Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater.

In Orange County, a 30-minute visit to Laguna Beach by James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, highlighted the toll wrought by the recent storm. About 200 homes in the city were “affected in some way,” including 15 that suffered heavy damage from flood waters and mudslides, said Laguna Beach Mayor Steve Dictorow.

Meanwhile, Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said he is reviewing 911 calls during Monday’s mudslide in response to complaints that emergency workers didn’t respond quickly enough. But Capt. Scott Brown of the Orange County Fire Authority defended rescue workers’ response time to that hard-hit area.

Emergency workers responded “swiftly and en masse,” Brown said. “It was done in a timely fashion. I know that for a fact.”

In anticipation of the president’s action, more than 115 people had already phoned in applications seeking disaster relief for damage to their Orange County property, said Patti Roberts, a FEMA spokeswoman.

In Ventura County, FEMA officials said Thursday that 728 Ventura County residents have applied for federal disaster assistance. The federal government declared the county a disaster area Feb. 9.

Clinton outlined the federal assistance during a discussion with local, state and federal disaster relief officials and Bay Area business leaders in Oakland on Thursday afternoon. Participants included Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and Witt.

Clinton toured tornado-ravaged central Florida before his arrival in California late Wednesday. He decided not to personally inspect storm damage in California because he was concerned that his presence would slow down the relief effort and because he wanted to stress long-term disaster preparedness, not just emergency aid, according to White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

The president told the Bay Area leaders that his national service project, AmeriCorps, will team up with FEMA to address disaster preparedness in five regions of the country, including Oakland. The effort will involve high school seniors and first-year college students participating in AmeriCorps during their spring breaks.

In Oakland, the only California site involved in the AmeriCorps-FEMA program, participants will visit 300 homes to make them safer during earthquakes by bracing bookshelves and other furniture.

Clinton said he was impressed that in California, “some visionaries have moved from dealing with the disasters to trying to prevent them.”

The San Francisco session was designed to focus attention on Project Impact, a Clinton administration program intended to help protect American lives and property from natural disasters.

The project, which is overseen by FEMA, received a $30-million appropriation from Congress last year. The White House is seeking an additional $50 million this year.

Clinton said that when he was running for president, he promised himself that “if I got elected, I would give this country a first-rate disaster response system.” He said his objective is to provide “the highest level of confidence, as well as common sense and humanity, in response to emergencies.

“I think this is an important part of our national obligation to one another,” Clinton said.

Witt, who has directed FEMA for five years, expressed optimism about the ability to make disaster-prone regions such as California more resistant to nature’s fury.

“I’m tired of seeing lives lost and property destroyed at the blink of an eye,” he said.

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Where to Get Help

On Thursday, President Clinton declared Los Angeles, Orange, Stanislaus and Trinity counties federal disaster areas, bringing to 35 the number of California counties whose residents are eligible for state and federal disaster aid. Here are some tips when applying.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Assistance

When a home is deemed unlivable, FEMA’s Temporary Disaster Housing Program offers payments for three months of temporary housing for homeowners and two months for renters. The program also makes grants to homeowners for minimal repairs needed to make a damaged home livable but not covered by insurance. The agency also may provide grants to cover medical and other costs, payments to workers temporarily out of their jobs, crisis counseling and a variety of other services.

Call (800) 462-9029 and have this information ready:

* Your name and permanent address

* Address of property damaged, if different from home

* Telephone where you can be reached

* Your insurance policy number and insurer’s name

* Information that will substantiate losses

U.S. Small Business Administration Loans

SBA disaster loans provide up to $200,000 to homeowners for real estate repairs and up to $40,000 for homeowners and renters to cover personal property losses, such as furniture.

Loans for businesses and private, nonprofit organizations include up to $1.5 million to fund repairs or replacement of real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets.

Small businesses may be eligible for loans to provide working capital to pay necessary obligations. These are available even if the business has not suffered property damage but has suffered business damage or damage to their operations.

For more information, call (800) 488-5323.

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

Researched by TRACY THOMAS/Los Angeles Times