Funding Flap Slows Disaster Work

As local governments tally the damage from this winter’s El Nino storms, they have yet to fully repair millions of dollars in flood damage from 1995 storms because of a long-running funding dispute with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Officials in several Southern California counties said they have yet to receive federal funds needed to complete repairs and improvements to flood control channels and other public facilities that they believed FEMA would cover.

Orange County officials expected FEMA to pay for $34 million in repairs from the January 1995 rains that overwhelmed flood-control systems and flooded neighborhoods in Seal Beach, Garden Grove and Buena Park.

But the agency has so far allocated about $6 million, the county said. Of that, FEMA is now demanding that the county return $4 million that it says was wrongly paid to the county.

The dispute leaves Orange County cities and the county without federal reimbursement for the work they complete and has forced postponement of repairs on other projects.

“There is a lot of work that still needs to be done along some of our creeks and channels that we can’t do,” said Max Bridges, an analyst with the county’s Public Facilities and Resources Department. The county focused on repairing most critical damage first, but officials said a lack of money leaves other areas vulnerable.

“Establishing priorities is risky,” said Dale Dillon, a county field operations manager. “All of a sudden, you could get hard-hit by rain that overwhelms facilities.”

The funding stalemate with FEMA is expected to be a topic today as emergency services officials from throughout the county meet to discuss damage from this winter’s El Nino storms, which topped $12 million for county flood control facilities, roads and parks alone.

Some officials said the funding flap is making them more cautious about making storm repairs and improvements until they are positive that FEMA will reimburse them.

“Some of these problems like landslides are going to stay there for years while these governments look for the funds they used to get from FEMA,” Huntington Beach City Engineer Robert Eichblatt.

A FEMA spokeswoman acknowledged the quarrel with local governments over the 1995 flooding but said the agency is committed to provide counties with all the disaster funds they are legally entitled to.

Eliza Chan, FEMA’s regional director of media affairs, said officials are reviewing appeals filed by Orange County and other agencies challenging their allocations.

“The counties who filed the appeals are giving us information we didn’t know about before, so will have to wait and see the outcome,” Chan said.

Bridges and other officials said that FEMA field workers who toured flood-damaged areas in early 1995 led them to believe that the federal government would cover many of the repairs.

But later, FEMA rejected many payment requests for flood-control repairs, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for reimbursing them. By then, Bridges said, it was too late to apply for funding from the corps.

At the time of the flooding, the county was mired in bankruptcy, so FEMA allocated more than $4 million in immediate aid to help the county make repairs. FEMA originally intended to recoup the money before it provided the county with additional money. But somehow, FEMA allocated an additional $2 million before it realized the error. Now, it wants the $4 million back.

Some cities have gone to lengths to get funding from FEMA.

Mission Viejo had a contingent in Washington on Monday to speak with legislators and FEMA about getting $1.2 million in flood channel improvements reimbursed.

Huntington Beach officials hired a lobbying firm and have flown to Washington three times to press their case with FEMA.

Dennis Wilberg, Mission Viejo public works director, said the funding dispute is making governments more cautious about undertaking storm repairs and flood prevention measures.

“What happens is: It makes you stop and think about whether you’re going to be compensated,” said Wilberg. “We still would have done this emergency work, but not getting the money back will have a chilling effect on other programs funded by the general fund.”