Residents In LA County Foothill Communities Still Cleaning Up
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE – The Congressmen representing the San Gabriel foothills have signed separate letters urging the federal government to provide low-interest loans to mudslide victims, it was reported today.
And the mayor of muddy La Canada-Flintridge is hoping that the federal government will tally storms damage from all across California to bring the total up to a level that would qualify the state as a formal, federal disaster area, opening up channels of federal disaster money.
If the area is declared a federal disaster area, residents would be eligible to receive low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration that they can use to rebuild, the Pasadena Star-News reported. Congressmen Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, sent the letters Friday.
“We need to do what we can,” Dreier told the Star-News. “The federal government isn’t going to be able to shoulder all the responsibility of it, but since this is a program that is available, I am supportive of it.”
La Canada Flintridge Mayor Laura Olhasso told the newspaper she welcomed the efforts of SBA aid as a first step in the area’s recovery and said she hopes the city will eventually qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
The threshold to qualify for FEMA aid is $43 million in damage, but the damage total so far is about half that, Schiff told the Star-News.
Olhasso said the threshold could be met if damage totals from rains in eight California counties is pooled. Schiff told the Star-News that he wasn’t sure the plan would work, but said he liked the idea.
Olhasso told the Star-News that it would take FEMA a month to make any determination on whether the mudslides and other damage qualified for federal aid.
