Snafu muddles slide aid

Lauren Vane

A miscommunication between the Federal Emergency Management Agency

and the State Office of Emergency Services may have led to an error

in the aid application process for Bluebird Canyon landslide victims.

A spokesperson from OES said Wednesday that the state had asked

FEMA to allow a request for individual aid from February storm damage

to be amended to include individual assistance specifically for slide

victims.

But FEMA denies an official request was made. FEMA confirms they

received a letter from OES, but the letter did not include the

technical data necessary to support linkage between the February rain

storms and damage caused during the June 1 landslide.

City Manager Ken Frank said Wednesday he was unaware the

application was incorrectly filed. FEMA did not indicate the data was

required to validate the aid request, Frank said.

Bob Burnham, the Laguna resident and former Newport Beach City

Attorney designated to oversee landslide recovery efforts, said he

met with OES officials last Friday and the issue did not arise.

Burnham said he was investigating the situation Wednesday night.

The confusion arose after FEMA announced June 17 that individual

assistance for damage caused by February rainstorms was denied. OES

had sought aid for landslide victims under the umbrella of the

February declaration, said OES Spokesperson Greg Renick.

“We believe that linking the landslide to the February storms was

the approach that was most likely to be successful,” Renick said.

The denial of individual assistance under the previous declaration

also meant that Laguna landslide victims would not receive federal

aid, Renick said.

“The decision by FEMA to deny a request means that at this time

residents of Laguna Beach who were effected by the landslide are not

eligible for federal assistance,” Renick said.

Another OES spokesman, Eric Lamoureux, defended the application.

“I’ve got no reason to believe that what they [OES staff]

submitted was not adequate for FEMA to make their decision,” he said.

Congressman Christopher Cox and Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a

plea Monday to the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider

FEMA’s decision and to provide aid specifically for victims of the

Laguna Beach landslide.

Cox and Feinstein cited damages totalling $52.5 million.

Renick said OES plans to appeal the decision to deny individual

assistance.

But according to FEMA, aid to slide victims was never specifically

denied because an official request was never issued, said FEMA Public

Information Officer Ricardo Zuniga.

The state did not issue an official separate declaration for aid

for the landslide, nor did they officially request linkage to a

previous declaration or extension on that declaration’s time period,

Zuniga said.

Official requests for aid must come through the state and the city

cannot appeal directly to FEMA, Zuniga said.

If FEMA had approved individual assistance for damage caused by

the disaster declaration of Feb. 16 to 23, Laguna Beach residents may

have been included, but it cannot be certain, Zuniga said.