Landslide claim denied

City officials learned Thursday morning that the Federal Emergency

Management Agency has denied the city’s claim that the June 1

Flamingo Road landslide resulted from heavy rainstorms last winter.

The decision means the city is not eligible for federal funding to

repair the slide-damaged slope and infrastructure that includes

streets and drainage in Bluebird Canyon, let alone financial

assistance to the displaced families.

“We were expecting $1 million for preliminary work that must be

done before this winter,” Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said.

“The decision puts us in a very bad place.”

At a special meeting on Monday, the council authorized emergency

actions estimated to cost $7 million to keep the slope from further

movement this winter.

“Frankly, I don’t see that we have a lot of choice but to proceed

with the emergency repairs,” City Manager Ken Frank said. “The

options are so bad that they are not viable.”

The city plans to provide secondary access to the canyon, and

officials are worried that the winter rains could damage even more

homes.

“If we get more rain, and we don’t fix the drainage at the bottom

of the slope, more homes could be damaged,” Frank said. “If there is

more rain, Bluebird Canyon Road could be damaged, and we can’t chance

that. It would leave families with no way in or out. And that is

dangerous to property and to people, and that’s unconscionable.

“Shoring up Madison will allow us to cut a secondary road from

Flamingo. Then we have to look at permanent restoration, and that’s

going to be an issue,” Frank said.

FEMA’s decision is not expected to affect the state agency’s

position on funding, according to Pearson-Schneider.

“OES [the Governor’s Office Emergency Services] notified [the

city]about a month ago that we could get 75% of eligible expenses,”

she said.

State officials have already begun to work on an appeal of the

decision, which they said “appeared arbitrary, capricious and without

foundation,” Frank said.

Frank says that the city’s longterm capital improvement goals have

already been compromised by the disaster and this decision

exacerbates the problems and jeopardizes ongoing city operations.

When the mayor learned of FEMA’s decision, she immediately

contacted Laguna’s state senator, John Campbell, for explicit

information about OES funding.

“We need to know what ‘eligible’ is and how long it will take to

get the money,” Pearson- Schneider said.

City officials were astounded by the decision. City-hired and

independent geologists had seemed unanimous in supporting the city’s

contention that the slide was the result of the winter storms.

The only question appeared to be whether the slide could be tied

to the storms declared a national disaster in January, which would

provide individual financial assistance, or to the February

declaration, which did not.

“There was no question in my mind that the slide was related to

the winter storms,” said Hannes Richter of Geofirm, the city’s

consulting geologists. “And the geologists from the California

Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey concurred.

“This decision was unexpected.”

In a press release issued Thursday, Frank noted that James E.

Bowers, an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey, even issued an

advisory after Bowers visited the landslide site, indicating that

slides can become active for many months after heavy rainfall, such

as the city experienced in January and February.

Frank added that Pamela J. Irvine, a senior engineering geologist

with the state survey, concluded that movement of the landslide is

most likely the result of the unusually heavy rainfall last winter.

Despite the technical information from independent sources, as

well as an extensive report by the city’s geologist, federal

officials came to a different conclusion, Frank observed.

“They are generally good people, who help out in disasters,” he

said. “The decision makes no sense. I don’t understand how they could

do it.”

* BARBARA DIAMOND is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at (949) 494-4321.