Laguna
Editor’s note: the following is a letter to Michael Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security secretary.
As you know, communities throughout Southern California have experienced significant damage due to near record rainfall during the winter months. The latest incident occurred June 1, when the Bluebird Canyon area of Laguna Beach in Orange County suffered a devastating landslide.
We are writing to urge you to reconsider the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recent denial of individual assistance to impacted residents and businesses in the counties of Orange, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura resulting from the February storms.
Additionally, we request that you consider extending FEMA’s previous disaster declarations, FEMA-1585-DR and FEMA-1577-DR, to provide public and individual assistance to agencies and victims impacted by the Laguna Beach landslide.
According to the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, FEMA officials responded June 17 to a March 16 request for individual assistance for victims of the February storm, stating, “The damage and private sector impact was not of the severity and magnitude to warrant the inclusion of the individual assistance program.”
However, OES officials, who intend to appeal, have informed us that preliminary damage assessments conducted after both the December/January and the February storms series indicate that overall, there was more damage to residences from the February storms than from the earlier storms, particularly in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. Consequently, we urge you to reconsider the state’s request as soon as possible.
Concurrent with FEMA’s review of the state’s request for individual assistance, we hope you will also consider both public and individual assistance for the Laguna Beach landslide.
According to the latest damage statistics from Laguna Beach officials, the slide destroyed 20 homes, caused damage to 22 homes (14 major, eight minor), and impacted another 308 homes in the area. The estimated loss to residents is approximately $52.5 million.
Public agencies have also experienced significant costs as well. To date, the city alone has spent $7.1 million in storm cleanup, with additional costs incurred by the county.
The heavy winter rainfall that resulted during the two previously declared FEMA emergencies is believed to be the cause for the Laguna Beach landslides. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “This movement is almost certainly related to the extremely heavy winter rains that occurred from December through February.”
Although we are fully aware that more geotechnical data is required, and is in the process of being gathered, we urge you to provide all possible assistance as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to working with you to ensure that those impacted by this disaster receive the assistance they need.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Rep. Christopher Cox
As mayor of Laguna Beach, I feel I must respond to the New York Times’ June 5 editorial, “Mudslide in Bluebird Canyon.”
If I were a betting woman, I would wager the writer never has visited our town. There is no “careless optimism” in Laguna Beach. What there is here compels hundreds of New Yorkers each year to relocate from Manhattan to our beautiful Southern California coastal community.
What New York Times readers should know about the building that has occurred in the slide area is that most of the homes were built more than 40 years ago, when the geotechnical capabilities were nowhere near the sophistication of today’s technology.
Any building that now occurs on any of our hillsides requires a geology report and strict requirements for building. Suffice it to say that Laguna Beach is known for being the most difficult city in which to build in Southern California.
Just ask any of Orange County’s builders or architects. Many have told me they’d rather have a root canal than to have to try to get a project approved in our city.
We may not be perfect in our decision-making. But let me be perfectly clear: I know very few people in Laguna Beach planning to relocate to New York City,ever.
Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider
Mayor, Laguna Beach
Editor’s note: a version of this letter was sent to the New York Times but not published.
El Toro
Letter writers Russell Niewiarowski (June 6) and Donald Nyre (June 13) have differing opinions on whether the “pilots’ plan” or the defeated “county plan” would have been the best configuration for an El Toro airport.
One way to find out who is right for sure would be to release the results of a study conducted by Parson’s Aviation, which looked at various layouts. (The report was commissioned by the city of Newport Beach and the Airport Working Group.)
Yet, these groups have refused to release the results. It is high time that they revealed the data that proves once and for all that the county plan is indeed the superior option, or stop criticizing the pilots’ plan.
Rex Ricks
Huntington Beach
