Agencies mobilize assistance for wildfire victims

Agencies acted quickly to keep services running and pull together offers of assistance for federal employees and others affected by the Southern California wildfires, but it will be some time before the full demand for aid can be gauged, officials say.

"What I've seen on the ground is really impressive," said Theresa Camiling, chair of the Greater Los Angeles Federal Executive Board. "The communication between the federal, county and the states has been just phenomenal…. Obviously, there have been some great losses, but I think a lot of the preventive measures came together because of those [communications] efforts."

Camiling said she thought that pre-existing relationships between federal, state and local officials helped the response.

"You never want to be introducing yourself on the day of the disaster," she said.

Federal business ran mostly as usual despite the fires, Camiling added. "I was really proud of the federal family, because we didn't see many glitches in services," she said.

It helped that resources flowed in quickly from Washington to the Los Angeles board -- one of 28 such boards across the country established to coordinate federal agencies outside Washington, D.C.

"The [Office of Personnel Management] folks have been really, really supportive," Camiling said. "Director [Linda] Springer was on this, and they started calling me the minute the fire was started, offering help and resources."

Carol Chastang, a spokeswoman for the Small Business Administration, said the state government has set up local recovery centers so those Californians affected by the fire can learn more about what assistance options are available to them.

"The state, what they've done with the local recovery centers, is set up a one-stop shop so [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and the Red Cross and the SBA, all these federal and state agencies are situated in one spot," Chastang said.

Camiling said she was working with the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund to station some of the nonprofit group's employees at the recovery centers. FEEA -- founded by federal employee groups to provide scholarships and emergency aid to civilian federal employees -- has established a California Fire Fund.

Chastang said SBA already had issued applications to 5,207 people who had contacted it through FEMA, and had processed three home disaster loans totaling $454,600. A FEMA spokeswoman on Monday said almost 8,300 people had contacted the agency seeking help, and that $600,000 in housing assistance had been provided so far.

Chastang anticipated that SBA would need to provide fewer loans than it did after the 2003 San Diego wildfires, when it disbursed 1,700 recovery loans. But she also said loans might be a less attractive option in the current mortgage market.

"People are also … just basically saying, I don't want to take on additional debt right now, even though our interest rate is way below market rate," Chastang said. "Folks are looking at . . . options other than loans."

Camiling said she thought it was a challenge for families who had lost homes or businesses to begin to sort through their options.

"I think a lot of our families, everyone's in shock, still," she said. "Going through a fire or anything that happens with your home is like going through a grieving process. Folks for the first couple of days were just trying to make sure they have a roof over their heads, and now, trying to make the longer-term decisions is really hard."

She said some families might have more insurance at their disposal than the victims of Hurricane Katrina because of certain standard elements of insurance policies.

"People are always bringing up these comparisons to Katrina," she said. "Fire insurance is covered in every homeowner insurance policy, whereas flood is often not covered. In that regard, they've got a leg up on folks who have suffered losses after floods."