UPPER LAKE >> A Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Recovery Center in Upper Lake has been established to connect Mendocino Complex Fire survivors in Lake County to FEMA individual assistance grants—but the list of resources available at the center includes offerings from more than a dozen state, federal and nonprofit organizations.
FEMA Individual Assistance Representative Edith Lovell said Thursday, August 23 that the organizations currently present at the center would be periodically joined by additional organizations.
The 14 organizations present were: the California Department of Social Services State Supplemental Grant Program, the California Contractors State License Board, Behavioral Health, Cal Fresh, the Red Cross, Environmental Health, California Employment Opportunities, the California Employment Development Department, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the United States Small Business Administration, the California Department of Insurance, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the California Franchise Tax Board, and the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency.
Karri Jones, a Farm Loan Officer for the USDA, noted that many farmers have misconceptions and reservations about receiving loans that prevent them from getting the help they need after fires. She said that during the Valley Fire of 2015, which was “big for livestock,” relatively few farmers and ranchers applied for loans. She recognized the same trend happening this year with the Mendocino Complex Fire.
Jones wished to make clear that “it’s not just for residential people down here.” Those who have not lost a home to the fires can receive such benefits as food assistance from Cal Fresh, contractor advice from the CSLB, and much more.
Farmers and ranchers—“anybody who makes food or fiber,” as Jones put it—are eligible, regardless of the size of their business, for cost-share programs from the USDA’s FSA. “We pay 75 percent, and sometimes up to 90 percent,” Jones said, “and you pay the rest.” The programs are divided into such categories as livestock and fencing and watering systems.
Unfortunately, said Jones, she hasn’t seen very many “food and fiber” people come in to centers like these—and this is not solely due to a lack of available information. “Farmers and ranchers have a hard time asking for help,” she said. “It’s a pride thing.”
While farmers and ranchers may be reserved in their pursuit of loans after fire emergencies, a distinctly different problem commonly arises for bereaved homeowners looking to rebuild. Peter Keown, Enforcement Representative for the California Contractors State License Board, said at the DRC Thursday that California’s wildfire problem “brings out the worst” in some fraudulent contractors, who take exorbitant sums up front for a rebuilding job, and “skip town.”
This phenomenon has been well documented, with wildfire-related cases of fraud arising as recently as August 20, when a man was arrested in Redding following the Carr Fire’s destruction. The problem is so widespread in the state that the California Department of Insurance provides a manual on its website entitled “Don’t Get Burned After a Disaster.”
Keown explained that “people are at their most vulnerable” after losing property to a wildfire, and his agency suggests that individuals needing to rebuild check their contractors’ state license numbers by contacting the CSLB, get at least three bids on their job, and avoid paying “more than 10 percent down or $1,000, whichever is less.”
More information on this and myriad other issues and programs for individuals and businesses alike can be found at the DRC, located at the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Community Center, 9460 Main Street, Upper Lake.
