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Representatives of the Marin County Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Marin County Parks addressed the county’s Board of Supervisors earlier this week, indicating that the county is facing an estimated $8.76 million cost to repair damage from this winter’s storms. The amount jumps to $9.9 million when reported damage from the county’s town and cities is included according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services (OES).
The list of storm-damaged items includes 24 county-maintained road and properties that sustained the most significant damage. Eight of the 24 items needing repairs exceeded $500,000. However, the long-term impact to the county’s budget is unable to be estimated at this time. Pending the completion of the repairs, and until federal and state agencies reimburse the county for whatever costs can be covered, costs to the county will remain undetermined.
“We hope to receive state and federal reimbursements for these important repairs,” said Raul Rojas, director of Public Works. “It’s imperative that we get all roads in a critical state done as fast as we can for safety reasons.”
Marin County officials activated the county’s temporary Emergency Operations Center five times between December 2016 and February 2017 because of severe storms. The storms, sometimes combined with king tides, caused hundreds of cases of flooding, mudslides, erosion damage, toppled trees and power outages. Hundreds of county employees worked alongside first responders from Marin towns, cities and other agencies to preserve public safety. During the Board of Supervisor’s meeting earlier this week, members of DPW’s roads, engineering and flood control teams received ovations from the Supervisors and those in the Board chambers for their all-hours commitments to storm repairs.
Declarations of a state of emergency, which included Marin County, were issued this winter by three government entities. On January 24, the county declared an emergency state because of the then current storm. California Governor Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency for Marin and several other counties the next day. President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration on February 14 for the state’s storm of January 3-12. Declarations by the president and governor will make federal and state funds available for some repairs sustained during specific storms.
Each damaged site needs to be inspected by a federal representative before it can qualify for assistance. “We need to pursue repairs on sites that have the potential to cause more damage to infrastructure or private property,” Rojas said. Although the county will proceed with the needed repairs after the required inspections, the reimbursement process can take several years.
The county has previously requested – and received – financial relief following natural disasters. Storms in December 2005 to January 2006 and again in April 2006 generated 151 specific damage locations and caused an estimated $15 million in damage to County-maintained property. Of that amount, $10 million was eventually reimbursed by either the state or federal government. The county’s towns also sustained a combined $13.3 million in damage during the December 2014 storms.
During the most recent storms, the most significant slide-related repairs are expected to be at Lucas Valley and Nicasio Valley Road in Nicasio, Los Ranchitos Road at Red Rock Way in Terra Linda, and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at Baywood Canyon Road near Fairfax. Many individual property owners also sustained storm-related damage.
Individual assistance is only available if the federal government declares a major disaster, and the threshold of relief is often determined by the total estimated costs of damage and repairs to the affected area. Marin OES is collecting individual storm-related information online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DamageSurveyFebruaryStorms. Affected residents are also being directed to the California Office of Emergency Services’ (OES) webpage on individual assistance at: http://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/recovery/individual-assistance.
Marin residents who have sustained more than $10,000 or more worth from storm-related damage may be eligible for tax relief. Application forms and Information regarding individual disaster relief can be obtained by writing the Office of Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk, County of Marin, P.O. Box C, San Rafael, CA 94913 or by telephone at 415-473-7215 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The form is also available on the Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk’s website at: http://www.marincounty.org/~/media/files/departments/ar/assessor/application_for_reassessment_of_property_damaged_by_misfortune_or_calamity.pdf.
