By FELICIA MELLO | CalMatters
After flood waters from heavy rainstorms deluged two small farmworker cities in January 2023, California put aside $20 million every for the communities to rebuild.
Almost two years later, four-fifths of that assist has not but been distributed to flood victims of Planada in Merced County, and even much less has been distributed in Pajaro in Monterey County.
Whereas county officers and non-profit staff say the gradual tempo stems from a deliberative planning course of and state guidelines requiring verification of recipients’ residency and losses, a brand new atmospheric river soaking Northern California is inflicting anxiousness for locals who noticed their neighborhoods destroyed as soon as earlier than.
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Days of rain in January of 2023 brought on canals and creeks to overflow within the two communities, hitting many residents with a triple whammy: displaced from their houses, their possessions destroyed, their work hours within the discipline reduce. State lawmakers granted the reduction funds within the fall of 2023. The counties divided them into numerous pots to cowl reimbursement for belongings and wages, house restore, enterprise losses, and infrastructure enhancements to organize for the following storm.
As of this month, about $4 million of the $20 million in state assist designated for Planada had been spent, the majority of that in direct funds to households, Merced County spokesperson Mike North stated. In Pajaro, county officers working with nonprofits have handed out about $1.3 million of its $20 million share: $450,000 in grocery reward playing cards to residents whose meals spoiled in the course of the flooding, plus about one other $800,000 to individuals and companies with bigger losses not lined by federal catastrophe assist or personal insurance coverage.
Angela DiNovella, the manager director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Monterey – one among two organizations contracted with Monterey County to assist Pajaro residents apply for the funds – stated her group’s three case staff have been distributing a median of $30,000 per week to households.
One of many important challenges, she stated, was verifying eligibility for households who lacked a everlasting tackle or lived in overcrowded circumstances, equivalent to when three households share a single condominium. Some individuals additionally struggled to doc how a lot they’d misplaced, so caseworkers have been doing the painstaking labor of reviewing pictures and making an attempt to estimate the greenback worth of every merchandise.
“The reality is this is state funding that comes with a lot of requirements,” she stated. “Our work is to be creative with the families and be on their side but even that takes time.”
Monterey County arrange an help middle in a group park this previous spring to assist residents apply for the help, DiNovella stated. However Danielle Rivera, an environmental planning professor at UC Berkeley who conducts fieldwork within the space, stated many group members stay confused about the place the state assist goes and the way to profit. And a few, she stated, could have moved away earlier than they received any assist.
“People were displaced from the floods – they were renting and the landlord said ‘This unit’s out of commission.’ Then that household tries to find housing somewhere else and maybe they came back to Pajaro, maybe they went to Watsonville, maybe they just left the Pajaro Valley entirely,” she stated.
Residents in each communities who have been undocumented might additionally qualify for a statewide Storm Help for Immigrants program, aimed toward serving to California flood victims who have been ineligible for federal emergency help. The $95 million statewide program for storm victims provided a flat stipend of $1,500 per qualifying grownup.
Thousands and thousands in further assist from philanthropic teams, personal insurance coverage and the Federal Emergency Administration Company has additionally poured into Pajaro for the reason that floods, county officers stated — although residents’ skill to entry that assist different based mostly on whether or not they have been owners or authorized U.S. residents.
Infrastructure tasks are additionally shifting ahead, North stated, although extra slowly. The county has changed a backup generator for the local people providers district that failed in the course of the floods, and is commissioning a examine on the way to forestall future inundations.
Half of Pajaro’s $20 million is earmarked for infrastructure and emergency preparedness tasks, and Monterey County spokesperson Nick Pasculli stated the county had requested bids for about half the tasks.
DiNovella, whose group additionally labored with households displaced by the 2020 fires within the Santa Cruz Mountains, stated that communities usually take years to get well from disasters and that the tempo of assist in Pajaro, whereas gradual, is unfortunately par for the course. The newest batch of assist, whereas delayed, will give households a lift in the course of the gradual winter season when many farmworkers are barely scraping by, she stated.
One Pajaro resident who received state assistance is Jesús Padilla, who’s lived within the city for 25 years, working the strawberry and blackberry harvests. When the floods hit, he and his household simply had time to seize the three youngsters’s delivery certificates and run. They misplaced every part – furnishings, garments, kitchenware.
Now, he worries most about his household’s bodily and psychological well being. Each time it rains, his youngsters ask him, “If it keeps raining more, where will we go?”
His household had already changed lots of their belongings, however the state grant that Catholic Charities helped him get hold of reimbursed a few of their bills. He has associates who’re nonetheless ready for assist.
He tells them to be affected person – “It seems like the process is working. Just slowly.”
A lot of the North Monterey County city of Pajaro, simply throughout the Pajaro River from Watsonville, is submerged with flood water on Sunday after the river levee breached in March 2023. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Initially Revealed: November 25, 2024 at 7:22 AM PST
