Department of Water Resources California Water News: Top Items 1/12/10

Eureka's quake damage estimates climb to $28 million

Eureka Times-Standard-1/12/10

As Humboldt County continued the process Monday of assessing the destruction left in the wake of Saturday's earthquake, the figures kept creeping up, with more than $28 million in damage now estimated in Eureka alone.

”We're still inspecting damaged buildings, so we do expect that number to increase,” said Gary Bird, public information officer for Eureka's emergency response team.

While Eureka was the hardest hit in Saturday's 6.5 earthquake that struck at 4:27 p.m. about 20 miles west northwest of Ferndale, damage reports trickled in Monday from other areas of the county. Meanwhile, the Humboldt County Chapter of the American Red Cross continued to help the 14 individuals displaced by the quake connect with services, retain shelter and generally move on with their lives.

The county's state and national representatives also continued working Monday to ensure the area is in line for federal and state aid, if it's needed.

Two more quakes were recorded locally by 7:30 p.m. on Monday: the first was a 3.1 magnitude quake at 3:21 a.m., which was located 39 miles west of Ferndale, and the second was a 3.5 at 6:53 p.m. located 22 miles west northwest of Ferndale, bringing the total to 28 since Saturday's big temblor.

Bird said Eureka continues to receive reports of damaged structures, with the total rising to 219 by Monday afternoon. Of the properties the city has inspected, Bird said there's been an estimated $21.8 million in damage, not including an estimated $1 million in damage to the Eureka Post Office on H Street and an estimated $6 million in damage to the Bayshore Mall.

The post office issued a press release Monday stating that it will be closed until further notice. Structural engineers are expected to inspect the building in the coming days to determine if it's safe to occupy. No word came from the Bayshore Mall, and numerous attempts to contact mall management were unsuccessful Monday.

Countywide, no damage estimates were available, and calls to the county's Office of Emergency Services were not returned by deadline.

”We're still evaluating some of the county facilities, so I'm waiting to get some reports in from building maintenance and risk management,” said County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes, adding that he could not give any countywide damage estimates.

Down in Ferndale, which saw storefront windows blown out along its Main Street, City Manager Jay Parrish was busy checking on damage.

”We're still putting numbers together,” Parrish said. “So far, we haven't had businesses give us hard numbers yet.”

Parrish said he was hopeful that he might have some sort of figures by this afternoon.

Ferndale's neighbor, Fortuna, fared pretty well in the quake.

”We have not received one claim for private property damage,” said City Manager Duane Rigge. “Nothing like what Eureka and Ferndale are seeing.”

Trinidad also escaped the quake without any reports of damage.

”Trinidad was pretty mellow,” said City Clerk Gabe Adams. “Everybody felt it, but there was no damage.”

The Trinidad Police Department said officers first restricted traffic to the area's beaches until it got an all clear from the OES that there would be no tsunami.

Then officers, with help from the Trinidad Volunteer Fire Department, CalFire and volunteers from the community, checked neighborhoods door-to-door to offer help with shutting off gas lines and checking for other hazards.

Arcata similarly escaped largely unscathed.

”I think Arcata was very, very lucky -- our biggest loss was power,” said interim City Manager Randy Mendosa, adding that, as of Monday afternoon, he had not received any reports of significant damage.

All day Monday, police scanners buzzed with calls of hazardous conditions -- from signs about to fall to walls buckling in apartment buildings. Some turned out to be not as reported, but others required fire department responses.

Eureka and the county both declared states of emergency Saturday, indications of how widespread the damage is in certain areas. Smith-Hanes said the Board of Supervisors will consider today whether to uphold the declaration of emergency.

”That is really the first step -- asking the governor to confirm that this was a significant event of statewide importance and that they will give aid to the county if it is determined to be warranted,” he said.

The county has already received some state assistance, according to Kelly Huston, assistant secretary to the California Emergency Management Agency. Huston said the agency sent four people from its recovery division to the area over the weekend to assist local agencies in determining what's needed from a recovery standpoint.

”They are there to help do damage assessments and to basically be ready in case the damage estimates come back so substantially that they do warrant the governor declaring an emergency,” Huston said.

Huston also made clear that the county's declaration would not automatically trigger the same designation from the state. Nor is there an automatic threshold that triggers a state response, he said.

”It's all dependent on the amount of damage, the loss of jobs, the effect to the community,” Huston said. “Every disaster is different. Every disaster is evaluated on its own merits. You can't really set a standard for everything, because they are all different.”

Reached Monday, North Coast Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro said he's already been in touch with the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, on the subject.

”I had a brief conversation with her encouraging the governor to approve the declaration of emergency once the county has acted,” Chesbro said. “It's my understanding that besides the county declaration, the process of assessing the extent and dollar value of the loss is also a factor. The governor probably won't act until counties and cities can offer a complete report.”

Smith-Hanes said North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson has also been in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's director, urging federal assistance.

”They know what occurred here,” Smith-Hanes said, “but, obviously, we will have to go through the state channels before getting to the feds.”

Thompson spent Monday returning to Washington, D.C., from his post-quake visit to the county, and was consequently not immediately available for comment.

In addition to urging the governor for the emergency declaration, Chesbro said he's also looking into the possibility of introducing some emergency legislation that would waive the local match costs the state often requires to repair public buildings and to waive property taxes for property owners in the county who have suffered significant damage.

Back in Eureka, Bird said damage is so widespread that the city's building official and three building inspectors were having a hard time keeping up with reports. But, he said a number of local engineers have contacted the city and are volunteering their time to do building inspections.

”That is just a tribute to the kind of community we have,” Bird said.

The 14 people displaced by Saturday's quake -- 11 from an apartment building on H Street in Eureka and three from a home on Humboldt Hill -- have also benefited from the generosity of the local community.

The Humboldt County Chapter of the American Red Cross put them up in local hotels and motels -- two to a room -- and provided them with food vouchers at local grocery stores and locations near where they are staying.

”It's not a long-term kind of a thing, but it deals with getting these people shelter immediately after the disaster,” said Linda Nellist, director of community education for the local Red Cross, and its public affairs officer in times of disaster.

Nellist said a handful of volunteers immediately sprang into action after Saturday's quake, and were ready to meet families in need to help connect them with both immediate and long-term services.

”We work hard all year long just for an event like this,” Nellist said. “Our training is ongoing constantly. We do drills, work with individuals and have monthly meetings. It takes all of that effort, year-long, to be able to respond in a seamless way when the accident or emergency happens.”

Dana and Ashley Porter, along with their son Bobbylee Tatum Jr., were one of the families to receive help over the weekend from the Red Cross. After their Humboldt Hill home came off its foundation, causing the chimney to collapse, causing a fire and drenching the house in soot and smoke, the family had nowhere to go. That is, until the Red Cross set the family up with a room in a local hotel.

”Everything in the whole house just looked like it was ransacked,” Dana Porter said. “They tagged it and said it was uninhabitable. We don't know what to do and we don't have a home, but we're just so grateful for what they've done for us.”#

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_14171082

Eureka dusts itself off after 6.5 quake

L.A. Times-1/12/10

By Ari B. Bloomekatz

Old Town Eureka lies off the serene waterfront of Humboldt Bay across from Woodley Island and is filled with antique stores, art galleries, coffee shops and fine seafood restaurants.

But every so often, as all Eurekans know, the ground shakes and the historic buildings in Old Town -- many of which have posted red signs warning of "unreinforced masonry" on their storefronts -- take a hit.

It happened in Eureka in 1980. And in 1992. And in 1994. And again Saturday afternoon, when a 6.5 temblor hit.

Windows and ceilings cracked. Bottles of wine and liquor crashed to the floor. And some worried that the buildings themselves might topple over.

Living with the threat of earthquakes is a way of life in Eureka, some of the city's 26,000 residents say, and this weekend's temblor was part of that rhythm.

"We understand the geography of our area," said Diane Barmore, owner of an Old Town restaurant, where the quake was Topic A on Monday. "We know there are faults all around."

Eureka and the rest of California's North Coast lie near what earthquake experts call the "triple junction." Off the coast, the Gorda, Pacific and North America plates intersect. Studies show that the Gorda plate is wedging under the North America plate, causing frequent and sometimes large earthquakes.

But in Old Town and elsewhere on the North Coast, residents were largely taking their geological quirk in stride.

"I talked to people who just moved here and they thought their life was ending, but for me it was just annoying," said Sandra Warshaw, who has lived in Eureka since 1985. "It's like an 'oh, well' rather than an 'oh, my God.' "

Warshaw was in Old Town on Monday snapping photos of a building that once housed the now-vacant Old Town Bar & Grill. Officials said the earthquake caused significant damage to the brick building and that its parapet fell several stories onto an adjacent business, crashing through the roof and squashing a car.

The Eureka City Council on Monday voted to allow that brick building on 2nd Street to be demolished. It had been damaged by previous quakes as well.

Other shops like Old Town Coffee & Chocolates suffered broken windows. The Eureka branch of the North Coast Co-Op, which is on the edge of Old Town, had products littering the floor and had to throw out some food because of lost electricity.

Larry Glass, a city councilman who owns a record shop in Old Town called The Works, said it was miraculous that no lives were lost and that damage was not more widespread.

Glass moved to Eureka in 1971 from Los Angeles and said he had been through too many temblors to count. The worst, he said, was in 1992. He remembered most of his merchandise fell off the shelves and brick dust covered the shop.

Glass said this weekend's earthquake felt like the worst he had been through, but that the only damage to his store was a fallen picture of singer-songwriter Rose Maddox.

City authorities said there were 219 damage reports. Their current estimate of the cost: $21.8 million.

About 20 people were displaced from their homes, but the bulk of them came from the same apartment building near the center of the city. Some people were treated for cuts, bruises, scrapes and anxiety-related problems. One person -- an elderly woman who broke her hip -- was admitted to the hospital.

Barmore, 64, has owned the Cafe Waterfront Oyster Bar & Grill in Old Town for more than two decades and said that although she was fearful of earthquakes and "the big one" that experts say will come someday, she doesn't think of moving.

"The fear only comes up in any big way when there's an earthquake, of course. The other times you can rationalize through belief or faith that you're going to be OK. You have to develop a belief or faith that the universe is going to be kind to you," she said.

On Monday, Barmore and her son, 41-year-old Ben Smith, who manages the restaurant, sifted through some of the glasses and plates that broke in a bed and breakfast they operate on the floor above the cafe.

Many shop owners in Old Town agreed that business seemed somewhat normal as the week began.

One owner said she made a conscious effort to be "visibly open" so that tourists and residents knew most of Old Town was open for business.

In the front window of Eureka Books, owner Scott Brown displayed several temblor-related books, pamphlets and old newspapers after the quake struck, including "Living with the Changing California Coast" and "Seismic History of the San Francisco Region."

A customer walked in and it was almost business as usual.

"I was in the middle of buying this when the earthquake happened," said Bob Whitehead, who has lived in Eureka for nearly four decades and presented "The Song Celestial" to Brown.

"Yes," Brown said without hesitation. "Three dollars and twenty-six cents."#

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-eureka-quake12-2010jan12,0,5777569.story

Key water decisions remain on tap for 2010

Sonora Union Democrat-1/11/10

Editorial

“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

Whether Mark Twain actually said those words is a matter of some conjecture. But their accuracy, especially here in California, is beyond debate.

Even now we in the Mother Lode are fighting over how much water San Francisco can take from the Tuolumne River, how much it should be fined for siphoning off too much, whether an $11.1 billion water bond issue before voters in November is a good idea, if we should pipe our water ditches, how many trout the Department of Fish and Game should plant in our waterways, and how California can survive a fourth year of drought.

It’s enough to turn a man — or woman — to whiskey.

But with key water decisions looming in 2010, it’s probably best to remain sober.

We’ll begin with San Francisco, who some have yet to forgive for hijacking 360,000 acre-feet of our mountain water for millions of thirsty Bay Area city dwellers nearly a century ago. But the Raker Act passed in 1913, reservoirs and dams were built and now we must deal with it.

The later chapter of Dealing With It is wrestling with San Francisco’s request to up its take to 300 million gallons a day.

In a compromise reached with the Tuolumne River Trust, Tuolumne County and other agencies affected, San Francisco agreed not to exceed the current 265 million gallon per-day limit until 2018, when the ceiling would rise to the requested 300 million.

A sticking point, however, is how much Hetch Hetchy should pay in fines — which will fund environmental enhancement projects in the Sierra Nevada — for exceeding the limit. In a bizarre and questionable arrangement, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — which basically runs the water system — will set the fines itself.

Fox in the hen house?

Perhaps, but both the City of San Francisco and the River Trust are confident the self-imposed fines will be fair. As river levels are the key to healthy fisheries and prosperous rafting here in Tuolumne County, those fines are worth keeping an eye on.

Then there’s the multi-billion dollar overhaul of the California water system approved by the Legislature earlier this year.

That the bill — which calls for water-use reduction, fines for illegal diversion, groundwater monitoring, re-plumbing the failing Sacramento-San Joaquin and more — passed at all is something of a miracle. For this we can thank State Senator Dave Cogdill, Tuolumne County’s representative in the upper chamber and, as it turns out, a deft negotiator with a talent for compromise.

In engineering the bill, called the most comprehensive California water program in a half century, the Modesto lawmaker brought together Republicans and Democrats, legislators from cities and from farm country and representatives of a wide spectrum of special interests.

Not only that, but the Modesto Republican worked with Tuolumne Utilities District Manager Pete Kampa to assure TUD would maintain its water rights and escape Draconian state supervision in earlier versions of the legislation.

Cogdill, who said drafting and engineering passage of the bill was “the pinnacle” of his career, should indeed be congratulated. But a huge question remains:

Will voters in November approve the $11.1 billion bond issue which would fund the entire program?

Amid a recession and a griding California budget crisis, voters may look askance at even the most meritorious and even-handed ballot proposals. But the consequences of rejection are dire: “We’d be back to Square 1,” said Cogdill, who is retiring and won’t be around to lead a second charge.

If that’s not enough to worry about, consider the latest snow-survey results from the state’s Department of Water Resources: The Sierra snow pack is just 85 percent of normal, meaning California could emerge from a dry winter amid its fourth straight year of a drought.

Which means it’s time to pray for rain.

Either that or order another round of Mark Twain’s whiskey.#

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/2010011198838/Opinion/Editorials/Key-water-decisions-remain-on-tap-for-2010

Wolk, Wiggins lose big in committee shake-up

Sacramento Bee-1/11/10

By Torey Van Oot

Sen. Lois Wolk, wasn't shy about her disdain for the water package passed last fall -- or Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's role in crafting the agreement.

The Davis Democrat emerged from last week's reorganization of Senate committee rosters with just two of the seven committee assignments she previously held.

Coincidence?

Wolk, who withdrew her authorship from a bill to create a Delta Conservancy when she learned it would be amended into provisions she opposed, criticized the process for passing the package as "incredibly awful," saying Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District "wrote (the package) in private meetings, and then it emerged in the middle of the night."

Wolk, miffed that a peripheral canal could be built under the plan, also slammed Steinberg's role in the deal as "disturbing" and said he threw Northern California Democrats "under the bus."

When Steinberg released a list of slimmed-down committee memberships last week, Wolk retained the chairmanship of the Revenue and Taxation Committee and a spot on the Natural Resources and Water committee and picked up one assignment -- a seat on the Food and Agriculture Committee.

But she was stripped of seats on Appropriations, Budget and Fiscal Review, Health, Transportation and Housing and Local Government.

Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Wolk was not specifically targeted in the committee reorganization.

"It's consistent with our overall goal of reducing workload so members can focus on specific issue areas," she said.

Another member who lost a significant number of seats was Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa. Wiggins, who has said she won't seek a second term amid reports of declining health, lost six assignments and her spot as chair of the Local Government Committee.#

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/01/wolk-loses-big.html

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