County of Santa Barbara Continues Swift, Multi-Tiered Response for Tea Fire Recovery

[Bolt Glenn]

Source: County of SB

County staff continues to make significant progress with response plans to help residents recover from the Tea Fire, including the issuance of more than 100 permits for demolition and debris removal, County officials announced today.

“The County has mobilized a large-scale, multi-department recovery effort with the goal of helping our county residents re-build their homes and lives as quickly as possible,” said Salud Carbajal, First District Supervisor and Board Chair.

“In addition to the County, as well as federal and state governments, we want to thank the cadre of citizen volunteers and groups like the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Red Cross and the United Way for their outpouring of help in our time of need,” Carbajal said.

Carbajal noted that “the array of services and coordinated response by the County includes staff from nearly every County department,” including Public Works, Planning and Development, Sheriff’s Department, District Attorney, County Counsel, Office of Emergency Services, Fire Department, Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office, Clerk-Recorder-Assessor’s Office, General Services, Public Health, Mental Health, Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, Information Technology and the County Executive Office.

Current examples of the County’s recovery efforts to date include:

Issuing 102 permits for demolition and debris removal for 61 parcel owners and deferring fees for those permits

Processing more than 2,001 tons of fire debris—including appropriate recycling processing—at the local County landfill

Assigning a Project Case Manager to all 81 parcel owners under County jurisdiction and successfully contacting 79 of those 81 parcel owners to confirm Case Manager contact information and move forward with recovery efforts

Issuing 12 permits for temporary trailer homes to be placed on parcels

Working with the California Department of Toxic Substance Control to provide free household hazardous waste clean-up assistance for fire victims

Hiring an Ombudsman to help quickly resolve issues for property owners

Participating in numerous community meetings to share information and staffing the joint Recovery Center with other federal, state and local agencies

Providing important health information and safety guidelines for clean-up efforts

Deploying extra Sheriff’s deputies to patrol the burn area to help ensure protection of vacated properties

Processing more than 100 requests for deferral of property taxes and more than 100 requests for re-assessment of property values (for properties in both County and City areas)

Expediting the free processing of replacement copies for vital and official records, such as certificates of birth, death, fetal death, or marriage, and property records or deed that are required to obtain assistance from federal, state and local government agencies

Waiving the County’s processing fee for replacement of U.S. passports

In addition to the direct recovery efforts for residents, the County’s Public Works Department continues to move forward with a variety of efforts to help prevent soil erosion and prepare the burn areas for possible flooding or debris flows, including:

Clearing four miles of Sycamore Creek in cooperation with the City of Santa Barbara

Reconstructing a debris basin in Parma Park that was originally built after the 1977 Sycamore Canyon Fire

Clearing out several other existing debris basins and culverts in the Sycamore Canyon Watershed area and building several debris racks

Installing a new stream monitor gauge on Sycamore Creek near Five Points intersection

Replacing a damaged rain gauge in the Mount Calvary burn area

Continue working closely with the National Weather Service for long- and short-term weather monitoring and coordination of possible alerts due to weather changes

Maintaining four sand bag stations in cooperation with the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta and the Montecito Fire Protection District

Re-surveying all County roads in the burn area to facilitate the re-building process

Monitoring and clearing County roadways in the burn area as needed due to falling rock and other debris

County officials continue to remind all residents in the County’s South Coast area to consider buying flood insurance due to the possible impacts on the area from both the Tea Fire and the Gap Fire. Flood insurance takes a minimum of 30 days to take effect from the date of purchase before claims can be filed.

County officials also urge all residents, whether they are property owners or renters, to take the time now to re-examine their fire insurance policies to make sure they have appropriate levels of coverage.

The County’s Ombudsman, Tony Nisich, can be reached at [phone] or by e-mail at [e-mail].

For additional information, tune to the County’s government cable television station, Channel 20 (Cox and Comcast) or go online to the County’s website, www.CountyofSB.org, which now features several new pages devoted to fire recovery information.