Earthquake retrofit grants open to residents of Humboldt County – Times-Standard

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In the wake of several earthquakes, most notably the 6.4-magnitude shaking in December that killed two people and destroyed dozens of homes across the county, $2 million in grant money has been opened to most Humboldt County residents who want help retooling their homes.

The California Earthquake Authority’s Earthquake Brace and Bolt can’t be used to repair damaged homes, blocking access to help for some — FEMA hasn’t declared a catastrophic emergency, meaning residents can’t access federal funds for help — but offers The new grant is up to $3,000 for individuals to improve their homes before the next big grant.

“Humboldt County is a huge seismic area, and they need this retrofit, so we were able to get additional financing for 200 homes,” said Janelle Maffei, chief mitigation officer for the California Earthquake Authority. “That’s why we came back. We were there, we saw the damage, we realized there was no presidential proclamation, there was no FEMA funding and so it was like, How do we get involved? And we were able to get some additional funding.”

The money provided to the state from FEMA probably won’t cover the full cost of rehabilitating many homes—Humboldt County has an abundance of dock and post homes that don’t fare well in earthquakes and are expensive to retrofit because they need a large foundation—but There is a supplemental grant for residents who earn a family income of $72,080 per year or less can apply for up to $10,000. Maffei estimates that many families in Rio Del, which were badly affected by the earthquakes, meet these criteria.

Homes must be owner occupied, built prior to 1980 with earthquake vulnerabilities and within zip codes listed at https://bit.ly/3pSDYor.

“The building code doesn’t require you to improve your home after an earthquake, so someone can pick out a spare home and bring it back to those underperforming establishments,” Maffei said. “What we’re trying to do is come in before somebody who wasn’t damaged, or then after they’ve cemented that house again, and give them a proper foundation.”

Pier and post homes are common in Humboldt County because they provide increased ventilation under the house, which is a boon in a humid climate, but can be disastrous during an earthquake because it lacks a strong foundation. Company housing built during the days of the lumber industry is also in Humboldt County and expensive to retrofit.

In some cases, residents who have sustained damaged homes will have to pay the money themselves or request a Small Business Administration grant to report economic damages. Applications are at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ela/s/ and the deadline for submission is October. 4.

Residents can apply for the grant at https://www.earthquakebracebolt.com/ and when registration closes July 31, 200 applicant homes will be randomly selected and owners can start looking for a contractor. As for those on the waiting list, Maffei said those initially selected could drop out for a number of reasons.

“We haven’t left a single home on our waiting list. I can’t guarantee that, but we have a very good system in terms of being able to make grants that are commensurate with the type of application that we’re seeing,” Maffei said.

The California Office of Emergency Services and Earthquake Safety Commission are meeting twice in Humboldt County this week: on May 23 at the River Lodge Convention Center in Fortuna at 4 p.m. and on May 24 at Rio del City Hall at 9 a.m.

“It’s heartbreaking for me to go up and see the kind of harm and suffering frankly that people have had to go through and that’s why we’re doing this, what we’re doing is we’re trying to prevent that,” Maffei said.

The Jackson Guilfoil can be reached at 707-441-0506

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