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Affluent Calif. county joining disaster list: lawmaker

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 17:28 CST

By Jim Christie

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - As California towns hit hard by flooding after days of heavy rains cleaned up on Tuesday, a state lawmaker said officials would add affluent Marin County, north of San Francisco, to a list of counties eligible for disaster funds.

Separately, lawmakers in the state capital of Sacramento predicted the flooding would add momentum to plans for a massive state infrastructure bond that would include funding for upgrading the state's aging levee system.

Marin, the California county with the state's highest home prices, became the eighth county declared in a state of emergency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The counties will be eligible for state and federal funds to help recover from flooding caused by two powerful winter storms.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger designated Del Norte, Humboldt, Sacramento, Trinity, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties as eligible for funds to cover the costs of cleaning up from floods and mudslides.

Heavy rains over the weekend swelled rivers and streams across northern California, hitting the heart of the state's wine region in Napa Valley and Sonoma County especially hard.

The city of Napa was flooded and suffered an estimated $110 million in damages to homes and businesses, but shops in its downtown are reopening, city spokesman Peter Dreier said.

Napa winemakers dodged damage as they had already harvested grapes and planted cover in vineyards to hold down soil.

Southwest of the famed wine region, San Anselmo in Marin County suffered some of its worst flooding in decades as local creeks overflowed into its shopping district, leaving storefronts filled with mud and waterlogged goods.

"I think it's fair to say it'll be in the tens of millions of dollars," Assemblyman Joe Nation, who represents Marin County, said of expected losses in San Anselmo.

Nation told Reuters that Schwarzenegger aides had agreed to add Marin County to the list of hard-hit areas on Tuesday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from California's Delta region, which is crisscrossed by levees, said the weekend's storms ensured funding for levee repairs would be a top priority in any infrastructure bond.

Schwarzenegger is expected to unveil his ideas for an infrastructure bond in his state of the state speech on Thursday. He has thrown out the possibility of the state issuing up to $50 billion in debt to finance upgrading highways, parts, levees and other infrastructure.

State Senate President Don Perata's bond plan calls for the state to issue $10.3 billion in general obligation debt to finance infrastructure projects, including levee repairs.

How much repairs would cost is uncertain, said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, Democratic chairman of a committee overseeing the state's inland waterways.

Republican Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi from Lodi neighboring California's delta predicted lawmakers would not ignore levees as in past years. "It will be a high priority," he said.

Nation, a Democrat, said the weekend's storms could usher in a bipartisan push on levee repairs. "I'm hoping this will be the case where we can all lock arms," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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