Los Osos neighborhood flooded during storm. Who will pay to repair the damage?
After a flood tore through their Los Osos neighborhood, homeowners are scrambling to pay for repairs to their homes.
“All these people are not rich. How are they supposed to survive now?” one woman said at a Los Osos Community Services District board meeting on Jan. 12. “Do you take your floor out? Do you take your baseboards up? Do you take the wall down? Who pays for that? How does it get done?”
However, government help could be around the corner.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden added San Luis Obispo County to his storm disaster declaration.
That means local residents and businesses can apply directly to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for funding to address storm damage, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal’s office.
“We understand the dire need for assistance, and the sooner we can get the cash flowing the better,” CSD General Manager Ron Munds told The Tribune.
What happened to Los Osos neighborhood?
While a storm pelted Los Osos on Jan. 9, a wall crumbled on the east end of a CSD-owned water detention basin — causing water to flood the Vista de Oro neighborhood below, Munds said.
Phyllis Schoonbeck’s Vista Court home was destroyed by the flood.
She said “a wall of water” rush down the street from her neighbor’s window, tearing through her home and leaving it uninhabitable.
“If I had been home, the force of that water would have knocked me down and I wouldn’t have been climbing up,” said Schoonbeck, who has lived on Vista Court for more than 20 years
Schoonbeck now wants to be reimbursed for the damage to her home, which she carefully decorated and maintained.
“I want to be made whole,” Schoonbeck said. “I prided myself in having a well-appointed house. Well kept, well maintained. And now I’m crushed, I truly am.”
Who will pay for storm damage?
So far, homeowners affected by the Los Osos flooding have been the only ones tasked with paying to repair their damaged homes — but reimbursement could be around the corner.
Biden’s Major Disaster Declaration “makes residents in impacted counties who had damage or losses from the storms eligible to apply for federal disaster assistance,” according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, plus low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, the White House previously said.
Residents can apply for FEMA aid by calling 1-800-621-3362, visiting disasterassistance.gov or downloading the FEMA app on their smartphone and uploading paperwork there, according to a Tuesday news release from San Luis Obispo County.
Individuals will receive different amounts of funding based on the severity of their property damage, county Emergency Services coordinator Anita Konopa told The Tribune.
Some residents may not receive any money, while others will receive more.
The limit for individual payouts was $41,000 in 2022, and the limit will likely be similar this year, Konopa said.
Individual payouts are “not going to cover everything, but can be used in concert with other programs,” Konopa said, such as low-interest loans and temporary housing.
“You’ve gotta understand that FEMA won’t come in here and build you a whole new house,” county Emergency Services coordinator Scott Jalbert told Vista Court residents on Jan. 12.
If FEMA does approve individual payouts to homeowners, it could take months for those funds to land in their bank accounts.
In the mean time, Konopa recommended that folks keep photos and receipts showing how much they paid to clean up and repair the flood damage.
“I know it’s frustrating to think about this path being long and somewhat complex,” San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Bruce Gibson said at the meeting with Vista Court residents on Jan. 12. “I want you also to know that each and every one of the individuals who you talk to is committed to helping you through it.”
The Los Osos CSD may also offer funds to flooded homeowners through its insurance company, Special District Risk Management Authority.
Los Osos residents can complete a claim form with the CSD’s insurance company on the CSD website, or they can pick up a paper copy of the form at the district’s office at 2122 Ninth St., Suite 110, in Los Osos.
The insurance company will send out investigators this week to people’s homes to evaluate the damage, then decide if the CSD is liable to reimburse homeowners, Munds said.
None of these funds are guaranteed, however, leaving residents wondering if they’ll be stuck holding the bag.
“If FEMA doesn’t come through and the CSD doesn’t come through, I’m left digging into my pockets and my retirement,” Schoonbeck said. “What does that give you?”
Los Osos resident Diana Hammerlund has started a GoFundMe fundraiser for locals dealing with flood damage. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had raised more than $27,000 toward a $50,000 goal.
Who will fix broken water detention basin that caused flood?
Meanwhile, the Los Osos CSD must repair the breached water retention basin that caused the flooding.
The district built a temporary fix for the basin last week, and will build a permanent fix when it finishes the design and permitting process, Munds said.
Munds estimated that the temporary fix to the basin would cost $100,000, while the permanent fix could cost about $1 million. The CSD had spent about $40,000 on a tractor and dump truck for Vista Court cleanup efforts as of Jan. 12, Munds said.
The detention basin is about 200 yards long and 40 to 50 yards wide, Munds said.
The CSD didn’t build the basin, Munds said, so he was unsure of its depth.
The basin was likely designed and built by a consultant for the Cabrillo Estates subdivision in the 1970s, Munds said, and then approved by the county.
When the district formed, it became responsible for the basin, according to Munds.
The CSD hired Hartzell Construction to make the temporary fix, which it completed on Jan. 13.
“We did not want any more flow heading downhill towards Visa de Oro,” Munds said.
First, workers pumped the remaining water out of the east side of the basin, and replaced the broken wall with sand bags, he said.
A berm separated the east and west ends of the basin, and the workers built the berm about 2 feet higher with dirt, rock and a plastic cover, then blocked the pipe connecting the two ends of the basin to isolate water on the west side, Munds said.
The basin was designed with a 10- to 15-foot-tall drainage pipe that would funnel water onto Pecho Valley Road when the basin filled to the top, Munds said.
Last week, however, the wall collapsed before the basin filled to that overflow point.
As part of the temporary fix, the CSD cut the pipe so it would drain water before it reached the top of the basin, Munds said.
Staff then installed a portable pump to drain water onto Pecho Valley Road if needed, he said, and lined Pecho Valley Road with sandbags to channel the water into a storm drain at the end of the street.
At the Jan. 12 CSD meeting, the board voted unanimously to remove the $50,000 spending limit on public works contracting to allow Munds to hire a company to repair the basin.
For the most part, the basin’s temporary fix worked during a recent weekend storm, Munds told The Tribune on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Los Osos was battered by a “powerful downpour,” Munds said, causing water to rapidly fill the west side of the basin.
Water drained out of the basin and down Pecho Valley Road so quickly that “the force of the water knocked the sandbags down,” Munds said. “We had to bring in traffic control to advise motorists of the hazard because it was definitely rolling pretty fast down there.”
Still, no homes or businesses were flooded by the basin’s runoff during the weekend storm.
“The temporary fix worked according to plan,” Munds said. “We’re very fortunate that it held.”
The CSD worked together with Cal Fire, the California Highway Patrol, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office to monitor the basin during the storm, Munds said.
“I have to admit there was a lot of adrenaline,” Munds said. “The volume of the rain, the intensity of the rain is something — I’ve lived here a long time — I’ve never seen.”
The goal of the permanent fix is to stabilize the whole east side of the basin, and construction will start in the next few weeks, Munds said.
CSD board member Matthew Fourcroy noted at the Jan. 12 meeting that it could take longer than expected to implement the permanent fix.
“We don’t have necessarily control over how short temporary is,” Fourcroy said. “We’re going to be fighting for resources with the rest of the county and even the rest of California.”
What else do Vista Court residents need?
At the Jan. 12 CSD meeting, Vista Court residents asked for shovels, towels, humidifiers and fans to clean up their flooded homes.
“We’re buying this all ourselves and I’m wondering if it’s going to come back on us,” Schoonbeck said at the meeting.
Residents also asked the CSD to send a staff person to coordinate volunteer cleanup efforts in the neighborhood.
“It’s been a really beautiful testament to the community care that exists in Los Osos that people are doing it just completely grassroots, showing up and jumping in,” Los Osos resident Quinn Brady said at the meeting. “There really isn’t a leader or a specific point of contact out there. We’re all working together.”
Brady helped organize volunteers at Vista Court, but her team needs help, she said.
“Myself and others have been out there trying to relieve that burden from the homeowners being the ones coordinating, but I have kids and a job,” Brady said. “I think it could be appropriate for you as the CSD to consider having someone out there as a point of contact, even if it’s just for a few hours a day.”
Munds said that the CSD doesn’t really have the resources to provide an on-site coordinator.
“The CSD is a very small organization. Someone answers the phone, someone does the billing, there’s a water crew, and then myself,” Munds said at the Jan. 12 meeting.
As of Jan. 12, at least three houses had been “red-tagged,” or uninhabitable due to electrical issues or mold, while numerous others were “yellow-tagged,” meaning they could become uninhabitable without repairs.
Brady urged the CSD to work with the county to secure funding and housing vouchers for displaced residents living with friends.
“We need a long-term solution,” Brady said.
Residents also noted that surviving the flood was traumatic, and they need mental health care to cope with that experience.
“These people are homeless, they’re traumatized, and there hasn’t been any counseling-type help,” Los Osos resident Becky McFarland said at the Jan. 12 CSD meeting.
Gibson advised residents to call his office at 805-781-4338, and said his staff will direct them to county mental health services.
“The trauma of this is obvious,” Gibson said. “I’ve been inside those homes. It looked like a home that I used to own in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. It’s striking the damage that’s done there.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 3:42 PM.
