Monterey County seeking additional FEMA Disaster assistance
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- On Monday morning, Monterey County officials are seeking additional FEMA disaster assistance due to damages throughout the county.
On Sunday, Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto and officials from county agencies such as Monterey County Water Resources, Office of Emergency Services and Monterey County Regional Fire met with local and state leaders. Other agencies involved included State Parks and CAL Fire.
Some of the politicians that toured the storm damage included District 17 State Senator John Laird, 30th District State Assemblymember Dawn Addis. Monterey County Supervisors Mary Adams and Wendy Root Askew also joined the tour.
County officials are requesting to be considered for categories C through G. These categories include roads/bridges, water control facilities, buildings and equipment and parks and recreation.
The county is currently eligible for FEMA's categories A and B funding. This includes debris removal and emergency protective measures.
County and state officials visited multiple locations to assess storm damage which included.
- Big Sur River, located near Saint Francis Church, where a log jam has rerouted the entire river toward Highway 1.
- Big Sur River, 1/4 Mile south of Saint Francis Church, where a fallen old growth redwood has caused significant erosion next to Hwy 1.
- Carmel Highlands, several trees fell causing some residents in the area to lose power for 12 days. Cal Fire's Station was also struck by one of the falling trees.
- Carmel River State Beach, where the beach access parking lot was buried in sand and a large portion of Scenic Drive was damaged. Officials said the parking lot and the southern end of Scenic Drive remains closed due to these damages.
- Dampierre Park in Carmel Valley; a portion of the Carmel River berm failed causing the river to divert over the baseball fields and into nearby residences on Paso Hando.
County officials are still gathering damage information caused by the multiple winter storms.
Officials said the last estimate of damages caused by the storm is nearly $80 million.
