Rebuilding After Storms: Next Steps

By Zach Friend, Supervisor, Second District

Over the last month, our community has sustained significant damage from multiple major storm events. Roads failed, homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, local parks, coastal access and trails all faced millions of dollars in damage.

All told, we anticipate that well over $100 million in damage will be assessed in our county, that more than 1,000 homes were damaged and that 10 roads will be closed for long-term repairs and at least 10 roads will be closed for short-term repairs.

Unquestionably, this will be a multiyear recovery process.

Our State and Federal partners immediately joined with us to start the rebuild process — including multiple visits from Gov. Newsom, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and a visit from President Biden. As part of that process, State and Federal resources became available to our community.

Below is an overview of resources for those that sustained damage and ways you can help your friends and neighbors who sustained damage.

Disaster Help for Small Businesses and Nonprofits

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the California Small Business Development Center opened an SBA Business Recovery Center in Capitola

“Stephen Kessler” from page 27

Publishing his poems for half a century mostly in the independent literary press — from his first collection, Nostalgia of the Fortuneteller (1975), issued by George Hitchcock’s Kayak Books, through the prose poems of Where Was I? (2015) from Gary Young’s Greenhouse Review Press, to Last Call (2021) from Black Widow Press in Boston — Kessler has produced a steady to provide a wide range of services to businesses, and non-profits, impacted by the severe winter storms. No appointment is necessary and all services are free.

The SBA Center is located at: Capitola City Hall Community Room, First Floor

420 Capitola Ave., Capitola, CA 95010 Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

SBA representatives will answer questions about SBA’s disaster loan program, explain the application process and help each business owner complete their electronic loan application.

Businesses of any size and private nonprofit organizations may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets. These loans cover losses that are not fully covered by insurance or other recoveries.

Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information. Please note the SBA deadline to apply for property damage is March 16, 2023. The deadline to apply for economic-related issues is Oct. 16, 2023.

Disaster Help for Individuals

In addition to the assistance for businesses and non-profits, individuals can also apply for assistance at one of the stream of constantly evolving lyric poetry characterized by its musical yet conversational style and a sensibility influenced by a diverse range of predecessors, from Emily Dickinson to Charles Bukowski, Gerard Manley Hopkins to William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay to Frank O’Hara, integrating a spontaneous sense of improvisation with a seemingly casual yet rigorous formal control.

Kessler speaks of his “heteroformalism,”

County’s Disaster Recovery Centers. The first Recovery Center opened at Ramsey Park in Watsonville with a second expected to open soon in the San Lorenzo Valley.

The Disaster Recovery Center is at: Ramsey Park 1301 Main St., Watsonville Daily, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

The Ramsay Park Disaster Recovery Center includes staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the California Office of Emergency Service, the County of Santa Cruz, the City of Watsonville, and various state, local and community agencies.

Similar to the SBA process, the deadline to apply for FEMA individual assistance is March 16, 2023.

How Can I Volunteer to Help?

The County has partnered with the Volunteer Center to give people a chance his practice in various forms and genres, as a way of regularly refreshing his imagination, the poetry, essays, and translations feeding and informing one another in mutual cross-fertilization that keeps him engaged, surprised, and venturing into new realms of discovery.

For 37 years, the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission has selected outstanding artists nominated by the public and honored them. Nominees must be a to volunteer their time to help with shelter staffing, clean-up efforts and more. Visit the Volunteer Center website at: www.scvolunteernow.org and you will see a link on the main page to volunteer to help your community in the cleanup. How Can I Donate to Help With The Efforts?

The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County is leading efforts for those interested in making monetary contributions to the recovery efforts.

Funds are used to help with housing for those with damage, cleanup efforts, prevention efforts and more. Here is the link: www.cfscc.org/funds/disaster-fund n ••• resident of Santa Cruz County, must have a national or international reputation, must have contributed to the cultural enrichment of the local community, and must have created or presented work in Santa Cruz County. n •••

As always, I appreciate any feedback you may have on this (or any other County issue). I’m maintaining regular updates on social media at www.facebook.com/supervisorfriend and you can always call me at 454-2200.

A free profile performance will take place May 20 from 7-9 p.m., at Kuumbwa Jazz Center. For details, check the Parks Department website in early spring: www.scparks.com