On a pristine morning on Monday, Jan. 23 – a week after the last of the storms that battered much of California – the line stretches out the door and around the block at Spreckels Veterans Memorial Hall.
Tucked away on the edge of the old company town occupied by idyllic single-family homes and surrounded by agricultural fields, Monterey County officials chose the VFW hall as the site of a “one-stop” local assistance center for residents impacted by the storms, which likely caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure across the county. Outside the building, families – many accompanied by young children and strollers – stand patiently as the line inches inside, where dozens of tables staffed with workers from government agencies and nonprofits await to help them.
In the first four days after it opened on Saturday, Jan. 21, nearly 1,500 families registered for assistance at the center, county officials say. Staffers from the Monterey County Department of Emergency Management and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services buzz around the floor, directing people to the appropriate services.
Among the most in-demand booths are those representing the California Employment Development Department, which is administering federal disaster unemployment assistance for those who lost work and wages due to the storms, and the state Department of Public Health’s Vital Records office, which is waiving document fees for those who lost birth certificates and other personal records needed to apply for relief. Staffers note demand for food, diapers and rental assistance, citing how disasters tend to exacerbate existing economic ailments like food insecurity.
Nonprofits like United Way Monterey County and Catholic Charities are also on hand – with the former handing out nearly 200 cash-loaded gift cards. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Small Business Administration are well-represented, with staffers helping people apply for low-interest loans covering damages to their homes, businesses and personal property.
Daniel Gonzalez, an emergency services planner with Monterey County, has seen “a lot of residents looking for financial assistance [due to] lost wages,” particularly farmworkers from rural areas in North and South County.
“We’ve seen a flow [of people] from all over the county,” Gonzalez says, citing how officials have set up bus routes to and from Pajaro and San Ardo, designed to help people access the center in Spreckels.
FEMA spokesperson Tiana Suber says officials are discussing whether to keep the Spreckels assistance center open beyond Thursday, Jan. 26, when operations were initially expected to wrap up. Suber says FEMA is also considering opening its own disaster recovery center in Monterey County, akin to facilities it is already operating in Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Merced counties.