'For Emergencies My Ass'
by Jennifer Reeder

For local residents, mud may be flowing but federal aid is not

Don’t get Rose Kutzleb started about
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, or FEMA.

“I call it ‘For Emergencies My Ass,’”
Kutzleb said.

Kutzleb and her husband, Kurt, had to flee their home in the Aspen Trails subdivision on July 23 during the Shearer Creek flashflood. The flood carried a neighbor’s 500-gallon propane tank onto their property. The torrent also washed away the Kutzlebs’ shed, which held, among other things, two pairs of snowshoes and cross-country skis; 2½ cords of wood; a metal bridge Kurt had built; and a wooden walkway. Their property was littered with burned logs, rocks and other debris.

While friends and family were helping Kurt and Rose cut down a stand of willow trees that had helped divert the floodwaters to their property, a representative from FEMA’s
Wa s h i n g t o n , D.C., office arrived to survey the damage. The man pointed out some debris that should be moved from the hillside and suggested it be moved to an area above Rose’s neighbors’ property.

Rose said she protested, saying that the rocks and logs would damage their neighbors’ property in the next flood, and the man shrugged and said “survival of the
fittest.”

“I told him, ‘These people are friends of mine. I’ve lived here for 12 years!’” she said.

Other advice that infuriated Rose Kutzleb included “be sure to drink Gatorade when you’re working out here” and “your cat and dog may have been
traumatized, so get them a new toy.”

“That’s the kind of help that he gave
us,” she said.

Later that week, the Kutzlebs visited the disaster-recovery center at Riverview Elementary School in search of financial assistance, since it will cost a considerable
amount of money to restore and protect their property.

“They were about as helpful as he was,” Rose said.

FEMA representatives there told the Kutzlebs that they didn’t qualify for aid because, though the state has been declared a major disaster area for fires by the federal
government, aid is not available for victims of floods. But Kutzleb maintains that the
flash flood occurred because the fires generated so much heat that the burned ground
became like plastic. “If the floods were caused by the fire, why is this not part of the disaster?” she asked.

Caught between rocks and a hard place

That’s a sentiment shared by a number of Shearer Creek flood victims and Vallecito residents.
Steve Scearce applied for a low-interest loan at Riverview after the same flood ripped through the property he shares with his wife, Jan Crider. The flood destroyed 10 years of landscaping and an outdoor hot tub.

Scearce said he told FEMA representatives that he needed the loan in order to build an earthen berm to protect his property from future floods.

“They told me this was not a federally declared disaster area, so I was not eligible for help,” Scearce said. They also told him that he would get in trouble with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers if he tried to protect his home with the berm, because
it might divert water and debris into the nearby Florida River in future floods.

“At that point, I asked to speak with someone else,” Scearce said.

The next FEMA representative told him he might qualify for a Small Business Administration loan but “almost immediately backtracked,” saying Scearce
probably wouldn’t be eligible because a decrease in tourism could diminish his
income potential. (Scearce works at the local magazine Homes and Land.)

So he walked out.

“None of it made any sense – it was a parade of bureaucratic absurdities,” Scearce
said. “I don’t know what they do – maybe it’s hurricanes that they specialize in.
“It’s kind of cruel to create false hope, and that’s what they do,” he added.

(continued...)

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