**Updated 9/22/14 to reflect updated grant limits**
By Marcy Stamper
In stark numbers and emotional accounts, the governor toughened his case for a disaster declaration to help individuals and families affected by the summer’s wildfires.
New numbers included in Gov. Jay Inslee’s appeal of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) denial of the individual-assistance program, submitted last week, provide more evidence of the extent of the devastation—and its impact on people’s lives.
If approved by President Obama, the declaration would allow people who lost property to apply for a grant to cover uninsured losses. People could also receive crisis counseling and special unemployment benefits. The maximum FEMA grant for fiscal year 2014 is $32,400.
For the appeal, staff from the Washington Emergency Management Division and Okanogan County assessor’s office were able to examine more sites damaged by the fires since their first visit at the end of July, bringing the total residential properties affected by the fires to 353, up from 244, according to the appeal.
Those properties comprised 256 houses, 92 percent of which were destroyed. Only 55 percent were insured, and about half of the insured houses were found to be underinsured by more than 40 percent. The total uninsured residential losses are estimated at $8.7 million, according to new figures in the governor’s appeal.
The majority of the destroyed houses—161—were primary residences occupied by their owners. Thirty were occupied by renters and another 39 were second homes.
The appeal also provides a tally of the impact on Okanogan County’s already-low percentage of privately owned land (less than a quarter of all land in the county is private). The appeal notes that 12 percent of the county’s private lands burned, covering 95,000 acres and affecting almost 4,500 parcels.
While the losses were spread out over a vast area, given the county’s low population density, the governor’s appeal notes that the damage was in fact fairly concentrated, with the majority occurring in the Methow Valley and along the Columbia River from Pateros to Okanogan.
The appeal also points to the broader ramifications of the devastation. “Although damages from the firestorm appear to be spread out over a wide area, the resulting damage is to these communities, not just to individual structures. Extended families have lost their homes. Business owners no longer have a place to live in the community, making survival of their businesses questionable,” said the governor.
In Twisp and surrounding areas, 9 percent of single-family homes were destroyed and another 3 percent were affected by the fire. Inslee said that 56 businesses in and around Twisp reported financial losses.
Inslee also pointed to pre-existing economic challenges, since Okanogan County has the second-lowest per capita income in the state, with almost one-quarter of the population living in poverty.
Stark realties of rental market
In Pateros, which already had an extremely low vacancy rate of 1 percent for rental housing, more than half of the houses were destroyed or significantly affected. Fifteen percent of the students in the Pateros School District are now homeless.
The Okanogan County Housing Authority already had a 100-percent occupancy rate for low-income housing, plus a long waiting list.
With so few rentals, many displaced people are now living in tents or travel trailers. Inslee noted that many people may try to live in these structures through the winter, facing risks of carbon-monoxide poisoning and electrical fires from improvised heat sources.
The 170 available rental units on a list provided by FEMA were primarily in Wenatchee and Chelan, which Inslee said do not fit the government’s definition of “adequate alternate housing,” defined as being within normal commuting distance.
Emotional toll
While raw numbers certainly tell part of the story, the governor emphasized the emotional effects of the fire on the population. “Adding to the trauma of this incident was the speed with which the firestorm swept through the valleys. … Almost half of the total acreage scorched in the fire … burned within an incredibly brief nine-hour period … when the firestorm … advanced at approximately 21 miles per hour,” he wrote. “People were fleeing for their lives with only the clothing on their backs and making harrowing escapes.”
If people displaced by the fire had to move out of the area, it would exacerbate stresses because they would no longer be near social, spiritual or familial support systems and would face increased travel costs, said Inslee.
Quotes from members of the community incorporated into the appeal describe the grief associated with loss of family mementos and sorrow of living in a landscape where all homes are gone.
While the governor did not include the financial toll of the mudslides and flash floods in his appeal, he did underscore the emotional impact of living in unstable circumstances. “People are re-traumatized every time it rains, with landslides and floods taking out homes, roads, and access to household water sources,” he wrote.
The state’s appeal for individual disaster assistance is awaiting a decision by FEMA and President Obama. Gov. Inslee spoke with a senior White House official on Monday (Sept. 15) to press the state’s case, which has the support of Washington’s Congressional delegation. There is no deadline for the president’s decision.
