Los Osos residents struggle to get flood aid as CSD grapples with its own repair costs

Since floodwaters tore through Julie Quillin’s home in January, she’s lived in an RV in her driveway. There, she’s spent countless hours applying for disaster relief funding and managing repairs to her home.

Quillin isn’t alone.

Many of her neighbors in the Vista de Oro neighborhood of Los Osos were displaced by flooding on Jan. 9 and are also navigating applications for storm relief — often resulting in inadequate amounts of aid, Quillin said.

Several turned out to a meeting of the community services district board on Thursday to share their stories.

“We’re going down this road of different no’s,” Quillin said.

The floodwaters destroyed Quillin’s kitchen, floors and yard. During the past three weeks, Quillin has applied for reimbursement from her homeowners insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and the CSD’s insurance.

All four agencies have sent adjusters to her house to assess the damage, but none of them have provided her an estimate of the cost of repairs yet, she said.

“Just getting an estimate of your damages is difficult,” Quillin said. “It’s just a really slow process. Navigating that has been tricky.”

Luckily, the Small Business Association recently approved Quillin for a low-interest loan to cover repairs for her home.

“It allows me to rebuild my home while some of these no’s turn into yeses,” Quillin said.

Originally, Quillin considered moving instead of paying to rebuild her house. Then she watched her neighbors rally to clean up the flood damage and decided to stay.

“I’ve never lived anywhere like that, where people show up,” Quillin said. “It’s just been amazing.”

Her neighbors shoveled mud and sand out of her driveway in only three hours so she could park her RV there. During the past few weeks, folks have also showed up to help residents without access to electricity or internet apply for aid, she said.

“Where else would I live at this point?” Quillin asked. “These people are unbelievable.”

Los Osos resident Diana Hammerlund has started a GoFundMe fundraiser for locals dealing with flood damage. As of Friday afternoon, it had raised more than $30,000 of the $50,000 goal.

“Everybody working together was pretty heartwarming,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Paul Provence said at the CSD’s Thursday meeting. “It’s good to know that community still comes together and good things still happen despite whatever differences we have.”

Basin repairs to cost CSD more than $700,000

During the Jan. 9 storm, a wall crumbled on the east end of a CSD-owned water detention basin — causing water to flood the Vista de Oro neighborhood below, according to CSD General Manager Ron Munds.

The CSD implemented temporary repairs on the basin that week, which were completed on Jan. 13 in anticipation of more heavy rainfall on Jan. 14. The temporary fix worked, as the basin didn’t cause more flooding during the next series of storms, Munds said at Thursday’s meeting.

The temporary repairs cost $124,555, including $3,000 in overtime pay for CSD employees, $25,555 for consulting services and $96,000 for contractor services, according to a CSD report.

Now, the CSD is focused on permanently repairing the basin.

“There is an urgency to get the permanent repairs underway since the temporary work was not designed to handle larger storms than experienced on Jan. 14,” the report said.

Permanent repairs are expected to cost even more money, with a price tag of $623,450. This includes $88,450 for consulting services and $535,000 for contractor services, the report said.

The CSD has had to be innovative when funding the repairs, which it total are estimated to cost between $748,005 to as much as $900,000, Munds said at the meeting.

“When you think you have a good engineering estimate, it’s way more,” Munds said.

An emergency construction project would typically be paid from the CSD’s contingency reserve and capital outlay reserve, which reside in its Fund 800, the drainage budget. Those two reserves only hold $234,534.82, however, so the CSD must borrow money from other funds to complete the basin repairs, Munds said.

At the meeting on Thursday, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to allow the CSD to borrow $500,000 either from its Fire Fund or Water Fund to help pay for the construction costs.

The CSD eventually hopes to be reimbursed by FEMA for a portion of these expenses, Munds said at the meeting.

The board also authorized the CSD to hire two attorneys, one to help the agency navigate FEMA reimbursement and the other to navigate insurance.

“We’re bringing on some help — FEMA help, insurance help,” Board President Charles Cesena said. “It’s going to be awhile, but we’ll get through it.”