FEMA Prepares for Damage Claims From Wildfires

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is setting up shop in a Pasadena office building to administer thousands of damage claims certain to result from the fires. As of Thursday, more than 2,100 people had called to apply for grants and low-interest loans at the agency's toll-free number, (800) 621-3362.

FEMA has already mailed a small batch of checks for temporary housing for fire evacuees, but doling out all the relief will take months or years -- the norm for large calamities. Sharing the third-floor suite in Pasadena are FEMA workers mopping up the last aid applications from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

"Our guideline is to do this ASAP," said agency spokeswoman Ana Marcelo. "But we have to be good managers of the taxpayers' money."

The stakes in the bailout range from household budgets -- experts say most fire victims probably are underinsured for their losses, and might still come up short after receiving grants and loans -- to the state and national budgets. Political fortunes could also be on the line.

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is faced with balancing state contributions to the relief effort against his campaign pledges to rein in spending and roll back the vehicle license fee.

And President Bush is being lobbied, notably by fellow Republican Schwarzenegger, to maximize federal aid. Bush lost California by a wide margin in 2000, but supporters say Schwarzenegger's easy victory in the recall election put California in play for the presidential contest.

On Thursday, California elected officials criticized the Bush administration for rejecting, after a months-long delay, an April request by Gov. Gray Davis for $430 million from FEMA to clear dead trees in fire-prone forests.

All of this comes against a background of record state and federal deficits, plus a sluggish economy.

"When the actual fires die down, the political fires will start," said Steve Erie, a UC San Diego political scientist.

Erie and others predicted that officeholders in both parties would go out of their way to find funding for the fire-ravaged areas, which happen to be among the most vote-rich in the state.