Disaster Relief

Cal State Northridge could lose about $187,000 in federal relief for earthquake repairs after failing to deposit millions of dollars in surplus funds in an interest-bearing account, according to an audit released Tuesday. The error by the school's disaster-recovery office not only cost the campus lost interest earnings but violated federal regulations, which Cal State officials said could lead to a possible penalty of reduced reimbursements for earthquake repairs.

State housing officials doled out $2 million in disaster relief to Los Angeles and Santa Clarita on Wednesday to help rebuild low-rent apartments damaged in the Northridge earthquake. The money was the final allocation from $7.9 million in federal disaster funds awarded to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The newly released funds are meant for rental units that serve low-income families. Los Angeles will receive $1.

Two years to the day after the Northridge earthquake rattled Southern California and tore through the San Fernando Valley, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) toured Nobel Middle School in Northridge to view the progress of quake repairs. Nobel was one of the schools hit hardest by the earthquake, sustaining more than $500,000 in damage. Nobel Principal Rita Davis told the senator that the school is still waiting for relief funds to clear administrative hurdles before everything is back and running.

Federal bureaucratic red tape, unclear guidelines and a lack of flexibility hampered the recovery efforts following the Northridge earthquake, federal, state and local officials told a congressional subcommittee meeting Friday. While lauding the federal government's speedy response and its $3.

Ventura County residents who are still recovering from the 1994 Northridge earthquake have received some good news: Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency have extended the deadline for those receiving disaster relief rental funds. FEMA representatives pushed the Jan. 17 deadline back three months to give quake victims more time either to find affordable housing or move back into homes that are being rebuilt or refurbished because of structural damage.

San Fernando Valley residents still recovering from the 1994 Northridge earthquake got a bit of good news this week when officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency extended the deadline for those receiving disaster relief rental funds. FEMA representatives pushed back the deadline of Jan. 17 to April 17 in hopes of giving victims of the quake more time either to find affordable housing or to move back into homes that are being rebuilt or refurbished because of structural damage.

In a move to jump-start Cal State Northridge's lagging earthquake recovery, campus officials said Wednesday they are seeking an unusual one-time, federal payment of about $138 million to quickly finish remaining repairs and at lower cost. CSUN President Blenda Wilson told Cal State trustees that the lump-sum payment would mean the completion of repairs by December 1997 at a cost of $301.2 million.

Malibu officials are hoping for two things nowadays: clear skies and a torrent of emergency funding. A week after the city reported $250,000 in damage from the most recent fire, officials are anxiously waiting word on whether the state's Office of Emergency Services will advance relief funds still being processed from the last three disasters. State and federal emergency agencies still owe Malibu about $3 million for repairs stemming from the 1993 fires and the mudslides in 1994 and 1995.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt toured the scorched hills of Malibu Monday, praising brush clearance efforts that saved hundreds of homes and promising federal resources to help prevent damage that could come with winter storms. "I know it's going to get serious if you get a lot of rain and we want to do everything we can," Witt said.

A Northern California company is offering free computer data retrieval help to victims of Southern California's recent fires, including the Orange County blaze that destroyed 10 houses in Lemon Heights. Victims whose computers were damaged in the fires might still be able to salvage data stored on the computer's hard drive, said Scott Gaidano, president of DriveSavers Data Recovery Inc., an 11-year-old company based in Novato.