Congressman Sam Farr Assesses Damage to Santa Cruz Harbor

Congressman Sam Farr surveyed the damages to docks and boats in Santa Cruz's harbor from a van and gave the bad news.  

As terrible as the destruction was from last week's tsunami to the docks and boats here and in the rest of California, it's short of the $44 million needed to qualify for federal aid. And to make things worse, the harbor is still closed because technical glitches have prevented divers and workers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from clearing debris from the mouth of the harbor that could damage boats.

As a result, fishermen and tour guides are losing money everyday.

NOAA's representative John Haupt said he couldn't give an estimate on when the equipment needed to track the ocean floor and find hazards would be fixed.

Assessments are solid for Santa Cruz, said Farr, but not for Crescent City, Fort Bragg and six coastal counties. Santa Cruz suffered $26 million of damage, including many of the upper docks and 13 ships that went down. Two are still waiting to be raised, according to Port Director Lisa Ekers.

"It's a work in progress," said Farr of counting the damage that would lead to federal aid. "There's no free lunch. No one gets a big lump of cash."

Farr stressed that the money would come in the shape of low-interest loans, but there are already low interest rates out there. The federal goverment would also require 25 percent matching funds from the effected area.

During the press conference, held Saturday at the public meeting room at the harbor, Farr was also asked about damage to Highway 1 in Big Sur. He said he was among those affected, because it cut off access to his property.

"It's a shock that we had another hit," he said. "This is a highway that never should have been built, from an engineer's point of view. "

Farr said it will be at least a month before they can even get one lane opened, and one of the possibilities is a shuttle service where people will walk over the damaged area and be picked up on the other side.

The Democratic congressman's district stretches from Santa Cruz past King City and includes Salinas and Watsonville.

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