Ray of Hope for Storm Victims

WEST HILLS —  After months of ruin and desperation brought on by the rains of El Nino, the sun may be about to shine on Louis and Reata Vaughn.

The Vaughns’ nightmare began when the heavy rains carved away their backyard last winter, leaving their house jutting over a newly cut ravine, wrapped in plastic and uninhabitable.

Their insurance policy, like most, didn’t cover landslides. Their neighbors prepared to sue them. Recently Los Angeles building inspectors threatened the couple with a $1,000-a-day fine and six months in jail if they did not fix the hill.

But two developments Thursday raised their hopes: City building inspectors are backing off and a federal disaster program may buy out their interest in the problem-plagued home.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) announced Thursday that a new federal program will buy up homes made uninhabitable by El Nino.

“I met with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] about 12 days ago to review a few things, including the importance of people whose homes have become uninhabitable,” Sherman said. “I expect that many of these homes will be demolished and removed.”

Sherman said he did not know what the program’s budget would be, but added FEMA will officially announce the program next week.

And the city Department of Building and Safety, under pressure from the mayor’s office and City Councilman Hal Bernson’s staff, announced it would not make good on threats of fines and jail against the landslide victims for not remedying the safety problems on their property.

“We decided that we’d better sit back and talk to these people and other city agencies,” said Richard Holguin, the department’s assistant general manager.

“This is a classic example of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. This is an isolated case . . . hopefully,” said Noelia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office.

But according to Building and Safety officials, the department has issued 300 noncompliance letters to landowners citywide whose properties were damaged by El Nino-related rains.

It was unclear Thursday night whether the department would similarly relax enforcement in those cases.

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For the Vaughns, news of the FEMA program and Building and Safety’s new tack was a break in the clouds.

“We were hoping for this,” said Reata Vaughn, 68, whose husband is 66. “We just want the city to buy our house. We want to be rid of it. It’s like a nightmare hanging over our heads.”

Under the FEMA program, Sherman said, homeowners could apply for a federal buyout through local governments within the federal disaster area, with city or county governments sharing 25% of the cost.

Until Sherman’s announcement, the Vaughns were facing the prospect of repairing the collapsed mountainside at an estimated cost of $2 million and the stress of the situation was clearly weighing on them.

Reata Vaughn, who has high blood pressure and suffers from migraines, said she started therapy shortly after the landslide and was prescribed medication for depression.

“At nighttime, I go round and round and round in my dreams, trying to find a way out of this situation, and I can’t find any way out--all I look forward to is more heartache and bankruptcy and destitution, all because of El Nino, an act of God.”

Four of the Vaughns’ neighbors were in a similar predicament, because of the same landslide.

All but one of the families are senior citizens. Some are severely ill, most are retired and have paid off most of their mortgages.

When Minnie and Floyd Rodrigues bought their house 25 years ago, they thought it would be their last home. Minnie Rodrigues, 73, said she was ambivalent about Sherman’s announcement of federal assistance.

“Buyout?” she asked in an incredulous Tennessee twang. “Where would we go? I really don’t want to sell my home. I want to move back in.”

Unlike the Vaughns, who had recently bought their home, the Rodrigueses had less than five years left on their mortgage.

Shortly after the landslide, President Clinton, who had made a short stop at a hangar at Los Angeles International Airport, summoned Minnie Rodrigues to discuss her situation.

“He asked me: ‘What happened?’ and we had a little argument,” Rodrigues said. “He asked me about insurance and I told him there is no landslide insurance and he said: ‘Oh, there has to be--I’ll have to go to Washington and look into that.’

“Everybody thinks insurance is going to pay for this, even the president.”

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Rodrigues said she was disappointed that the landslide has turned the neighbors against each other, when initially it drew them closer together. After the landslide, the families held weekly meetings to consider solutions to their common problem.

That all ceased after “the downhill neighbors decided to sue the uphill neighbors,” Rodrigues said.

“Everybody’s suing everybody, except me,” Rodrigues said. “I don’t even have a lawyer.”

Rodrigues said she was holding up, despite nightmares that plague her sleep, and her new, cramped quarters in a Canoga Park apartment complex. But it has disoriented her frail husband, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, she said.

“The other day I came home and he was out the door and down the hall,” she said. “He was trying to go home.”