Marin County trying to secure disaster funding to repair king tides flood damage

By John Ramos

The Marin County Board of Supervisors has authorized an emergency declaration over the flooding that occurred on Jan. 3. But In order to get any state or federal disaster funding, the county must document what damage was done.  

And it turns out the largest dollar-figure hit occurred in the Santa Venetia neighborhood of San Rafael.

When the New Year’s rain began falling, coupled with a king tide, some towns in Marin got pretty soggy. But in the Santa Venetia neighborhood, they did what they always do in bad weather.

“Just a storm, a big storm. And we all kind of put our eyes out on the levee to see what was going on,” said Marilyn Von Schalscha.

Her home backs up to Gallinas Creek, where the only thing standing between it and the water is a small earthen levee. The neighborhood sits low on former marshland, and the residents, who are accustomed to a little water on the streets, luckily didn’t have much of a problem during the storm.

“We knew it was about a foot and a half, two feet below the top. Not bad,” she said with a shrug.  

She said the homeowners aren’t too worried about it, at this point.  

“Not yet. Let me put it, just not yet,” she said. “If we keep having storms like this and we can’t get these levees fixed in the near future, it might be a problem.”

But the county says the levee was structurally harmed by the large tidal pressure, sustaining an estimated $2.6 million in damage. In all, unincorporated county properties took a hit of between $3.5 and $5 million, and at Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors officially proclaimed the emergency declaration.  

“It is the first step in order to allow us to work with FEMA and the State,” said Steven Torrence, Marin’s Emergency Management Director. “It allows for us to let the State and federal government know that we do have impacts from this storm, which will allow for additional support that comes in from the State or federal governments.”

There is a minimum threshold of loss to qualify, and the Trump administration is considering increasing those levels, shifting more of the financial responsibility to the states. But that’s not stopping the county from trying.

“We have to be able to tell the story of what’s happened here in Marin County, regardless of the political status,” said Torrence. “We want to make sure that we’re supporting our residents and members of the community by sharing that information with them.”

Fixing the levees may get even more complicated, because the county’s emergency declaration can only get FEMA funding to repair public infrastructure. And it is unclear right now whether the levee is public, or the property, and responsibility, of the homeowners. 

The Santa Venetia neighbors may not be too alarmed at this point, but the county says the levees are a problem now. In fact, they say it’s an emergency, and they’re hoping politics can be put aside to help pay for a solution.