Emergency Services to Appeal FEMA Wind Damage Payout Decision

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 7, 2007 at 11:53 AM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

California's Office of Emergency Services will file an appeal with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Friday, appealing FEMA'S decision not to reimburse for wind damage during the fires. KPBS rep

California's Office of Emergency Services will file an appeal with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Friday, appealing FEMA'S decision not to reimburse for wind damage during the fires. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Many San Diegans were affected by the extraordinarily high winds before and during the wildfires, but attempts to get reimbursed for wind damage have so far been rejected by FEMA.

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The state Office of Emergency Services is appealing, arguing that 2,800 homes were damaged by winds that 34e "played an integral part in this disaster declaration. "

Janet Sperber of Ramona says firefighters saved her properties from burning, but not from wind damage.

Sperber : We had wind gusts of 106 miles per hour and it blew all the east facing tile off one of the houses and … I had tree tops that aren't even indigenous to my property that were snapped off and blown in from some place else.

Sperber says she made over 30 trips to clear debris off her property.

State agencies say more than $3 million worth of damage was done to public facilities by the winds.

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Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.