THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release January 21, 1994 STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY Federal, state and local officials have redoubled their efforts to quickly bring aid to the people of southern California who have been impacted by the Northridge earthquake and its many aftershocks. The President has urged all residents of southern California, including those affected by the earthquake and those who have been spared, to participate in the recovery effort. He considers the long lines and long waits at the Disaster Application Centers unacceptable, and has ordered a number of steps to alleviate them. The steps currently being taken are: * To expedite the disaster assistance application process, the process is being streamlined to decrease the time required to apply. Six additional Disaster Application Centers have been identified and will open in the next few days. Additional sites are being surveyed and the existing centers are being expanded. By Saturday, a total of 14 centers will be in full operation, including two mobile Disaster Application Centers. More mobile teams will be dispatched to areas as needs are identified. Center hours have been expanded, and now operate from 9 am to 10 pm until further notice. * To ease telephone registration, 400 additional operators have been added, bringing the current total to over 700 operators on duty 24 hours a day. More operators and phone lines are being added daily. Additional multi-lingual staff are being provided by foreign consulate offices, including those of Mexico and South Korea, in southern California. 100 bilingual FEMA disaster reservists have been dispatched from Puerto Rico. * To assist people who are not currently sheltered, local jurisdictions will prioritize inspections around parks to identify safe homes, and will deploy outreach staff to encourage people to move back into their homes if homes are determined to be safe. Local jurisdictions will continue to expedite efforts to inspect residential units for safety -- and will share all information with all agencies offering disaster assistance in order to expedite the delivery of aid. Tents are being set up at various parks to provide shelter. Additional supplies of food and water are being provided by voluntary agencies. * To increase the flow of information to the public, a mobile satellite uplink has arrived at the federal-state Disaster Field Office in Pasadena, California. It will be used to provide a 24-hour disaster information service from local, state, federal and voluntary organizations, and to the news media. The Los Angeles Unified School District's television station has agreed to rebroadcast the disaster information channel 24 hours a day until further notice, and television receivers are being placed in Disaster Application Centers and emergency shelters to provide access. In addition, special disaster housing certificates are now being provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.