COUNTY WANTS ROADS FIXED UPDATE URGED ON SHELTER NEEDS.

Byline: Troy Anderson and Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writers

Los Angeles County supervisors directed welfare and public works officials on Tuesday to do what is necessary to ensure damaged roads are quickly fixed and residents left homeless by recent storms are cared for.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said he received an e-mail from the Red Cross informing him that the organization would be able to provide housing vouchers for a week for people now staying at the College of the Canyons evacuation center in Santa Clarita.

``I thought the Red Cross is supposed to be there to help people in a catastrophe and not just leave them hanging,'' Antonovich said. ``This past week the county was hit by catastrophic rains and mudslides that will severely impact this county for years to come.''

Bryce Yokomizo, director of the county Department of Public Social Services, said he planned to contact the Red Cross, find out what its perameters are to provide housing vouchers and ensure that people staying there get all the assistance they need.

``We'll do whatever it takes to ensure those families are taken care of,'' Yokomizo said.

More than one week after the shelter opened at College of the Canyons, nearly 50 displaced people were still spending nights at the facility. Forty-five people slept at the shelter Monday night, according to a Red Cross official.

``We're still open and we're attempting to find temporary housing for all the clients,'' Bill Frazer, assistant director of the American Red Cross's Santa Clarita operation. ``It's our hope that we'll be able to find them a more suitable place by the end of the week.''

Since the shelter opened Jan. 9, a total 127 people have spent the night at the college's auxiliary gym. The largest number of people seeking shelter on any one night was 91, Frazer said.

Nearly 9,800 meals have been served since the shelter opened. The facility has been run with the help of eight paid staff and 117 volunteers from across Los Angeles County, he added. Donald Wolfe, acting director of the Department of Public Works, said employees are working to quickly clear roads closed due to landslides.

The impacts of the storms were particularly felt in Littlerock, Quartz Hill, Val Verde and San Dimas. Three critical roads that serve as alternatives to the Antelope Valley Freeway - the Angeles Crest, Bouquet Canyon and San Francisquito Canyon - are closed due to landslides.

At more remote locations in the Angeles National Forest, such as Camp Fellows, people are still stranded behind blocked roadways and damaged bridges.

Yokomizo said he would send a team to the Camp Fellows area where about 200 families are stranded to assist them. The supervisors ordered a report in a week concerning the status of bridge and roadway repairs at Camp Fellows.

``Residents in the Fifth District want to know that their homes are safe, what the county can do to prevent future damage from rainstorms, when public roads will be opened, how they can secure permits quickly so that repairs on private properties are not unnecessarily delayed, and what the county is doing to aid citizens who are stranded in remote locations,'' Antonovich said.

Wolfe said the Angeles Crest Highway would be opened by today, but it will take about eight months to reopen San Francisquito Canyon Road and two months to reopen Bouquet Canyon.

``We'll do our best to accelerate that,'' Wolfe said. ``I'll come back to the board with emergency contracting requests to get these repair operations under way.''

The supervisors ordered officials to make weekly reports available to affected cities and town councils in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys about efforts to fix roads.

They also:

--Designated a lead contact person in Antonovich's Santa Clarita, Lancaster and Arcadia field offices to expedite the processing of permits to rebuild homes and install devices to prevent future storm-related damage to private property.

--Investigate what flood control measures can be taken to prevent future erosion, slope failures and damage to homes in Val Verde.

--Requested a report in two weeks about placing an advisory proposition on the November ballot in the Antelope Valley to create a flood control district, or annex the Antelope Valley into the county's Flood Control District.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com