President Declares County Disaster Area : Floods: Bush’s act makes Ventura and four other Southern California counties eligible for $77.5 million in federal aid.

President Bush Tuesday declared a disaster area in Ventura County and four other Southern California counties devastated by this month’s floods, making them eligible for about $77.5 million in federal aid.

Bush signed the declaration on board Air Force One as he flew from Washington to San Francisco, where he told the audience at a fund-raiser that he had been moved by the scale of the recent floods and the plight of their victims.

“They’re hurting, and the federal government ought to do its part,” Bush said.

The rains left eight people dead, including a pregnant woman and her fiance smothered by a mudslide in Foster Park and a transient who suffocated in mud when the flood-swollen Ventura River surged over his campsite in the usually dry riverbed.

The rainstorms also damaged an estimated $125 million worth of public and private property and crops.

State officials said that amount includes $15.4 million worth of public property and $3.5 million in private property in Ventura County, including the Ventura Beach RV Resort, where the river swept 10 to 15 motor homes out to sea and muddied dozens more.

The President’s action would make federal aid available to local governments in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Kern counties, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane, Fitzwater said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would make $77.5 million available and that the state of California would match one-quarter of that sum.

Carl Suchocki, a FEMA spokesman in Washington, said the agency will distribute the money to local governments to repair roads, bridges, flood-control facilities and other public property damaged by four back-to-back rainstorms that hammered the region between Feb. 9 and 18.

FEMA has not determined whether there is sufficient need for it to help rebuild uninsured flood-damaged homes and businesses, Suchocki said.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s staff applauded Bush’s swiftness in signing the declaration, which the governor requested Saturday.

“It’s a clear recognition of the severity of the flooding and the loss by businesses and residences,” said James Lee, the governor’s press secretary.

FEMA and the California Office of Emergency Services will set up an office in the five-county region in the next few days to handle claims by the local governments.

The agency will then decide whether any of its money is available to rebuild uninsured private property, said Alex Newton, a spokesman for FEMA’s regional office in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the governor Monday asked the federal Small Business Administration to activate its low-interest loan program for uninsured businesses and homes.

That agency could contribute $8.5 million in low-interest loans to repair damage to private property, the governor’s office has said.

SBA loans could pay for repairing or replacing uninsured mobile homes, said Nancy Hardaker, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Services. She said the loans also could be approved for uninsured recreational vehicles at the RV park, so long as the RVs’ owners can prove that the vehicles were their only place of residence.

If FEMA and the SBA cannot provide enough aid, the OES could activate the California Natural Disaster Assistance Program, which was set up by the state Legislature after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

That program, administered through the state Department of Housing, provides loans at 3% interest to pay for repairs or reconstruction, said Paul Kranhold, the department’s assistant director.

“It is a lender of last resort,” Kranhold said. “It’s really designed to make sure that nobody’s slipped through the cracks.”

However, Kranhold said the money can only apply to businesses, homes and mobile homes, but not RVs, campers or trailers.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this report.