Christmas

Napa Storage Unit Customers Unable to Retrieve Stuff, One Year After 6.0 Quake

Naomi Margolis and her disabled husband want their wheelchair and walker back, along with family keepsakes and heirlooms.

But the Napa couple has been unable to retrieve their stuff – along with another couple hundred customers of Napa Self Storage – since the 6.0 quake one year ago on Aug. 24, 2014.

Since then, the Napa Valley Register reports that up to 223 tenants have been unable to go inside the storage unit building to get their belongings because it leans to one side and is unsafe to enter.

Miranda Evans, a spokeswoman for business co-owner RMB Management Inc., told the paper that the company couldn’t afford to repair the building on its own. So, they asked tenants to pony up the equivalent of 10 months’ rent toward a recovery plan. By Monday, $167,000 had been raised to shore up the tilting building, the Register reported.

Still, being without Christmas ornaments, pictures and in the case of the Margolis couple – their wheelchair- has been upsetting and stressful. It’s also been pricey. She told the Register she paid $2,000 toward the recovery efforts.

“I think the whole thing has been a giant travesty,” Margolis told the Register. As for actually getting into the building and getting back her belongings? “I’m still holding my breath,” she said.
 

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