Napa residents rebuilding homes a year after 6.0 earthquake

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- At least 300 families in Napa still have at least $3 million in unmet repair costs. They knew it was going to be a difficult year, but this difficult has caught them by surprise.

PHOTOS: South Napa Earthquake damage

In Napa neighborhoods, what you see does not always reflect reality. For instance, it has not been uncommon to find trailers in front of houses and not for recreation. "It was not like camping. My shoes were in the trunk of my car. My clothes were in my husband's truck. It was a tough week," Elizabeth Emmett said.

It would be the first of many tough weeks in what would be a tough year for families across the Napa region. Most people may have heard the saying of being underwater with a house. Emmett's last 52 weeks turn the figurative quite literal.

Emmett's home was shaken off its foundation and the earthquake caused cracks through her pool's plaster.

All this damage came from a newly discovered fault line running directly beneath her Browns Valley Home.

The earthquake touched most residents in the Browns Valley area.

Last year, ABC7 News marveled at the spectacle of a collapsed carport in an apartment complex not far away. Michelle Kidwell still lives there and remembers how the earthquake tossed practically everything she owned, except for one item. "My cross, that stayed, still in the same spot," she said.

And yet in this quake, renters may have been the lucky ones. "Watch me fall into the abyss," Jeffrey Yablon, M.D., said. He's referring to the new foundation at a historic home once owned by Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

Yablon has a future at the home because he is one of the two percent of Napa residents who had earthquake insurance. "It's a huge difference , the damage to the property is significantly more than the deductible," he said.

That applies to many places and it could have been worse. If not for the old growth Douglas Fir timbers used to build this house in downtown Napa back in the 1870's, contractor Brian Jones could never have saved it. "It had jumped this way three feet and came down three feet," he said.

"Those 26 seconds literally changed the rest of our lives," Emmett said. She finally sees a way ahead a year later, but getting her home right will set the family back roughly $200,000 even after help from FEMA.

Because of those 26 seconds, she and her husband will be retiring later than planned.

Emmet said if there's another earthquake the new foundation better stand up.

Click here for details on the one-year anniversary, and Click here for full coverage on the South Napa Earthquake.

PHOTOS: Six months after South Napa Earthquake