Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Monday because of an increased risk of storms, high tides and flooding this winter due to a potentially historic El Niño season.
According to a press release, state agencies are directed to support “by fast-tracking permitting and identifying other ways to cut red tape” to help local communities prepare.
“The risk in front of us is serious,” said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, the director of the state’s Office of Emergency Services at a Monday morning briefing.
“Human-caused climate change is making disasters more frequent and more intense,” she added.
According to the proclamation, risks from El Niño conditions are compounding with already elevated coastal water levels.
The Department of Water Resources has placed more than four million sandbags across California ahead of any possible flooding this winter, as well as 400 thousand tons of rocks for levee repairs.
Laura Hollender, the deputy director of the state’s Department of Water Resources, said the state is trying to position resources preemptively across the state.
“Right now we know there's gonna likely be coastal impacts, so we are prioritizing those areas,” Hollender said. “We are more likely to have impacts in Southern California, however, that's not certain either.”
Anita Konopa, an emergency services coordinator in San Luis Obispo County, says that state agencies haven’t notified the county’s Office of Emergency Services about prepositioning supplies, but that they’ll be in touch over the next several days about preparations.
Hollender cautioned that El Niño conditions can be unpredictable — while the materials are currently focused in southern and coastal California, they can be moved depending on need.
