Our state has a reputation. As the “Golden State,” California is known for its sunny weather, beaches, deserts, forests, mountains and abundant natural resources. However, that same diverse climate and rugged beauty also has a tendency to turn on us. All California residents must live with the question of when, not if, the next natural disaster will strike. And knowing our region’s predisposition for earthquakes, floods, drought and fire, are we prepared?

California’s wildfire season isn’t “just around the corner.” It’s already here. Just last week we saw two notable wildfires: one in the Sepulveda Pass and another in Mendocino County. During 2017 and 2018, California experienced the largest fires ever recorded in its history. Combined, the fires burned over 3 million acres of land, destroyed 32,700 structures, and cost the state an unprecedented $40 billion and counting. In his revised budget, Governor Newsom proposed millions of dollars in cuts to wildfire preparation and prevention programs. Here is the hard truth – wildfires aren’t going to take a break while we focus on COVID-19 and resulting economic crisis. Despite the pandemic, a strained budget, social unrest, increasing unemployment and homelessness, we cannot afford to take a pass on preparing for natural disasters.

Wildfires are just one of the high-risk disasters that can occur at any time. It’s hard to think about California without considering our more notorious challenge: earthquakes. In recent years, the legislature has struggled to get earthquake resiliency measures signed into law, although we have made some important investments. In the two prior budgets, we’ve allocated over $116 million to the California Disaster Assistance Act, a program administered by the California Office of Emergency Services that provides financial assistance to local governments to fund repairs and/or replacement of property damaged by disasters. This year, despite our budget challenges, we are allocating $17.3 million for the California Earthquake Early Warning System. While these are good and crucial investments, I have to ask: Are they good enough? It is unlikely those funds, as currently allotted, would help communities through a major earthquake in which the damage to infrastructure and the local economy could cost billions.

When COVID-19 first began raging through our communities, taking lives, devastating nursing homes and grinding our economy to a halt, we had to move quickly and with unprecedented resolve. Fortunately, fiscally responsible budgeting allowed California to begin 2020 with an historically high “rainy day” surplus fund, which along with our long-established emergency plans, have helped us mitigate some of the impacts of this crisis. But we also know from our struggling hospitals and our economically devastated residents and businesses that we could have been much better prepared.

This week, due to the economic devastation from COVID-19, the legislature had to drastically reduce spending in order to deliver a balanced budget. It is incredibly painful to be cutting the budget at the precise time that people need our help the most. To be truly resilient to future disasters, we must focus on making our social safety nets not only well-funded, but as efficient as possible. We must take a hard look at how quickly public agencies such as the Employment Development Department became overwhelmed, and how they continue to struggle to meet crucial needs. We have to demand the state fixes structural issues within all its departments and social service agencies so that they can function during any disaster.

We have seen what happens when disaster strikes in an economy that allows so many residents to survive paycheck to paycheck. Unless we take significant steps to pull more California families out of poverty and forge a more resilient economy, we could be right back here after the next disaster.

There’s no shortage of threats in California, such as climate change, earthquake, flooding and drought. However, the guiding principle for all these scenarios should be the same: preparedness today will mitigate incredible suffering in the future.

We are in a learning moment. We need to realize that every dollar we invest in resiliency and preparedness is a dollar well-spent. This should be our mantra as we budget for the California of today and the California of the future.

What do you think about California’s preparedness for any number of the disasters we could be facing? Do you have any thoughts, suggestions or ideas on how we can best shift our focus and funding to make our communities more resilient? I would love to hear what you think. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to my District Office at (818) 558-3043 or email me at Assemblymember.Friedman@Assembly.ca.gov.

Laura Friedman represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. 

  laura friedman