As Winter Storms Ravage California, Governor Newsom Declares State of Emergency

Sierra NevadaPhoto bySebastian GoldbergonUnsplash

California residents who are still recovering from the recent slate of winter weather might soon see some additional assistance. On Wednesday, Governor Newsom officially declared a state of emergency in 13 of California's counties, citing the unusually inclement weather and damage wrought to several areas unaccustomed to such storms.

The counties now subject to the emergency declaration are Amador, Kern, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Nevada, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Sonoma and Tulare.

An emergency declaration in California gives several agencies quicker and broader access to funds with fewer regulatory steps or measures in between, allowing emergency response officials and disaster recovery teams to act quickly in both assisting residents of the state and beginning to rebuild or clean up from the storm damages. It also triggers several other changes to state agencies based on current state laws and codes.

For example, as the declaration mentions, unemployment assistance drops the one-week waiting period, allowing near-immediate disbursements of funds to those whose jobs were impacted by the emergency. It also triggers the California National Guard deployments to assist in the hardest hit regions and pushes state agencies into contracts to buy goods and materials stipulated in their respective emergency response plans.

Unfortunately, this process is nothing new for California residents, even if the winter storms that triggered it are. Just a few months ago, Governor Newsom declared an end to 26 separate emergency declarations dating all the way back to 2017, not including the COVID-related emergency declaration that was also ceased.

The state has also had 57 declared emergencies at the national level since 2019 alone. For comparison, storm-prone Florida has had 25 during the same period and non-coastal states like Indiana have had only two - both related to the pandemic.

LAX.Photo byWilson YeonUnsplash

The past week's storms are outside the norm for the state, however, with blizzard warnings issued for much of the Sierra Nevada mountains and meteorologists projecting that those areas could see accumulations of over six feet. This has also served to dramatically increase the risk of avalanches in mountainous regions.

Elsewhere in the state, utility systems are struggling as the poor weather continues, with current outage estimates from utility providers showing tens of thousands of customers without power in nearly every region of the state. While outages are most heavily concentrated to the west and near mountainous areas, several of the state's metropolitan areas are also suffering.

Travel of any kind has become difficult, if not impossible, in the wake of the storms, with delays on arriving and departing flights at LAX and even SFO commonplace for the last several days. Even areas without major snowfall are seeing commuting difficulties as daytime rain risks turning into ice as temperatures drop in the evening. In a state already known for long and difficult commutes, the added challenge is likely not a welcome development. For California residents, the emergency declaration and response to these storms couldn't come soon enough.

For those interested in reading the full press release or emergency declaration, select the links at the top of the article to find the original documents.