Gov. Newsom Expands Winter Storm State Of Emergency To 11 Northern California Counties

Governor Gavin Newsom expanded the number of counties covered under a previous State of Emergency declaration over winter storms and subsequent events such as flooding on Friday, adding 11 Northern California counties to the original list of eight.

In February, a large atmospheric event made landfall in Northern California, but with the worst of it striking Southern California within a few days. The sudden downpour of rain and snow caused flooding, high winds, mudslides, and debris flows. Some parts of Southern California were struck so bad that 38 million wound up being under a flood alert and parts of Santa Barbara County underwent a rare evacuation order because of the expected damage. At least 3 people were killed because of branch falling incidents related to the event.

With the event having such an impact, Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency for the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. State emergency services, the California National Guard, and local emergency services quickly united for assistance. Over a month later, the state of emergency continued to be in effect because of not only continuing recovery and cleanup efforts, but as a precaution against any remaining large storms.

However, with a new storm poised to strike Northern California soon, Newsom added the counties of  Alameda, Butte, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Monterey, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and Sutter to the original list of eight counties in the state of emergency on Friday, ensuring that they get the state services and recovery resources should the storm prove particularly bad. In addition, Newsom also requested a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for several communities impacted by widespread flooding, mudslides and debris flows during the storm.

“The Presidential Major Disaster Declaration request includes the counties of Butte, Glenn, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sutter and Ventura,” said Newsom’s office on Friday. “If approved, the declaration would make available federal public assistance funding to help state, tribal and local governments cover emergency response and recovery costs. The request also includes funding for hazard mitigation efforts statewide.”

With the state now bracing for yet another storm system, and some parts of Northern California already under a winter storm warning, weather experts told the Globe that the expansion of counties in the state of emergency was a calculated move made beforehand just in case the worst happens.

“We saw last year what triggering a state of emergency too late looked like,” explained Fred Glover, a West Coast storm tracker, to the Globe on Friday. “All that rain and snow helped out the state from a drought control point of view. Everyone worried that the state would have years and years of a mega drought, but California has been drought free for almost half a year now. Newsom, as well a lot of Californians in the Northern part of the state, are worried about flooding again. Road damage. They went through it last year and recovery took awhile. Now, with a state of emergency on them and a major federal damage assistance request out, the state is really prepping for the worst.”

On Friday, the state also reached a milestone it had not achieved in 14 years: back to back years with above average snowpack amounts. This added snow and subsequent snowmelt will likely keep the state of emergency in effect for a longer period of time. More on the storms and their aftermath is to come in soon.