SACRAMENTO – Continuing its efforts to build more resilient communities in areas of the state most susceptible to natural disasters, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) has announced the first round of awardees for the first-in-the-nation Prepare California Program. Lake County was the recipient of $636,545 in funding which the county aims to use to hire a Climate Resilience Officer, among other climate related goals.
In total, Cal OES awarded nearly $4.5 million to six applicants through the “Jumpstart” portion of the Prepare California Program. Ranging from cities and counties to Tribal Governments and private non-profits situated all over the state, this funding will be used to invest in infrastructure improvements designed to protect people and property.
“We are proud of the work being done to ensure the state helps communities prepare before the next emergency,” said Mark Ghilarducci, Cal OES Director. “We hope over time that these local investments will safeguard communities and their infrastructure from natural disasters.”
Launched in January, this groundbreaking program leverages funds approved in Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2021-22 State Budget aimed at reducing long-term risks of disasters, such as flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, or dam failure, in communities that are considered socially vulnerable and have a high hazard risk.
Designed to unlock federal matching funds for improvement projects that vulnerable communities would otherwise be unable to access, there are two types of grant funding available through Prepare California, with a total of $100 million available.
- $15 million in state funding is dedicated to helping eligible communities jumpstart their development and implementation of resilience planning.
- $85 million is earmarked for communities applying for the federal Hazard Grant Mitigation Program and is intended to cover the required local cost share.
The state identified these disaster vulnerable communities by prioritizing California census tracts according to their estimated hazard exposures and social vulnerability. Hazard exposure is based on the State Hazard Mitigation Plan which includes an analysis of several datasets related to wildfire, flood, earthquake, drought and heat wave frequencies. Social vulnerability is based on the CDC Social Vulnerability Index.
Moke Simon, Lake County District 1 Supervisor said, “Lake County has endured an unparalleled series of nine wildfire disaster events since 2015. Two-thirds of our land mass and more than 5.5% of our housing supply have burned. Every Lake County community has faced evacuation. In recent years, we have been working hard to bring people with separate and related roles in disaster preparedness together, and this grant will fund a critically-needed full-time Chief Climate Resilience Officer position. We couldn’t be more excited for this award!”
Jessica Pyska, Lake County District 5 Supervisor said: “As a County that has repeatedly come under climate change-informed threat it’s essential we do all we can to become more resilient to future events, and that starts with staff capacity to look ahead, and leverage any and all funding opportunities to make our communities safer. We can’t wait to get a Chief Climate Resilience Officer in place.”
Darcie Antle, Mendocino County Interim Chief Executive Officer said, “The County of Mendocino is appreciative and excited to hear about the award from Cal OES. The Prepare California ‘Jumpstart’ grant will allow us to hire staff to help build capacity around hazard mitigation projects. The Board of Supervisors and the Prevention, Recovery, Resiliency and Mitigation (PRRM) team have been working towards a grant management unit. This funding will build capacity around mitigation projects and expand on the great work being done by the PRRM team since the 2017 Wildfire. The team looks forward to working with Cal OES in the future.”
Additional information about Prepare California, including the inception of the program and the application process, can be found at caloes.ca.gov/preparecalifornia.
