What Oakland is doing ahead of El Niño: NEWS CONFERENCE

Thank you for being here to hear from such a distinguished panel of city leaders and on such an important topic. My name is Liam Garland, I am Oakland's Public Works Director and I want to talk to you about three things we're doing ahead of the storm season and what Oaklanders can do now to prepare. Your Public Works Department is clearing storm drain inlets across the city. Those are the grates that you see along the curb. Our crews are also clearing culverts and other parts of the storm drain infrastructure, so water will move through them without being blocked. Leaves and debris can build up between storms, so this is work that we will be doing throughout the storm season. But Oaklanders can help. Before the rain comes, take a look at the inlet near your home or business. If you can reach it safely from the sidewalk, use a rake to pull leaves off the grate and then put those leaves in the green bin. If the inlet is blocked and you can't clear it safely, call Oak 311 and we will do it for you. If you're willing to look after an inlet throughout the winter, sign up for Adopt-A-Spot or Adopt-A-Drain. We can help with tools and send you alerts ahead of the storms. More than a thousand Oaklanders are already doing this work. Thank you. You're helping keep water off your and your neighbors' streets and sidewalks. Cleaning inlets makes a difference. But even with clean drains, very heavy rain can bring more water than the system can carry. And when that rain coincides with a king tide, it can be harder for that stormwater to drain into the bay. If you see a flooded street, Call 311 to report it, and if anybody is in danger, please call 9-1-1. Second, the city is preparing for the likelihood of downed trees. We know from past storm season, especially as we get deeper into the storm season, there's a very high risk of losing trees. We're bringing our staff and supporting contractors and putting those contractors in place. To be able to deal with all of the additional tree removals that are likely to occur during storm season. We'll be doing this work across the city. If you have trees on your own property, now is a good time to have them evaluated by an arborist. It's also worth knowing who you are going to call in case a tree on your property is downed during the storms. If you find a large tree or limb on the street, please call 3-1-1, and if it's touching a power line, please stay clear and call 9-1-1. Third, Public Works provides free sandbags and plastic sheeting to Oaklanders to help prepare. You can bring up, you can pick up, I should say, up to 10 sandbags and 20 feet of sheeting while supplies last. Bring your ID showing that you're an Oakland resident. And we have two pickup sites, one on site here at Edgewater and another at Shepherd Canyon Road. You can find the address, the hours, and a short video on how to place the bags at oaklandca.gov. forward slash El Niño. If your home has flooded before, please, please, please take a few minutes to think about where the water came in and where you place those sandbags. It's a lot easier to do that in the daylight before it starts raining. Similarly, if your property experienced a mudslide in the past, consider tarping it in advance to help it protect from another slide. I want to send a big thank you to all of our Public Works crews who have been doing work day and night to help protect our city from these storms and will continue doing the same throughout the course of this winter. Thank you and without further ado I'd like to introduce our esteemed Mayor Barbara Lee. Thank you very much, Liam, and thank you so much for your leadership and for being very specific on many of the actions that the city is taking. Also, I want to thank the media for being here. I want to thank Fire Chief Covington, our Chief of Homelessness Solutions, Cupid Alexander, our City Administrator, Interim City Administrator Betsy Lake. And our Deputy City Administrator Sophia Navarro, along with all of our Emergency Management Services Division, Sustainability and Resilience Division, our Parks and Recreation and Youth Development Department, and all of our public works workers. I just want to thank you all so much for your your work each and every day and for being here today. And let me just thank Councilmember Houston because he understands what preparedness really means in his district. And right here in his district with a clear message for every single resident and that is, and you heard Liam describe the specifics in terms of actions, but we've been planning for severe winter weather for months and city operations are actively underway. We've seen significant flooding in recent years and forecasts tell us that this winter is going to be harder than most. So we're taking action right now to protect our neighborhoods. To understand what we're facing take a look at the numbers and let me just give you a couple of data points. An average high tide in Oakland is five and a half feet. Over the last few days you may have noticed higher water levels. Today's high tide is a foot above average. But the king tides arriving around, at least it's projected to be around Thanksgiving and continuing through the winter will reach up to 8.5 feet and that's three full feet higher than what our shorelines and drainage systems usually handle. On their own, king tides will flow will flood, excuse me, low-lying areas. If a winter rainstorm hits at the same time, the risk of severe local flooding increases significantly, and that is the scenario that we're preparing for. And you just heard from Liam again about our proactive preparing, and this is not the case. It's not only about city operations, we're tearing down departmental silos with all of our departments because that's been a core priority of my administration since day one. And so over the last several months we've brought together key departments to make sure that our residents are provided with the services that they need. So today you're going to hear directly from the city leaders executing on our winter readiness strategy. We're here to demonstrate how sandbags, Councilmember Houston, he'll explain this, five pounds a piece. Five pounds. Five pounds a piece can help prevent local flooding and tarping can prevent mudslides. These materials are completely free for Oakland residents and we want you to know that small actions like checking local storm drains and clearing leaves and debris can make a big impact. And I'm asking every Oakland resident and worker to sign up for AC Alert at ACAlert.org so we can send critical real-time safety updates by text and phone. Finally, I'll just say we're currently working on an emergency declaration soon to be announced. Oakland is strong and resilient when we stand together. Our teams are ready, our plan is in motion, and together we're going to keep Oakland safe this winter. Thank you all again for being here. I will yield now to the fire chief commissioner. Thank you again. Thank you Mayor Lee. Damon Covington, Oakland Fire Chief. I'm happy to be here today with the rest of our public safety team and our city leadership. Also here and is in the audience over here is our emergency medical services division crew who is responsible for all of our EOC emergency operations center activations. Emergency management services division is working with our key external partners, Alameda County Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans, Red Cross, VOAD, CHP, East Bay Mud, PG&E, and East Bay Regional Parks, as well as the City of Alameda and others, to identify any threats that may occur during or as a result of predicted effects of El Nino. Just to reiterate, the fire department is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and we're ready to respond to any emergency. So if any of our community has a 911 emergency or is not sure of what they should do, please let us know. We will either respond or our dispatchers can point you in the right direction of a city service that can assist you. We're coordinating with other agencies throughout the city to enhance our readiness to activate the Emergency Operations Center. For those who don't know what the Emergency Operations Center does, it coordinates all of our different divisions across the city to make sure that we are all on the same page and are able to respond to whatever the emergency is in our city of Oakland. We ask that all residents of the city of Oakland and our visitors sign up for AC Alerts at acalerts.org. This is how the city will communicate with you for urgent information about emerging emergencies within our city. We have an abundance of community that still needs to become part of our AC Alerts organization. If you go to acalerts.org, it is free to sign up and you get pertinent information right to your handheld device. Whatever you sign up to, if it comes to your phone, comes to your computer, however you want to receive your information, it is our way of Alerting you to what's going on in the city in real time with that. I will turn it over to Councilmember Houston. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Ken Houston, son of Oakland District seven council member. I want to just thank all this leadership out here right now. They're the experts. I'm here as the council member and my community has been underserved and had the impact of the flooding. For years, right? And this proactiveness, this proactiveness by the mayor, Garland, and all the other professionals is showing the changes, showing how we're actually communicating with our community, working with our community. And I want to thank them young men behind us. Those are the real soldiers out on the street that actually help us, right? And they set these up, these five pounders and these eight pounders for our seniors can even move them around, right? And they can also get the 20 foot of plastic. So I'd like to say this, it's not just the leaders, it's the community too. We have a responsibility to clean out our drains, to clean out our gutters, right? And we have to be proactive, have things there for our pets, you know, for our seniors, look out for your neighbors, right? We have a responsibility together. to make this happen. But I want to thank you, Mayor, for your proactiveness. I want to thank Garland, Lake. I want to thank Sophia. I want to thank everyone. So my name again is Ken Hughes, and this is my district. So I'm going to say this. If my seniors need something, I'm going to put it on TV. If my seniors need something, I'm going to be there for you. So thank you so much. I was going to pass it to Covington, but you were first. So that's all right. I'm going to pass it over Get over there to Sophia. Thank you, Sophia. Hi, Sophia Navarro. I'm Deputy City Administrator and I'm going to briefly talk about the encampment and emergency shelter operations and preparations that we're doing. So our Office of Homelessness Solutions is coordinating with outreach teams so that they can share storm information directly with people living in encampments. And this is actually already happening currently in vehicles and in other unsheltered locations. As shelter sites are activated, we want outreach workers to be able to tell people where to go, when to arrive and how to get there. Transportation is also part of the planning. A shelter referral only helps if someone can get to the site. So we're working with our city and outreach partners to identify who can assist when someone has a confirmed placement and needs a ride. So what people can do now, if you need a shelter in Oakland, call 211. Ask what's available, how to get a referral, and when to arrive. If you need help getting there, Tell the operator during that call and we will get you assistance. If you're checking on a neighbor who lives outside, share the number and offer to help them call if they need it. If there's no opening when you call, ask when to check back. If someone is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1. Our Office of Parks and Recreation and Youth Development Department is preparing our facilities, staff, and community. We have identified two locations to serve as emergency shelter locations and are anticipating a third location. And those locations are Ira Jenkins Recreation Center, which is on 9175 Eads Avenue. The other is Willie Keys Recreation Center, located at 3131 Union Street. So our Parks and Recreation... Department is continuing to work with city partners to make sure these facilities are prepared and that we can respond quickly if they are activated. We will also be working alongside cities outreach and emergency response teams to make sure people have access to timely information about severe weather, available resources and shelter operations. And with that, I'm actually going to have Shira Wagner, who's a community member who can speak to how she's preparing. Good morning, everyone. My name is Shira Wagner. I'm an Oakland resident, Oakland CERT member, and the co-chair of the East Bay Resilient Neighbor Network. My journey into community preparedness started two and a half years ago with a CERT class, where I learned some really practical emergency response skills, but also how important it is to prepare before a disaster. I learned that in the wake of a city-wide disaster, first responders may not be able to reach us quickly, and that in the critical first hours, our neighbors are our strongest asset. That really changed the way I look at emergency preparedness. I started looking around in my neighborhood and asking who might need extra support? Who has emergency training? Who knows how to communicate when services are down? And do we actually know each other well enough to rely on one another? That's what started my organizing in my neighborhood and then later starting the Resilient Neighbor Network. We meet every two months. We're a group of neighbors who work on mutual aid and collective preparedness on a community With El Nino coming and the rains and the potential for emergencies, I really want to encourage Oakland residents to take a few small steps. Sign up for AC alerts, clear your drains, talk to your neighbors, organize on your block, get to know who needs support, make a household plan, pack a go bag. The stronger our neighborhoods are, the more prepared Oakland will be. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of our speakers. We'll take some questions now. Please raise your hands and we'll take them one at a time. Please let us know what outlet you're from. If you have questions on other topics, please hold them and we'll take them when the program ends. And I see the first hand up back here. A question for the mayor. It's two-part. What does it mean if you do an emergency declaration? And do you recall the last time the city has faced this kind of weather threat? NBC, a question for the mayor about emergency declaration and the last time we faced weather like this. Sophia, we'll handle this one. Thank you. So, Sophia Navarro, Deputy City Administrator. So, in our ability to declare an emergency and get that declaration in place, it allows us to be able to speed up our contracting process and purchasing for any materials or any services that we might need in anticipation of the rain. So, we are currently working on that with our city attorney's office and should have that activated within the next week or two. Also, I'll just add, in many instances, there's additional funding, supplemental funding for cities and jurisdictions which have emergency declarations. Thank you again. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. So, we've seen in 2023 there was significant flooding in New Year's Eve and throughout January of that year, and then we also saw some significant impacts in El Nino in 2017 when mudslides in the hills in particular caused a number of emergency road closures We're reopened, but we're significant at the time. Thank you for the question. Next question. Over here. Devin, should we take the Fox News in regards to the emergency funding? Have you heard from states about potential things you could apply for, or is the city setting aside money in advance like other cities are doing in the Bay Area? Is the city setting aside resources in advance now, and or are we working with the state to identify resources that can be sent to the city? And money. And money. Thank you. Do you want to... I can take the first part of that question. So I'll take the first part of that question. So we are currently in coordination with our state officials to make sure that we're preparing and activating and utilizing any funding that we're able to tap into, you know, when the storms come. As far as the second part of your question was, sorry. Sorry. We are in conversations with our finance department to make sure that we have funding that we had from the year prior rollover so that we can tap into that additional funding, but currently in conversation. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you for the question. Over here. Charles Clifford for On4News. So you're not the only community preparing. Is there any pressure for securing things like generators and supplies? You know, you're basically getting this stuff in competition with other communities. Are you feeling some pressure on that? Public Works? Please. A question about competition for contracts and resources and how we're planning ahead. Okay. So you're not the only community preparing. Is there any pressure for securing things like generators and supplies? You know, you're basically getting this stuff in competition with other communities. Are you feeling some pressure on that? Public Works? Please. A question about competition for contracts and resources and how we're planning ahead. Okay. So you're not the only community preparing. Is there any pressure for securing things like generators and supplies? Competition for contracts and resources and how we're planning ahead. Thank you. Liam Garland, Oakland Public Works Director. We have already procured the generators we need to back up city facilities. We really want to emphasize to Oaklanders themselves that they should procure those generators for their own private property as soon as they can. This is an effort that we've been preparing for for many months, and it's something that we prepare for on many storm seasons. And so the short answer is we've got the resources we need in place to help us get through this storm season. Thank you, sir. And over here. Brian with KPIX. You guys mentioned calling 311 a lot to mark drains, things, problem areas. Do you guys have an app that's got geolocations that makes it much easier to tabulate than someone writing it down? Is there a 311 app that people can use to avoid, to be able to submit requests that- To mark geolocate, rather than you call 25th and this and have to send it down a line, rather than something that's all in one place. Sure, if you use the OAK311 application on your phone, you are able to geolocate the precise spot that you want addressed. You can do the same thing online through OAK311 as well. Thank you, sir. Okay. All right, we'll take one more question in the back here and then we'll close. We'll take again any other questions over here on the side. You, sir. I'm Andrew with KPIX. Let me get Ms. Wagner back up here real quick. First of all, could you remind me what neighborhood you're in, and then can you also just say what specifically you've been doing in your neighborhood, and what your neighbors do? Yeah, so I just moved from Piedmont Ave, where the main collecting Organizing was happening. I live in downtown Oakland now and which has been different with renters and a large residential building But we've been adopting drains meeting talking together making sure there's quite a few seniors in our building somebody broke their arm There's someone in a wheelchair making sure that they're not left behind if we needed to evacuate for some reason Then, um, Yeah, does that answer your question? So much We want to thank again everybody for being here today. Thank you to the media for helping us get this information out to the community at this critical moment. We do want to make sure that you get an opportunity to show your viewers what using these materials actually looks like. So our public works crews will be doing a demonstration just behind you in the doorway back there of how to use sandbags and plastic sheeting to protect your property. Again, for community members who may be watching this, a video of that same instruction is at oaklandca.gov slash el nino where you can get information about the locations, the hours, and videos about how to demonstrate that safety. And the chief would like to add one more thing before we break. One thing I forgot to mention was the majority of our firehouses throughout the city have a cache of sandbags that you can access anytime during the day. So we try to make it convenient so that you don't have to go to the corp yard or come to Edgewater if you do not live close to there. So try your local fire station first see if they have any sandbags available and if not then you'll have a much more robust inventory here at Edgewater as well as the corp yard on Snake Road. Thank you so much, Chief. We'll close the program here now. Again, for folks who would like to capture that demonstration, we'll be doing that right behind you. Thank you all for being here. Stay safe. All right, we'll go ahead and jump in here. Nice to be able to see the entire address live as it unfolds there in Oakland on Edgewater. Officials, including the mayor, speaking about the expected impact El Nino could have on Oakland. People being told that, yes, the city has your back, but you also need to take measures. It was interesting to hear one of One of the officials say that it is. It's on you, private resident, to buy your own generator, that sort of thing, to prepare for any possible mudslides when it comes to, especially if you live up in the Oakland Hills, those sandbags could be critical in keeping water out of your home. So we'll go ahead and finish up our look here in Oakland. There's our amazing photojournalist, Chip, there. He's the one who brought that picture to you, makes it all possible every single day. And then if you take a quick look there at the top right of your screen, there is an El Nino event ongoing there right next, door in Alameda. So nice to have two live looks here and then of course beautiful downtown.