Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 10 February 2024

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Office of Emergency Services, in coordination with the County Administrative Office, has submitted a request to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for any and all support available to aid Lake County and its residents in recovery from the 2024 January and February winter storm.

In part, this request will open the door for state or federal assistance for residents who have extensive damage to their primary residence or business, county officials reported.

Renters, homeowners and business owners who sustained damage can continue to report damages for inclusion in any possible assistance that becomes available by visiting https://lakesheriff.com/1448/Response or calling the Community Development Department at 707-263-2221 during regular business hours.

Sheriff Howe declared the existence of a local emergency on Monday, Feb. 5, in response to the damage caused by the winter storms. The emergency proclamation was thereafter ratified by the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

This latest round of storms is Lake County’s 14th disaster in the last six years.

During the event, approximately 40% of Lake County households lost power. Of those, about 5% remained without power four days after the peak of the storm. High winds fell trees into homes, across power lines and roads while excessive rains caused flooded roadways and homes. One fire district ran close to 100 calls for service in a ten-hour period.

The cities of Clearlake and Lakeport issued their own proclamations in response to the widespread damage and threat to their citizens. Schools county-wide closed and several schools experienced damage.

Staying prepared and safe travel

Lake County OES has pinned a post with important links to help you stay informed on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lakecountyoes.

Additional winter weather systems may impact the County before winter turns to spring and summer, residents are encouraged to stay prepared. Steps may include:

• Maintain at least a half tank of gas at all times;
• Maintain drinking water, nonperishable food items and medications on hand;
• Keep phones and other electronic devices charged;
• Keep cash on hand, as electronic payment systems may go down; and,
• Ensure drainage systems on your property are free of debris.

Additional updates and information will continue to be provided via Facebook and online at https://lakesheriff.com/1448/Response.

Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 10 February 2024

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Following the heavy winter storms that hit last week, peaking on Sunday, the city of Clearlake has issued an emergency declaration.

City Manager Alan Flora, acting as the city’s director of emergency services, issued the declaration on Friday.

The declaration follows one for all of Lake County issued on Monday by Sheriff Rob Howe.

The city did not immediately respond to a question about estimates of damage to public infrastructure.

The Clearlake City Council is expected to ratify the declaration when it meets on Thursday.

The full proclamation follows.


WHEREAS, City of Clearlake Municipal Code Section 2-11.6 empowers the Director of Emergency Services (City Manager) to proclaim the existence or threatened existence of a local emergency when the city is affected or likely to be affected by a public calamity and the City Council is not in session; and

WHEREAS, Government Code Section 8550 et seq., including Section 8558(c), authorize the City Manager to proclaim a local emergency when the City is threatened by conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the City that are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of the City; and

WHEREAS, starting on February 2, 2024 a winter storm resulted in high winds and heavy rain; and

WHEREAS, these conditions have caused a loss of stability to trees and hillsides, including significant damage to property, infrastructure and public safety within the city limits; and

WHEREAS, the mobilization of local resources, ability to coordinate interagency response, accelerate procurement of vital supplies, use mutual aid, and allow for future reimbursement by the state and federal governments will be critical to successfully responding to the impacts of the winter storms; and

WHEREAS, the City Manager, as the City’s Director of Emergency Services, has the power to declare a local emergency as authorized by Government Code section 8630 and Clearlake Municipal Code section 2-11.6.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED by the City Manager of the City of Clearlake as follows:

A. A local emergency exists based on the existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property, as detailed in the recitals set forth above.

B. The area within the City which is endangered and/or imperiled.

C. During the existence of this local emergency, the powers, functions, and duties of the emergency organization of this City shall be those prescribed by state law and by ordinances, resolutions, and orders of this City, including but not limited to the City of Clearlake Emergency Operations Plan.

D. The City Council shall review and ratify this proclamation within seven (7) days as required by state law, and if ratified, shall continue to exist until the City Council proclaims the termination of this local emergency. The City Council shall review the need for continuing the local emergency as required by state law until it terminates the local emergency, and shall terminate the local emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant.

E. That a copy of this proclamation be forwarded to the Director of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services requesting that the Director find it acceptable in accordance with State Law; that the Governor of California, pursuant to the Emergency Services Act, issue a proclamation declaring an emergency in the City of Clearlake; that the Governor waive regulations that may hinder response and recovery efforts; that recovery assistance be made available under the California Disaster Assistance Act; and that the State expedite access to State and Federal resources and any other appropriate federal disaster relief programs.


DATED: February 9, 2024


_______________________________________
Alan D. Flora
Director of Emergency Services

Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 10 February 2024

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With power still out in some parts of Lake County due to the heavy winter storms that peaked over the weekend, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services shared an update from Pacific Gas and Electric on the effort to restore power to customers.

“This week’s winter storm is now the largest single storm producing multiple customer outages in nearly 30 years, affecting more than 1.85 million customers. High gusts and strong sustained winds caused an incredible amount of damage across our service area, including breaking or toppling 946 poles, requiring us to restring or repair more than 2,839 spans of powerlines and damaging or destroying 485 crossarms and 378 transformers. Parts of Lake County were particularly hard hit,” PG&E said.

PG&E said it has approximately 600 crews on the ground continuing to restore customers throughout the day and night. When customers are restored in one area, they move them into areas where outages remain to speed up restoration there.

In Lake County, PG&E reported that on Friday afternoon it had approximately 539 customers without power due to the storms, including 398 in Cobb, 115 in Kelseyville, 20 in Loch Lomond and 10 in Upper Lake. Those customers were in areas where damage to the system required a more complex restoration as the damage was the most severe and involved the need to remove fallen trees.

By 10 p.m. Friday, that number had been reduced to about 100 customers.

Most of PG&E’s customers are expected to be restored by Saturday night, although a few of the most isolated customers may be without power into the weekend. The company said it provided all of its customers with estimated times of restoration.

PG&E said it’s aware of reports of customers seeing wires on the ground in some Lake County communities. Some of these wires may belong to other utilities, such as phone companies, and some of these may be PG&E wires which will be reinstalled to restore power to customers or will be removed by PG&E in the coming days.

“As a best practice, if you see a wire down in your community, assume it’s energized and stay away from it,” PG&E said.

The statement continued, “It’s important for customers to remember that the timing we provide is an estimate; in some cases, as repair work continues, we may discover additional damage or encounter access issues that change the timing. We want customers to know that we absolutely understand how frustrating it is to be without power, especially for multiple days. This storm was incredibly intense and our crews are out in force making these final repairs. We won’t stop until the last customer has their power restored.”