Legislative hearing finds gaps remain in Californias protections for vulnerable residents during wildfires

A joint oversight hearing of several California legislative committees heard that gaps identified in a 2019 state audit persist in how counties and the state prepare to protect older adults, people with disabilities and limited-English populations during wildfires and other disasters.

State Auditor Grant Parks summarized findings from the report California is not adequately prepared to protect its most vulnerable residents from natural disasters, saying the audit found county emergency plans were often missing, outdated or not aligned with FEMA best practices and that Cal OESs guidance was incomplete. "None of the counties we visited had complete and updated plans," Parks said, and he added that Cal OES at the time of the audit did not include best practices for people with access and functional needs in the state plan as required by law.

The audit examined three counties affected by 2017-18 firesButte, Sonoma and Venturaand flagged multiple problems: emergency alerts that did not use the FEMA wireless emergency alert (WEA) system or that failed to identify the message source, mass-notification calls that had 50 to 60% connection failures, and no systematic distribution of alerts in languages other than English. Parks told the committee that Butte, Sonoma and Ventura "could not demonstrate that they had…