CSAC and California Counties have placed a strong emphasis on disaster preparedness, resilience and recovery over the past several years. Some of our most memorable regional meetings, partnerships and even Challenge Awards have spotlighted California’s innovation in preparedness at the individual, community and county levels.

In a state as geographically diverse as California, emergencies can take many forms. Wildfires and earthquakes are often top of mind, but power outages, floods, debris flows, tsunamis and even drought can prompt disaster declarations as well.

In honor of September being National Emergency Preparedness Month — designed to promote family and community disaster and emergency planning now and throughout the year – we are highlighting many of these stories on social media.

Some of these stories are starting to be told for the first time, as the have just been selected for the CSAC Challenge Awards, including:

• Humboldt County’s Using Prescribed Fire to Build Resiliency
• Mariposa County’s From Floods to Fire with Predictable Results
• Orange County’s Emergency Preparedness System, and 
• Riverside County’s Leveraging Technologies to Manage Post-Wildfire Debris Flows.

Some focus on being prepared, like:

• Del Norte County’s Neighbors Helping Neighbors program,
• CSAC’s Resilient Counties – Together We Can Make a Difference video and blog,
• and of course this year’s co-sponsored Emergency Management Preparedness Summit.

Other posts will highlight innovations, recommendations and tips developed because of an emergency that can help improve emergency response and recovery for future events, like:

• Santa Barbara County’s GIS Mapping to Aid in Debris-Flow Recovery,
• Tulare County’s Project Foxtrot Fire App,
• San Diego County’s Portable Emergency Power Program, and
• Three Tips for Rebuilding After a Wildfire, written by a Sonoma County resident.

Together, California’s counties, first responders, elected officials and community members all have important roles to play in emergency preparedness. From upcoming meetings to new videos and articles highlighting county best practices, we look forward to telling more great stories of County preparedness soon.