{"id":471529,"date":"2026-09-22T03:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471529\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T03:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T03:36:10","slug":"california-declares-a-state-of-emergency-ahead-of-anticipated-historic-el-nino-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471529\/","title":{"rendered":"California declares a state of emergency ahead of anticipated historic El Ni\u00f1o season"},"content":{"rendered":"

California officials are preparing statewide for what could be a historic El Ni\u00f1o season, with Governor Gavin Newsom in response proclaiming a state of emergency<\/a> Monday to allow agencies to begin positioning resources ahead of potential fall and winter storms.<\/p>\n

State emergency leaders say the goal is to prepare before storms hit and mobilize resources early, although they do not yet know where or when the strongest storms will strike.<\/p>\n

“We do not know today where every storm will hit the hardest,” said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, in a Monday morning virtual media briefing on the governor’s proclamation.<\/p>\n

State officials said current estimates point to the greatest potential impact in Southern California and coastal areas.<\/p>\n

“That strong El Ni\u00f1o years can include wetter-than-average years in southern part of the state, Southern California. It’s more of a toss-up for central and northern parts of the state,” said Laura Hollender, deputy director with the California Department of Water Resources.<\/p>\n

Newsom’s emergency proclamation allows state agencies to begin pre-positioning resources statewide.<\/p>\n

“Gives the state the ability to move earlier, faster and with more focus to protect lives and support communities,” Jacobs said of the proclamation.<\/p>\n

State officials also said they are closely watching burn scar locations, areas where wildfires have recently burned, including in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

“El Ni\u00f1o conditions could mean months of dangerous weather, heavy rains, strong winds, deep mountain snow, flooding,” Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

For potential flooding, California has prepared more than four million sandbags and 400,000 tons of rock to be deployed anywhere in the state, officials said.<\/p>\n

As for specific state agencies, Caltrans, for instance, will prepare public infrastructure, including highways, bridges, and drainage facilities. The California National Guard is on standby for flood response and search and rescue.<\/p>\n

Dams and groundwater storage projects across the state will also be inspected.<\/p>\n

State officials have not yet put a dollar amount on the overall preparation, though they noted the finances will not be a hindrance to preparation or rescue efforts.<\/p>\n

Officials also reminded Californians that local fire departments, police departments and sheriff’s departments are responsible for local evacuations.<\/p>\n

“So the people who push out the alerts are your local fire department, your local police department, your sheriff’s department,” said Brian Ferguson, a senior adviser with the Office of the California Governor.<\/p>\n

State officials said Californians can also sign up at Ready.CA.Gov<\/a> for statewide disaster readiness information, including an El Ni\u00f1o toolkit.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Newsom is in New York this week for Climate Week. He is expected to meet with Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson to discuss El Ni\u00f1o concerns in the Pacific Northwest as well.<\/p>\n

Watch more: What a historic El Ni\u00f1o could mean for California | ABC10 Weather Special<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California officials are preparing statewide for what could be a historic El Ni\u00f1o season, with Governor Gavin Newsom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,2926,9,8,185454,10648,457,1009,153843,6750,9184,59040],"class_list":["post-471529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-caroline-thomas-jacobs","tag-el-nino","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-southern-california","tag-state-agencies","tag-state-of-emergency","tag-state-officials","tag-winter-storms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}