Mayor Daniel Lurie’s proclamation lets departments skip normal contracting rules for pumps, flood barriers and generators, and lets him move money between departments, as forecasters warn of a wet winter and record tides.
Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a local emergency in San Francisco on Friday, ahead of what forecasters expect to be a wet El Niño winter. Near his news conference on the Embarcadero, The San Francisco Chronicle noted, small amounts of bay water had already spilled onto the roadway. The proclamation does not itself spend money. It changes how the city may buy equipment and move money once storms arrive.
“Today, I am declaring a local emergency to ensure San Francisco is ready for the severe storms, flooding, and high tides that El Niño could bring this winter,” Mr. Lurie said in the announcement from his office. “We are acting now to make sure our departments have the resources they need to protect San Franciscans quickly throughout the season.”
What the proclamation unlocks
Under the declaration, seven city agencies can waive or streamline the city’s usual contracting and procurement rules: Public Works, the Public Utilities Commission, the Port, the Municipal Transportation Agency, Recreation and Park, San Francisco International Airport and the Office of Contract Administration. The mayor’s office listed what they are expected to buy: flood barriers, pumps, generators, first-aid and shelter supplies and portable restrooms.
The order also puts the city’s response under the Incident Command System, directs departments to work with the Emergency Operations Center and gives the mayor authority to reallocate money within and between departments. Neither the proclamation nor the mayor’s office put a dollar figure on what the city expects to spend.
“It will cut through our usual red tape so our departments can manage our critical infrastructure and that they can take action quickly,” Mr. Lurie said at the news conference, according to The Chronicle.
City Administrator Carmen Chu, whose office oversees contracting, made the same case. “Having the ability to purchase what we need, when we need it, is essential to delivering effective response amid rapidly changing emergency conditions,” she said in the release.
Under the California Emergency Services Act, a local emergency proclaimed by a designated official such as the mayor lapses after seven days unless the governing body, here the Board of Supervisors, ratifies it. The mayor’s office did not say when the board would take up the proclamation.
Why now
The National Weather Service’s October outlook calls for a strong to very strong El Niño and a wetter than normal December through February. The first storms are expected around Halloween weekend, The Chronicle reported, and the city already set an October high-tide record, with king tides due in the days before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a statewide El Niño emergency on Sept. 21, and several other Bay Area governments have issued their own declarations.
“Conditions can change quickly, and one storm or severe coastal flooding event can cause serious impacts,” said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the Department of Emergency Management. She described two separate threats to The Chronicle: heavy rain and wind that flood streets and topple trees, and higher bay water that “can flood low-level waterfront areas, even on a dry day.” She added, “The nature of the risk that we’re looking at is broad, but also unknown.”
The Port’s executive director, Michael Martin, said in the release that “El Niño impacts are already hitting our shoreline, and we know more water is headed our way.” The Port plans temporary flood barriers along the waterfront and has adjusted its tide warning system.
What departments are doing
Public Works has more than 20,000 sandbags and gives up to 10 free per address, with “Sandbag Saturday” distributions planned in November in the Marina, the Mission, Lakeshore and other neighborhoods. Carla Short, the department’s director, offered a bit of triage: residents whose homes have not flooded before “probably don’t need to come get sandbags,” she said, according to The Chronicle. Crews are clearing catch basins, and the department is relocating electrical equipment and adding sump pumps at the Fourth Street drawbridge.
The Public Utilities Commission said it finished about 1.4 miles of sewer upgrades under Geary Boulevard, from Stanyan Street to 32nd Avenue, in October. Its Folsom Area Stormwater Improvement Project is under construction, and design is complete on a Lower Alemany project. Property owners who have flooded from the street or from sewer backflow can apply for up to $100,000 through the agency’s Floodwater Management Grant Program.
“This emergency declaration gives us another tool to move even faster to secure critical supplies if an emergency arises,” said Dennis Herrera, the utility’s general manager.
Asked by The Inquirer on Saturday about the utility’s preparations under the declaration, Betsy Lauppe Rhodes, the commission’s deputy communications director, replied: “Hello and thank you for reaching out to us. I am directing you to the press release from the Mayor’s office that was circulated yesterday which contains the answers to your questions about SFPUC and other City-wide preparedness efforts. Please find it attached.” That release does not include a cost estimate.
Recreation and Park tree crews will work from November to mid-April, and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing described a three-phase plan that includes pop-up emergency shelter. The city’s Office of Small Business will hold a free preparedness webinar on Nov. 4 at 10 a.m.
The Department of Emergency Management, Public Works, the Office of Small Business and the Controller’s Office did not respond to The Inquirer’s questions by publication time.
What residents can do
The city has posted a flood risk map at sf.gov/storms. Residents can sign up for emergency texts by texting their ZIP code to 888-777. Sandbag information is at sfpublicworks.org/sandbags. Officials also noted that National Flood Insurance Program policies usually take 30 days to take effect.
Celia Marroquín covers San Francisco City Hall, the Board of Supervisors, city departments and the neighborhoods where their decisions land, for the Inquirer’s City Desk. More from Celia Marroquín
