[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
IMPACTS OF THE 2017 WILDFIRES IN THE UNITED STATES
=======================================================================
(115-42)
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MARCH 20, 2018
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-
transportation?path=/browsecommittee/chamber/house/committee/
transportation
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
36-686 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman
DON YOUNG, Alaska PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee, ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
Vice Chair Columbia
FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
SAM GRAVES, Missouri ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
DUNCAN HUNTER, California RICK LARSEN, Washington
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts
LOU BARLETTA, Pennsylvania GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
BOB GIBBS, Ohio STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JEFF DENHAM, California JOHN GARAMENDI, California
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina Georgia
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania ANDRE CARSON, Indiana
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota
MARK SANFORD, South Carolina DINA TITUS, Nevada
ROB WOODALL, Georgia SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
TODD ROKITA, Indiana ELIZABETH H. ESTY, Connecticut,
JOHN KATKO, New York Vice Ranking Member
BRIAN BABIN, Texas LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
GARRET GRAVES, Louisiana CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois
BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia JARED HUFFMAN, California
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina JULIA BROWNLEY, California
MIKE BOST, Illinois FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
RANDY K. WEBER, Sr., Texas DONALD M. PAYNE, Jr., New Jersey
DOUG LaMALFA, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
BRUCE WESTERMAN, Arkansas BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan
LLOYD SMUCKER, Pennsylvania MARK DeSAULNIER, California
PAUL MITCHELL, Michigan STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
JOHN J. FASO, New York
A. DREW FERGUSON IV, Georgia
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
JASON LEWIS, Minnesota
------ 7
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency
Management
LOU BARLETTA, Pennsylvania, Chairman
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas DINA TITUS, Nevada
BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
MIKE BOST, Illinois Georgia
LLOYD SMUCKER, Pennsylvania ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
JOHN J. FASO, New York Columbia
A. DREW FERGUSON IV, Georgia, ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
Vice Chair STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon (Ex
BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania (Ex Officio)
Officio)
CONTENTS
Page
Summary of Subject Matter........................................ iv
WITNESSES
Robert J. Fenton, Regional Administrator, Federal Emergency
Management Agency:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 27
Mark Ghilarducci, Director, Governor's Office of Emergency
Services, State of California:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 33
Hon. Susan Gorin, First District Supervisor, Sonoma County,
California:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 41
Eric W. Holly, Deputy Fire Warden/Deputy Director of Emergency
Services, Stanislaus County, California:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 47
Fire Chief Thomas Jenkins, President and Chairman of the Board,
International Association of Fire Chiefs:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 52
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
IMPACTS OF THE 2017 WILDFIRES IN THE UNITED STATES
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TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Economic Development,
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:39 a.m. in
room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Lou Barletta
(Chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Barletta. The subcommittee will come to order. Without
objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at any
time.
Before we begin, I ask unanimous consent that Members not
on this subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee
at today's hearing and ask questions. Without objection, so
ordered.
The purpose of today's hearing is to explore the lessons
learned from the catastrophic 2017 wildfire season that led to
a record number of deaths and destroyed land and critical
infrastructure throughout 10 Western States, especially
California.
First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with all
those who have been and continue to be impacted by these
wildfires, as well as their fellow Americans working to restore
vital services to the affected communities.
As the subcommittee with primary jurisdiction over the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, it is our responsibility
to hear from FEMA and State and local emergency managers,
including fire departments, who led the response to and are
driving the recovery from the fires.
Unfortunately, 2017 was marked by many major disasters, and
while there has been focus on Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and
Maria, 2017 also included one of the worst wildfire seasons in
United States history.
Nationwide, over 66,000 wildfires burned over 9.7 million
acres of land. In California alone, some 7,000 wildfires burned
through over a half-a-million acres of land, an area larger
than the size of New York City and Philadelphia combined.
The 2017 wildfire season was the most destructive and
costliest for California in its history, and the third most
destructive season nationwide.
It is imperative that we address the destruction caused by
the 2017 wildfire season and work to inform long-term policy
solutions while highlighting the importance of mitigation and
resiliency.
On November 30, 2017, the committee unanimously approved
legislation I introduced, the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, on
a bipartisan basis because of the good work that began here
with this subcommittee.
This legislation incorporated key provisions included in
the SMART Rebuilding [Supporting Mitigation Activities and
Resiliency Targets for Rebuilding] Act introduced by Chairman
Denham. I want to thank Chairman Denham for his leadership on
this issue.
The focus of DRRA and the SMART Rebuilding Act is to place
emphasis on predisaster mitigation to help ensure that our
communities are well equipped to withstand disasters of all
kinds.
There is a clear return on investment for mitigation. For
every $1 spent on mitigation, the taxpayer saves $6 to $8.
The rebuilding that must be done in the wake of these
wildfires provides an important opportunity to encourage smart,
resilient rebuilding, increased mitigation measures, and cost-
effective Federal investments.
It is my hope that an examination of last year's wildfire
season will help inform how to strengthen our ability to
withstand future disasters of all types across the Nation.
I want to thank you all for being here today. I look
forward to hearing from you on this important issue.
I would like to welcome our new ranking member of the
subcommittee, my friend and colleague, Ms. Titus. I look
forward to working closely with you.
I now recognize Ranking Member Titus for a brief opening
statement.
Ms. Titus. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As you
mentioned, this is my first hearing in the position of ranking
member of this subcommittee, and I am very excited to be part
of it and look forward to working with you and the other
Members.
I would also like to point out that we have a visitor with
us who is a valued colleague, not a member of the committee but
someone whose district is greatly affected by the topic we are
going to be discussing, Mr. Salud Carbajal from California's
24th Congressional District. He represents Ventura, Santa
Barbara, and San Luis Obispo, where they had the largest fire
in California, and I would like to welcome him and appreciate
his input.
I represent a neighbor of California, Nevada, in fact the
heart of the Las Vegas Valley, and like the other States,
Nevada is at risk of many natural disasters. We have
earthquakes, wildfires, severe winter storms, and floods. So,
addressing these matters is very important to my constituency.
We do not see it as a Democratic or a Republican matter but
as something that we as a Nation need to invest in, make a
commitment to, so our communities can be more prepared and
resilient.
This committee has operated in that bipartisan fashion, and
I thank the chairman for that. We need to work together on the
issues that impact the health, safety, security, and welfare of
all our constituents.
Today's hearing on wildfires is extremely timely, because
we are seeing natural disasters like wildfires happen much more
frequently, with increasingly costly impacts. So, the Federal
Government needs to take wildfires seriously.
My own State of Nevada has experienced wildfires so severe
that we have called upon FEMA for additional resources through
the Fire Management Assistance Grant Program for fire
suppression assistance seven times over the last 2 years alone.
These wildfires have caused devastating losses to
communities, and they have destroyed landscapes that can lead
to flash flooding and mudslides, and that creates even further
disasters.
For example, the 2013 Carpenter fire just outside of Las
Vegas, at Mount Charleston, led to severe flash flooding. It
destroyed homes, businesses, wildlife habitat, and endangered
the lives of residents and first responders.
Benjamin Franklin said that an ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure, and nothing could be further from the truth
when it comes to dealing with wildfires. So, we need to invest
in mitigation.
Unfortunately, I do not think our President has taken this
mitigation seriously. If you look at FEMA's Predisaster
Mitigation Program budget, we see a proposed $39 million, but
that's a $61 million cut from the current levels. That is not
the way that we should be moving. We should be going in the
other direction.
The chairman and I agree on this need for mitigation
investment. In fact, just last week, we joined nearly 80 of our
colleagues urging the Appropriations Committee to support the
Predisaster Mitigation Program. We just can't continue this ex
post facto policy of borrowing.
Apart from the budgetary issues, I would like to also hear
today about how technology such as unmanned aircraft is playing
an increasing role in our detection, monitoring, and response
to fires, and how FEMA is working on that.
Much of this research is playing out again in Nevada, which
is one of the test centers for drone technology. We also have
the Nevada Seismological Lab at UNR [University of Nevada,
Reno] with their ALERTWildfire Program, so I would be
interested in hearing more about what you're doing there.
So, I look forward to learning more from our witnesses. I
welcome them. We know that wildfires do not recognize
boundaries, whether it is between States or communities. It
should be a Federal issue. They cross over invisible lines. If
we fail to address these kinds of issues, we will be missing an
opportunity here.
So, thank you all for coming, and I look forward to
learning a lot this morning.
I yield back.
Mr. Ferguson [presiding]. Thank you.
It is now my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of
the full committee, Mr. DeFazio, for 5 minutes.
Mr. DeFazio. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This obviously is an extremely important topic,
particularly as regards fire to those of us who live in the
Western U.S. My home State had 664,000 acres burned last year.
We have had $454 million on attack and extinguishing and some
very preliminary restoration activities, and obviously, I don't
think things are going to get better. We are having a very low
snow pack this year, and with climate change, which some of us
believe in, it is going to get worse.
Now, we have a study, and you know, we do a lot of stuff
around here that just does not make one iota of sense. So, we
have a natural hazard mitigation study, that interim report,
2017. We save $6 post-disaster for every $1 of predisaster
funds that FEMA invests. I am not going to say ``spends,''
because these are investments, and yet, the staff of the
President--I am sure he hasn't seen any of this--have proposed
to cut that funding to $39 million.
Now, they can say the deficit is $61 million smaller
because we cut this wasteful program, except if the disasters
happen, and they will, and using that same formula, we just
have a paper savings of $61 million and the actual cost would
be over $360 million to the taxpayers of the U.S.
Now, the difference is we come up with a phony budget and
this omnibus thing being negotiated behind closed doors--who
knows what we will get for predisaster in there, but then when
a disaster actually happens, we say, oh, the rules--they don't
count. We are just going to borrow the money and we will do it
afterwards.
So, you can be fiscally responsible by cutting a program
that can save a hell of a lot of money, potentially save lives,
save property, but then, in the end, you are going to spend
more, but that doesn't count, because we did that off budget
with a supplemental emergency appropriation. Boy, is that dumb.
We do other dumb things. We require that the U.S. Forest
Service and BLM [Bureau of Land Management] pay for their own
firefighting. Every year, they exhaust those budgets. Every
year, they then begin to reduce other outlays for the fiscal
year, including fuel reduction mitigation measures that they
would take, leading us to more intense fires in the future, but
somehow Congress, in its wisdom, has decided that floods,
tornadoes, earthquakes, windstorms, et cetera, et cetera--those
are all natural disasters that would go via FEMA and ultimately
be paid for through an emergency supplemental, but nope, not
forest fires, nope, they don't count.
No matter how big, no matter how catastrophic, no matter
what the losses--I haven't even seen--we will probably hear a
number today from the Honorable Gorin about what the total
losses are, I mean many billions of dollars, in addition to the
lives lost. We have got to start making a little more sense
around here, and hopefully, today will help lead us in that
direction.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ferguson. I would like to thank the ranking member.
Now, I am pleased to welcome our panel of witnesses today.
I want to thank each of you for being willing to come and
testify here, and at this time, I would like to call on
Representative Denham to introduce our first witness.
Mr. Denham. Thank you, Chairman Ferguson. I also want to
thank Chairman Barletta and his continued leadership on these
issues, and I want to thank and welcome Mr. Holly, deputy fire
warden and deputy director of Emergency Services for Stanislaus
County, California, my district.
Mr. Holly brings with him 28 years of experience in fire
service, most notably in coordinating the responses to and
resources for large wildfire incidents, not only in the Central
Valley but across our entire State.
It is people like Mr. Holly on the ground that are the
backbone of our response capabilities, and the coordination
that we have between county and local jurisdictions makes us
all much safer as a State.
With the devastation that was caused by the 2017 wildfires,
it is critical that we ensure our first responders and
emergency managers have the support that they need.
I know all too well, serving as chairman of this committee,
how critical the issues of disaster preparedness, response,
recovery, and mitigation are to survival of our communities and
how frustrating I hear from each of you having to cut through
redtape at a time of a disaster.
That is why I was committed, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy
back in 2013, to putting together key reforms to help speed up
and streamline the recovery costs and reduce the costs, as
well, and it is those exact reforms we passed in 2013 and made
significant changes to the Stafford Act which actually helped
us with the devastation that we saw last year.
In November, we also saw an increase in incentives for
mitigation. I introduced H.R. 4455, the SMART Rebuilding Act.
We have got to be better prepared as we move forward. As we
have seen in Mr. Carbajal's district, not only has his
community been devastated by fires, but now, certainly facing
the challenges of floods and mudslides, we need to make sure,
as we are looking across the State and across the country, that
we are better prepared with smart building codes and prepared
for the different disasters that can hit us across the country.
This was included as part of the budget agreement and now
signed into law in February. The policy will improve the
resilience of homes and businesses from fires and secondary
events like floods and mudslides.
There is much more we can do, not only focused on disaster
mitigation but also predisaster mitigation. We need to continue
to push FEMA to streamline and simplify its disaster assistance
programs.
You have heard from this committee many times, all
disasters are local, which is why it is important for us to
focus on a bipartisan level across the entire country on fixing
so many of these different issues.
Mr. Holly, I look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank
you for taking the long trip across the country to join us
today.
Mr. Ferguson. Now, I would like to recognize Mr. Huffman to
introduce our next witness, the Honorable Susan Gorin, who is a
county supervisor for Sonoma County, California.
Mr. Huffman.
Mr. Huffman. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks,
also, to our ranking member, Mr. DeFazio; our new subcommittee
ranking member, Dina Titus; and all the Members who are here
today for this important conversation, including our colleague,
Salud Carbajal, from Santa Barbara.
This committee has done good bipartisan work, especially
the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, and so, I am glad we have a
hearing today that will continue us moving forward with this
momentum, hopefully seeing that bill through to passage, and
toward that end, it is my great honor to introduce to the
committee Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin.
This committee knows about the wildfires that devastated
northern California last fall. From the Redwood Valley and
Potter Valley complex fires in Mendocino to the Pocket fire in
Geyserville, Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa, the communities I
represent were devastated by these tragedies, and the witness
we are going to hear from, Supervisor Gorin, will speak not
just to the topline numbers we are all familiar with--5,000
homes lost, things like that. Her own home was one of those
homes swept through by the fire, and so, she is here to tell
us, 5 months into the difficult process of rebuilding and
recovering, how it is going from a firsthand perspective, what
it means to a local community, what it means to local
governments struggling to make ends meet in the wake of a
disaster like this.
Supervisor Gorin has been living in Sonoma County since
1982. She is very much a product of our local colleges--Santa
Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State University, and was elected
to the Board of Supervisors in 2012. She is a great colleague
of mine, and I am delighted that she was able to take the
redeye and join us on the difficult journey east.
Susan, welcome to Washington. Thank you for your testimony
today.
Mr. Ferguson. Today we are also joined by Mr. Robert
Fenton, Jr., the Regional Administrator for region 9 with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency; Mr. Mark Ghilarducci,
director of the State of California's Office of Emergency
Services; and Fire Chief Thomas Jenkins, president and chairman
of the board of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
I ask unanimous consent that our witnesses' full statements
be included in the record. Without objection, so ordered.
For our witnesses, since your written testimony has been
made part of the record, the subcommittee would request that
you limit your oral testimony to 5 minutes.
Administrator Fenton, you may proceed.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT J. FENTON, REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY; MARK GHILARDUCCI, DIRECTOR,
GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA;
HON. SUSAN GORIN, FIRST DISTRICT SUPERVISOR, SONOMA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA; ERIC W. HOLLY, DEPUTY FIRE WARDEN/DEPUTY DIRECTOR
OF EMERGENCY SERVICES, STANISLAUS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA; AND FIRE
CHIEF THOMAS JENKINS, PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
Mr. Fenton. I want to start off by thanking Chairman
Barletta for having this session today, and thank you,
Congressman Ferguson, Ranking Member Titus, and other
distinguished members of the subcommittee.
My name is Robert Fenton. I am the Regional Administrator
for FEMA region 9, located in Oakland, California.
It is my pleasure here today to discuss with you FEMA's
experience with wildfire operations and discuss how we plan for
and mitigate against the growing risk from wildfires.
We used to think fire season ran from spring through early
fall. However, in recent years, we have seen that is no longer
the case. Fire season is now all year long, taxing the wildfire
system, the agencies that make up the Nation's emergency
management system, and the communities that are threatened by
fires.
As we saw in recent disasters, wildfires that affect
concentrated urban populations such as Santa Rosa and Ventura,
California, can stress the emergency management capabilities
and cause catastrophic damage.
Let me share a few statistics compiled by my colleagues at
the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection that
highlight the changed fire risks.
The years between 2012 and 2015 were the driest period in
California's history. In sharp contrast, the following winter
of 2016 was one of the wettest periods.
The winter fostered excessive vegetation, which grew into
kindling but did not change the overall dry conditions in the
forests and watersheds.
In 2017, more than 9,000 fires burned approximately 1.2
million acres of land, well ahead of the 5-year average.
While 2017 has ended, the impacts of the unprecedented fire
season will continue for years to come. The question I am sure
you are asking yourselves is how can we plan for this type of
disaster in the future? The wildfire season has reinforced what
we know. Building more resilient communities is the best way to
reduce risks to people, property, public budgets, and the
economy.
I cannot overstate the importance of focusing on investing
in mitigation before disaster strikes. Developing capacity
before an incident occurs reduces the loss of life and economic
disruption.
When communities are impacted, we want to see rebuilding
that is safer, smarter, and stronger, but there are significant
challenges that property owners and communities face in
pursuing resilience.
For that reason, FEMA Administrator Long is calling for a
change in the cycle of opportunity, to move mitigation
investment to the front of the disaster cycle, not at the end,
where it typically lies.
FEMA is working with Federal, State, local, Territorial,
Tribal, and private sector partners to help align predisaster
and post-disaster mitigation investments to more effectively
reduce disaster loss and increase resilience.
FEMA manages the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, the Flood
Mitigation Assistance Grant Program, and the Predisaster
Mitigation Grant Program that funds projects such as seismic
retrofits, defensible space, safe rooms, and risk reduction for
utility and other infrastructure.
These funds play a critical role in building resilient
communities by reducing the risk of future disaster loss.
Effective wildfire mitigation projects include defensible space
measures, ignition-resistant construction, and hazardous fuel
reduction efforts.
From a preparedness perspective, FEMA continues to maintain
and strengthen the National Preparedness System by helping our
non-Federal partners build their capabilities, which will
reduce the reliance on the Federal Government in the future.
Together, we are working to achieve the National
Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient nation with the
capabilities required across the whole community to prevent and
protect against, mitigate and respond to, and recover from the
threats of hazards that pose the greatest risk.
FEMA is focused on promoting integrated mutual aid across
the whole community, continuing the development of the national
qualification system for first responders, and advancing a
national training and education system and a national exercise
program to prepare responders and officials for disasters.
While we may never be able to completely eliminate risk, we
must do our best to mitigate against it. FEMA continues to work
with communities to reach that goal.
By far, the 2017 disaster season was one of the busiest for
FEMA. However, I would like to acknowledge that FEMA did not do
this alone. Disasters pose many challenges at all levels of
Government.
The State of California has done an extraordinary job of
building the emergency management capabilities and coordinating
local and State-level response and recovery efforts. Their
leadership and heroism continue to be instrumental in helping
survivors.
Additionally, we had the support of many Federal
departments and agencies, including the U.S. Fire
Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. EPA, and the
Small Business Administration, among many others from DHS, and
I would also be remiss if I did not mention the congressional
Representatives in California that were personally involved in
every phase of the disaster and the critical role they played.
Going forward, there are many more opportunities to work
together with our partners to identify solutions.
I look forward to your questions today. Thank you.
Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Fenton, thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Ghilarducci, you may proceed.
Mr. Ghilarducci. Good morning, Chairman, and members of the
committee. I am Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor's
Office of Emergency Services in California.
It is really a pleasure to be with you here today and give
you some perspective on, really, the challenges that we have
been faced with over the last couple of years.
I think, to provide some context, clearly to understand
that, really, California, coming out of 6 years of extreme
drought conditions--and when I mean extreme, these are all
record-setting conditions that have impacted the entire State
of California, and within that 6-year period, having to deal
with some relatively extreme wildfire activity that we saw as
sort of precursors to what the potential could be if these
extreme conditions continued to grip California throughout the
coming years.
After the 2015-16 season where we had drought and severe
fires, the conditions changed and we dealt with a lot of water,
a lot of rain at one time that ended up in catastrophic
flooding.
Throughout the State, we had 52 of the 58 counties under
Federal disaster declaration, and all of that flooding and that
response, I put in context, because all of the resources that
we have in California were already tasked and taxed in
responding to these various events.
The floods that we had, of course, presented and prepared
for a new crop of flashy fuels that made the conditions much
worse, and moving into October, then, which was later in the
season, at a time when you think that things are starting to
cool down and slow down, we started to get red flag or what we
call fire weather conditions in the northern part of the State,
which are typically very, very dangerous and don't happen that
often, but when they do, perk everybody's attention, and sure
enough, early in the morning on October the 8th, we had fires
break out in eight different counties.
The wind conditions were such that we had up to hurricane-
force winds, winds exceeding 100 miles an hour, sustained for a
long period of time, and in fact, in a 12-hour burning period,
when it was all cleared, we had lost over 8,900 homes and
businesses in a 12-hour period.
This was eight counties, including the fire that came over
through Napa, down into Sonoma, crossed eight lanes of improved
highway, into a community that had nothing to do with the with
the WUI [Wildland Urban Interface] but was in a fire corridor
that resulted in the loss of over 1,000 homes just in that one
community of Coffey Park.
Overall, the Tubbs fire, which is the one that--you know,
one of these fires that impacted Sonoma and Napa, really
surpassed what our previous large fire was in California that
took a great number of homes, and that was the Oakland Hills
fire in the 1990s.
Throughout this process, our Mutual Aid System was really
stretched, but we do have a tremendous mutual aid capability,
and while they were dealing with the cascading impacts and,
really, the enormity of the northern California fires, of all
of these homes and these people that had been devastated, the
fire weather continued.
The extreme weather conditions that we had not seen before
continued to take hold of the State and moved from a northern
posture to a mid-part of the State to southern California, and
on December the 10th, we had southern California--all the
counties of southern California, all the way up to the middle
part of the State, under red flag conditions.
The humidity levels were in single digits, the winds were
significant, and sure enough, we started getting fires that
broke in Los Angeles and San Diego and in Ventura, the first
one being in Ventura, which burned for many, many days and
turned out to be the Thomas fire, now the State's largest fire
in its history as far as acreage is concerned, and that fire,
beyond burning an additional 1,000 homes in Ventura, went up
into the town of Ojai, button-hooked around that, and then came
down on top of Santa Barbara.
The key thing is, above Santa Barbara and Ventura is the
Los Padres National Forest, so a lot of trees, a lot of
watershed that is critical--critical--to not only being able to
address the capture of rainwater when it rains but also for the
environment and all the other things that go along with that.
This fire was so hot and burned so extremely that literally
it denuded the entire landscape of that Los Padres National
Forest--what we call the front area, and completely wiped out
that area.
That then set up another dynamic that we had a rainstorm
come in and it resulted in catastrophic floods and mudflows in
Santa Barbara, in Montecito, that claimed an additional 22
lives.
So, 44 lives in the northern fires, 22 lives in the
southern fires and in the southern mudflow, and the requirement
of all the resources that were necessary--we had over 10,000
firefighters. We had 400 local engines from our mutual aid
program, 200 out-of-State engines--and I can't thank those
surrounding States enough. We even brought in 33 firefighters
from Victoria, Australia, under an agreement we had.
At the highest level, we established a unified coordination
group, which really set the overarching priorities for
coordination of this, and included FEMA, which, by the way,
FEMA--we could not have done this without a great partner,
FEMA, and they have been with us lockstep, and I can't say
enough about all of their efforts.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you, sir, for your testimony.
It is now my pleasure to recognize Supervisor Gorin.
You may proceed.
Ms. Gorin. Thank you so much. I want to thank the
leadership of this committee and the subcommittee for their
work that they have previously completed on the disasters that
have faced our Nation in totality.
I grew up in western Pennsylvania, but I have lived in
Boston, Colorado, and certainly California. I have been
prepared for horrendous snowstorms, nor'easters, tornadoes,
hailstorms, and earthquakes, but nothing prepared me for the
devastation that I experienced in my district and in my county
in October of last year.
I want to really thank all of my colleagues on this panel,
because without their help every step of the way, we would not
have moved forward through recovery and resiliency that we are
in the place today.
I especially want to thank Congressman Huffman and
Congressman Thompson, who have been with us, and the Governor
was there, and our State senators. It is very important for the
local community to see that you and our local elected leaders
understand what we are facing, and as you've described, in some
of your districts, you do, indeed, understand what we have
faced and what you have faced.
I want to deviate from my testimony a little bit. Mr.
Ghilarducci really talked about the stress and strains and the
magnificent performance of the mutual aid firefighters and
first responders throughout the western part of the Nation and
other States, and it still warms my heart when I see signs in
the communities that have been ravaged by the fires to say
thank you to the first responders. Without them, we would
probably still be here today trying to face an uncertain
future--that and the rains, the rains really helped out, and
our heart goes out to Santa Barbara.
We could have been that community facing the mudslides. We
were spared the torrential rains, and our army of volunteers
and county organizations placed wattles everywhere around our
disaster areas.
As you know, that evening, the firestorms overtook Sonoma
County with the ferocious winds. It was staggering to me that,
almost 50 years to that date, the same patterns of fire
overtook Sonoma County, and what happened in the Hanly fire 50
years ago, took a couple of days to transport themselves across
the county line and move into the neighborhoods, took less than
12 hours to totally devastate neighborhoods.
I come to you as a supervisor but also someone, as
Congressman Thompson said, lost not one but two homes, the home
that I lived in in the Fountaingrove area for 20 years--that
was lost--didn't own it now, but the home that I lived in in
October, certainly did lose. I lost it 2 days later, and that
is really talking--speaking to the long sustaining nature of
the firestorms.
It just wasn't that night; it was a week and a half or 2
weeks where homes continued to burn, but CAL FIRE pulled out
the maps and knew where the dozer lines were going to go and
held the line, and eventually those fires were contained.
I want to put a personal slant on it. For those who have
never lost a home, you see in the debris and the ashes 45 years
of life, of marriage, of family history, family photos, the
ironing board sticking up in the ashes, and realizing you need
to purchase every single item that you lost in the home.
It is overwhelming, both from a grief and a time
perspective, and you magnify my experience and my husband's
experience times 5,000 or more, and you get some scale of the
needs of our community.
Quickly, I want to really talk about community warning
systems. Many of our residents lost their lives--sadly, we lost
24, but many fled their homes in terror in their bare feet.
They were awakened in the middle of the night, losing power,
not able to get their cars out of the garage. They lost
everything, and they were so fortunate, the firefighters picked
them up, and I include that the president of Sonoma State
University as one of those who fled in the middle of the night.
We absolutely need robust, effective, and redundant alert
systems that will not fail when the cell towers and the
landlines come down.
Secondly, disaster preparedness. Often our community
members survived because their neighbors knocked on the door or
telephoned their friends a couple of blocks away. We need to
prepare our community, as you just talked about, for the
unfolding disasters in the future.
I come from a community that is absolutely prepared. In
fact, someone knocked on my door to alert me to the evacuation
that night. The CERT [Community Emergency Response Team]
program and the COPE [Citizens Organized to Prepare for
Emergencies] program are absolutely essential in preparing a
community and a population for future disasters.
Disaster mitigation. Thank you so much for your support in
disaster mitigation. We have a number of requests in, because
we are committed to preventing and arming ourselves with the
tools to survive future disasters. They have come before; they
will come in the future.
And one final note. We desperately need funding, flexible
funding for housing, and economists predicted we need 17,000
construction workers to rebuild not only the lost homes but to
build the housing that we needed on the Saturday before the
fire.
We need money for construction pathway programs and money
to build housing to house the construction workers. This is of
a scale that we have not contemplated in the past, and we are
certainly painfully contemplating now and in the future.
Thank you so much for your work, and we appreciate all that
you are bringing to this issue.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you, Supervisor, and we appreciate your
testimony.
Mr. Holly, you may proceed.
Mr. Holly. Good morning. Thank you, again, for the
invitation. I'm Eric Holly, I'm the deputy fire warden and the
deputy director of Emergency Services for Stanislaus County. In
addition to my normal day-to-day activities, I'm also our fire
and rescue operational area coordinator, as well as the
Emergency Management Mutual Aid, or the EMMA coordinator for
Stanislaus County.
A little bit about our county, we are in the Central
Valley, the southern portion of California's Mutual Aid System,
or region number four. Within Stanislaus County's operational
area is the Diablo Mountain Range in the western portion, and
the foothills of the Sierra Nevada is in the eastern portion of
the county.
There are just over 500,000 people in our county. We do
have 21 separate fire agencies that provide some sort of fire
protection within our county. Of those agencies, some are fully
paid, there are some combination departments and there are some
fully volunteer agencies. Each agency will participate at some
level in the California Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System.
During the times of emergencies and disasters, I'm
responsible for coordinating the local agency responses from
Stanislaus County to those incidents. And as part of the
California Office of Emergency Services, Cal OES, Fire and
Rescue Mutual Aid System and EMMA systems, in the past years
alone we've provided fire engines and individuals to wildfires
statewide: from the border of Mexico all the way up to Oregon,
to the State of Washington, the State of Montana, and recently,
to Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria.
We send people, from firefighters to law enforcement to
emergency medical services, animal services, public works,
building department, public health, and county administration
departments. This year, Stanislaus County agencies continue to
support the Master Mutual Aid System; however, as in years
past, we have found that we've been unable to fill some of the
requests that we've had.
We're only able to assist so much before we have drawdown
of our own resources to exhausting levels, and we've found
ourselves turning down more requests each year for that reason.
Some of our agencies that have had full-time paid firefighters
have had to reduce staffing and close fire stations due to lack
of funding. Volunteer agencies have had trouble keeping
staffing levels up for years, and what staffing they do have
fluctuates with the season.
Most of our rural volunteer agencies are in agricultural
areas, so during seasons like the harvest season and other
specific times of the year, many volunteer firefighters are
committed to their farms and ranches, and have limited
capabilities to respond to calls for service within their own
district, let alone being sent out to the large wildfires.
Even with these challenges, our counties have been able to
put fire equipment on the road in times of need, and when large
wildfires start, county operational area coordinators, using
our contiguous counties, we get together and we start pooling
our resources to see what we have. And if we only have a few,
we marry them up with other resources from other counties.
Over the recent years, Stanislaus County Operational Area,
which is our county, it includes our fire apparatus and
individual personnel who have assisted with the operations and
management of these large wildland fire incidents. At times, we
don't have enough of the equipment or trained personnel in our
county to fulfill those requests. And when this occurs, that's
when we start reaching out to our neighbors.
We're doing all of this as the fires are beginning, as the
fire weather starts to come up, and it's at that local level to
do that preparedness. We continue to work locally with State
and Federal agencies on mitigating local hazards through
planning and educating the public, training, and exercising for
all hazards.
Through Federal grant funding, we have been able to assist
our nine cities within our county with mitigation planning, the
goal of which is to meet those core capabilities of national
preparedness. The devastation of the wildfires can cripple a
community, leaving it vulnerable to secondary-type events, such
as the landslides that we saw.
For our county, weed abatement and fuel reduction is an
ongoing task, and each year we spend numerous hours identifying
and notifying property owners of hazardous situations. It's
time-consuming. We constantly struggle to keep up with the
requests from the public regarding fire hazards. With all the
responsibilities that our fire agencies have, they just don't
have the staffing to do it on a proactive stance.
Public education has some of the same areas of concern.
Staffing challenges and funding for the education programs
continue to be a concern. When agencies have staffing issues
for emergency response, public education and mitigation
suffers.
It's important to remember that we need to invest our money
and our resources, as you said, upfront. Investment in creating
emergency plans, mitigation programs, and public education will
save lives, property, and the environment. Increasing staffing,
or prepositioning fire equipment during Red Flag Warnings or
other high-probability events likely lessen the likelihood of
incidents growing into major incidents.
Our operational area did not have a major wildland fire in
2017, and it very well could have. We will. We are like many
other counties, and we feel lucky that we were not affected
this last year. But we continue to try to be prepared as best
as we can for these incidents.
Most agencies in our county have received, at some point or
another, some funding through Staffing for Adequate Fire and
Emergency Response Grants or the AFG Grants, the Assistance to
Firefighters Grants. These have helped with communications
equipment for interoperability, which has allowed our agencies
to actually respond outside of our county.
We must continue to emphasize education and training to
strengthen our ability to respond safely and effectively,
locally and statewide to wildland fire events. Without properly
well-maintained equipment, we would be unable to assist. There
are many pieces of the puzzle, and without them, our statewide
response would be hampered.
Thank you again for your time.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you, Mr. Holly.
Chief Jenkins, you may proceed.
Mr. Jenkins. Good morning, acting Chairman Ferguson,
Chairman Barletta, Ranking Member Titus, and members of the
subcommittee. I'm Tom Jenkins, fire chief for the city of
Rogers, Arkansas. I also serve as the president and chairman of
the board for the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The
International Association of Fire Chiefs represents the
leadership of America's fire and emergency medical services
agencies.
We appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the
impact of the 2017 wildfires that affected our great country.
Local fire departments, many of whom you may realize were
volunteer fire departments, provided nearly 80 percent of the
initial attack on those fires. The IAFC is concerned about the
escalating cost and damage caused by these wildfires.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there
were approximately 71,500 wildland fires reported last year.
They burned, as we heard earlier, nearly 10 million acres. This
was an increase of more than 80 percent over the amount of
acreage burned in 2016. In addition, 2017 was a record year in
which the Federal Government spent $2.9 billion on wildland
fire suppression. This amount was approximately 84 percent more
than the $1.6 billion spent in 2008. Our Nation cannot continue
to absorb these growing costs.
We agree with the committee's interest in reducing the cost
of natural disasters. The International Association of Fire
Chiefs supported the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, H.R. 4460,
which incentivized States and localities to take steps to
mitigate the risk of disaster. For wildland fires, the IAFC
supports the national cohesive wildland fire management
strategy. Our association is especially focused on promoting
community preparedness, improved response capability, and, of
course, mitigation.
The IAFC encourages localities to develop community
wildfire protection plans. These plans identify and then
mitigate wildland fire risks. They also can guide Federal
hazardous fuels reduction projects and prioritize the use of
Federal funding.
The IAFC's own ``Ready, Set, Go'' Program is designed to
promote community preparedness. It's a partnership with the
USDA's Forest Service. ``Ready, Set, Go'' helps communities
develop mitigation plans--Ready; teaches them to be
situationally aware--Set; and then act early following personal
wildland fire action plans--Go.
As partners with other community organizations, ``Ready,
Set, Go'' fire departments and fire districts engage in
activities including webcasts, fuel reduction, youth outreach,
civic events, home assessments, and door-to-door smoke alarm
campaigns. Currently, there are 1,803 ``Ready, Set, Go''
members in all 50 States.
An effective response is key to controlling the cost of
wildfires. The IAFC believes that there is a need for well-
vetted qualifications based on the National Wildfire
Coordinating Group's publication, NWCG 310-1, for response
staffing, and resources. However, we also support efforts to
recognize prior learning and structural firefighting skills for
wildland firefighting duties.
Our association is also leading efforts to improve mutual
aid agreements in the response to wildland fires. Fire
departments depend on assistance from neighbors, and oftentimes
other States, to assist during major fires. The National Mutual
Aid System was designed by the IAFC, Intermedix, and ESRI to
help departments visualize in real-time where resources are and
improve decisionmaking when deploying them.
Delayed reimbursements of fire departments is an obstacle
to effective fire response. The reimbursement process can take
months or even years. Until reimbursement, a local fire
department must do without. This delayed reimbursement cycle
can reduce a fire department's ability to participate in future
mutual aid requests.
The IAFC also asks Congress to continue to support
mitigation activities. We ask Congress to make permanent
recently passed legislation that allow States that receive Fire
Mitigation Assistance Grants in fiscal years 2017 and 2018 to
receive hazard mitigation assistance. This assistance will help
communities reduce the risk of flooding and landslides that we
saw in California in January.
The growth of wildland fire across this Nation is a clear
and present danger to our citizens. America's fire chiefs look
forward to working with the committee to promote community
preparedness, ensure effective responses to these wildfires,
and support mitigation efforts to reduce the risk of fires and
ensuing floods and landslides. I look forward to answering any
questions that you may have. Thank you.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you, Chief Jenkins, and I would be
remiss if I didn't say to both you and to Mr. Holly thank you
for your service as first responders and to the men and women
that you serve with.
And to Supervisor Gorin, I understand, I was a mayor prior
to deciding I was tired of being happy and running for
Congress. But in all seriousness, it is so remarkable to me the
partnerships that you have to have with your other stakeholders
in there, and I know that the coordination that goes into it
requires an awful lot of time and commitment.
So thank you for doing that at the local level, and let me
echo some of the words of my colleagues here. I'm so, so sorry
for the loss of your homes in those devastating fires. In 2017,
as you know, we saw many communities and regions and entire
States that were truly shattered by these natural disasters,
and certainly what's happened out in California has just been
absolutely devastating.
And so I think it's very important that we examine what has
happened, learn from that, and then allow this body to help
guide the conversation forward to make sure the local
communities and States have the resources that they need not
only to deal with the aftermath, but in my opinion, more
importantly, deal with what happens before.
And I also want to take a minute to thank Chairman Barletta
for continuing to champion this critical issue, and it's
something that has been very important to him, and I think we
want to recognize his leadership here.
With that, I'm going to reserve my questions for the end,
and I am now going to recognize the ranking member, Ms. Titus.
Ms. Titus. Well thank you very much. If I could ask you,
Mr. Fenton, I would like to follow up on some things that
Ranking Member DeFazio mentioned in his opening statement.
Last week when FEMA issued its 2018 to 2022 strategic plan,
there was no mention of climate change, it just failed to
mention it altogether. And it also removed references to
climate change that had been included in the previous 2014 to
2018 strategic plan. I wonder if the administration believes
that climate change is real, and how you think we can prepare
for natural disasters if we don't acknowledge that it's a
significant factor in the cause of those disasters.
Mr. Fenton. I represent region 9. I can't speak for either
what Brock Long's beliefs are or this administration's beliefs;
however, I think in my opening testimony, I testified to the
part--to the extent of how fire season in California has
changed over the years. And it's significantly changed,
including not only the driest years on record as Mark
Ghilarducci, the State director, had talked about, but also the
wettest season.
So we're seeing changes in the climate in California that
have caused a significant fire season, which continues--a
prolonged one, which is not only seasonal anymore, but it goes
year round. So we are seeing changes that are impacting
California with regard to impacts on the environment, plus
building into urban areas where it increases the threat and
risk of homes in those areas.
Ms. Titus. Do you think you're going to be able to do your
job, or FEMA overall will be able to with the proposed about
$70 million cut in the budget?
Mr. Fenton. Well I understand that in building a budget,
there have to be priorities in building a budget. And, you
know, the administration has made its decision on those
priorities and where to take those cuts. Right now, I have the
resources that I need in order to do my job as a Regional
Administrator, both with the Disaster Relief Fund and funding I
have annually to ensure that we're trained and exercised and
ready to respond to disasters.
One of the areas that I think we need to focus on is how to
move more of the predisaster mitigation upfront so that we
could take action prior to disasters and not take action after
disasters to better protect and build resiliency into the
communities and infrastructure.
Ms. Titus. Well, that, kind of, leads me to my second
question. What I mentioned in the opening statement was some
interest in the use of unmanned aerial systems. I'm wondering
if you could comment on any barriers that exist with FEMA's
budget or making the acquisition or use of those eligible for
grant money, anything we can do to facilitate that, and then
maybe some of our first responders could comment if that would
be helpful or not.
Mr. Fenton. I'm not aware of barriers. I could get back to
you in writing with regard to the specific grants and what's
available and what could be purchased. But I would say that we
heavily use unmanned aerial vehicles during these fires to
provide information not only during the fires, but accessed
resources through Department of Defense National Guard to do
things that we've never done before.
One of the things that we did is we used National Guard
platforms to do assessments of the fires so we could make
decisions on the declaration. Plus the firefighters used it to
establish perimeters and make decisions on where to fight the
fire and build defenses at.
In addition to that, we're using it right now to re-map
using lidar systems to remap watersheds that were impacted from
these fires and better prepare for the post-event floods that
have happened down in the southern California area, and are
preparing this week for the events that may happen due to the
rain that's oncoming this week.
Ms. Titus. Gentlemen?
Mr. Holly. Just speaking to the local level, we do have a
few agencies within our county that have some UAVs. Those
agencies are the paid agencies in our county. They're strictly
using them now for reconnaissance on hazardous material spills
as well as some of the areas that are not really wildland,
where we wouldn't have aircraft working, but in large fields or
in river bottom areas.
They're very much at the beginning stages of it, but
they're starting to use them and they are showing some good
usage with them.
Mr. Jenkins. That's an excellent question. Our association
has championed the issue: We recognize that--while conventional
methods to suppress fires work--that the use of technology to
try to gain information, whether that's reconnaissance, is
important.
But information gathering at the incident command post is
only going to aid whether we're making decisions about
evacuation or offensive strategy, and so we are believers in
technology, specifically unmanned aerial devices, and we
continue to encourage their use as appropriate by local fire
departments and jurisdictions.
Ms. Titus. I would like, first, to be sure that there
aren't any barriers in any of the grant programs that keep you
from using those to acquire some of this technology, so maybe
we can check into that.
Just one other question. It's always been a concern to me
about the animals in wildfires. And people often will not leave
their pets, or then what do they do with their pets? I have the
Animal Emergency Planning Act to try to get FEMA involved in
that.
I wonder if you would talk about, Mr. Fenton, what FEMA
does to encourage local communities to plan for animal
evacuation or care, or how they encourage people--what to do
with their pets? Because if they stay behind for the pets, not
only are you going to lose the pets, you may lose the people as
well.
Mr. Fenton. Following Hurricane Katrina, FEMA's done a lot
of work to not only build in caring of pets and evacuation of
pets into the National Response Framework, but more
importantly, have worked with State and local governments to
ensure that we plan for and build the capacity to be able to
care for and evacuate pets during a disaster.
California has done a remarkable job on it. I'm sure that
Director Ghilarducci can talk to some of the things they did in
this disaster from not only where we both went and saw
firsthand where firefighters came to protect pets down in
southern California at a zoo facility, to opening up some of
their local fairgrounds to receive pets during a fire so that
they could go ahead and care for them, and having that process
set up beforehand so that people could move them to those
locations where they would be safe.
It's important to have those plans prior to the events, and
California has done a tremendous job in having those systems
ready.
Ms. Titus. I would like to see all the States encouraged to
do that as well as California.
Mr. Fenton. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.
Mr. Ferguson. OK, thank you. Next, I'll recognize the
gentleman from California, Mr. Denham.
Mr. Denham. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Holly, you talked
in your opening statement about the operational area and
coordinator responses between multiple counties and strike
teams.
Can you describe, from a county level, the internal
decisionmaking process you go through on whether or not you are
going to put equipment and teams into a different area of the
State and the coordination that goes along with that?
Mr. Holly. Certainly. At the local level or at the
operational or county level, when we hear of fires starting
throughout the State, we start to coordinate within our county
by making phone calls to those local fire chiefs to see their
availability. A lot of it has to do with personnel, with their
equipment, if it is ready to go and then the length of time
that it's expected for that equipment to be gone.
As we do that, we are also in contact with our contiguous
counties and talking with them to see what their availability
is so that, as the orders come in, for strike teams or task
forces to go out to these fires. We can piecemeal things
together if we don't have enough resources. We have to look at
our county. We have to look at any large incidents that might
be occurring, any predicted events that may be coming up or the
weather that is in our county as well, protecting what we have
before we can send out more to other wildland areas.
Mr. Denham. Thank you. And we talk a lot in this committee
about being prepared and resiliency. We passed the SMART
Rebuilding Act here recently, which will incentivize important
building standards as we move forward. But one of those issues
is certainly the fuel that goes with the fire. That is a lot of
the vegetation, a lot of the growth. I wonder if you could
describe what you think could better encourage important
activities on taking away some of that fuel.
Mr. Holly. So our county, on both sides, we have some of
the State responsibility area, which is we have fire districts
that partner with CAL FIRE. They have a very robust system and
a program for mitigation of the fuels. A lot of it has to do
with annually going in and taking down some of the new growth
that comes up where you can have some high fire-prone areas.
And the center portion of our county is where most of our
rural agricultural areas are. We do have some issues with weed
abatement throughout the year and the staffing of those
voluntary agencies and getting people out to actually make
contact with those agencies. It is a struggle every year, and
we have seen that, you know, with the building codes that we
have had and the new resolutions in California for the
defensible space, it has helped. But there still needs to be
more done with the public education portion of it, I believe.
Mr. Denham. Thank you. And Mr. Ghilarducci, I've
appreciated the opportunity to work with you on some of these
disasters and the quick response that we've seen from the
Governor's team. One of the big questions that continues to
come up as we are trying to rebuild major infrastructure,
especially in the north part of the State where we've had a
number of conversations about how do you get trucks in and out,
debris in and out, how do you fix the bridges in a very, very
quick fashion, we passed the NEPA Reciprocity Act, which not
only allows for quick environmental review but allows us to
streamline the process.
Now California has the opportunity to apply for section
1309 under the FAST Act. The question is will your department
and the Governor take advantage of that and move to quickly
expedite those projects?
Mr. Ghilarducci. That's a good question. Thank you,
Congressman. I think that the section 1309 is in the area that
we are looking at, and we will leverage and maximize it to the
advantage of the community. You know, the debris operation in
the case of the North Bay fires really was an unprecedented
event.
You know, today, we've moved over 1.6 million tons of
debris. In context, that's two Golden Gate Bridges, if you can
get a sense of how much debris that is. And we've done that all
in a period of about 5 months, which is an unprecedented work
pace in addition to the work that we're doing in southern
California. And the idea is to be able to get those communities
as clean and clear as possible so that the rebuilding can start
but not just rebuilding starting in those areas. Have a very
serious policy discussion.
Mr. Denham. Let me just--I have only got a little bit of
time left. Let me be succinct about this. NEPA Reciprocity Act
right now has a 2-year review process. We'd like to shrink that
down to 180 days. We'd like to see if the Governor is going to
be supportive of that, especially, you know, we see the
Governor as supportive of waiving CEQA [California
Environmental Quality Act] for football fields and, you know,
we saw Pac Bell Park by a previous Governor. We waive CEQA all
the time. I would think it would be very important to
streamline NEPA/CEQA in the case of communities that have been
devastated and we want to rebuild real quick.
Mr. Ghilarducci. Yes.
Mr. Denham. So it should be a very simple answer, and I
would hope the Governor would work with us on changing that.
Mr. Ghilarducci. We are looking at that----
Mr. Denham. Thank you.
Mr. Ghilarducci [continuing]. Congressman.
Mr. Denham. Yield back.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you. Now recognize Mr. Huffman.
Mr. Huffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And as I look at this
panel, I see this great team of firefighters, local government,
Cal OES and FEMA. And this is part of the story that I think we
can celebrate as a success despite the tragedy that visited our
communities. I saw many of these folks every single day during
the worst of the wildfires. They work together seamlessly. The
resources that were mobilized from around the Western United
States with firefighters streaming in prison crews from
neighboring States were impressive. There is a lot about this
system that actually does work, and we are grateful for that,
and we learned it firsthand.
But a lot of our--when we talk about how we can do better
going forward, we do need to continue this focus on predisaster
strategies. And so I want to ask our witnesses about that. And
Supervisor Gorin, you did touch on the Emergency Alert System
and warnings. We saw a lot of folks who lost their lives,
unfortunately, in our region. And many of those were vulnerable
populations, many elderly who didn't get word or even, in some
cases, were trying to get out but couldn't. The power was out.
They couldn't open their garage doors, and we saw folks who
lost their lives in their cars, in their garages.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on predisaster planning and
strategies that can help us with the evacuation of vulnerable
populations. And then, also, on the telecommunications piece of
this, we've seen, after these disasters--you know, we can set
up wireless hotspots, mobile cell sites, charging stations, all
these things that help, but what can we do to have a more
robust system proactively in advance of these things?
Ms. Gorin. This is a very astute question because that is
exactly what led to the number of houses lost and the number of
lives lost. We are looking at redundant and robust alert
systems in the future using, perhaps, the Lake Tahoe system of
very tall poles with cameras on it. We could have seen the
arcing of the wires and the flash of the fires in Napa County
when they first started. And we could have brought in air
resources to suppress those fires at the very beginning. And
this is what many counties were able to accomplish.
But the erratic winds that we experience drove those fires
so fast and so furiously, quite frankly, the cloud cover was so
thick that we couldn't get in. Hopefully I am describing this
correctly. We couldn't get in the air support to suppress the
fires. So we absolutely need the lidar and the smoke-
penetrating devices to know where the fires are and how to
suppress them.
But the alert system, we know of many people who lost their
lives because they were hearing-impaired. They took out their
hearing aids during the night of the fire. A neighbor knocked
on their door but they didn't respond. And so we not only need
to acknowledge the rapid acknowledgment of a fire and bringing
the resources to suppress that initially, and in many different
locations because we had many fires breaking out in Sonoma
County all on the night of the firestorm and then merging into
two enormous fires as they went through the county over the
next 2 weeks. We need to make sure that those alert systems--
and thank you for your work on the alert systems and the
wireless alert systems.
Some of the firefighters were so frustrated, we lost cell
towers, landlines. They were ready to throw their cell phones
in the fires because they could not communicate. So we need to
make sure that our vulnerable populations also have the benefit
of those alert systems. And just one other factoid: the Sonoma
County assessor has determined that, thus far, 5,100 homes were
damaged or destroyed in the fire in Sonoma County, a total loss
of $1.6 billion of assessed value.
I am missing a very important budget meeting today. We're
grappling with a budget deficit in the tens of millions of
dollars for the next couple of years because of our expenses
and unreimbursed expenses. So anything that you can do to help
not only the cities, the counties, you are absolutely right. We
are working together but all of the special districts put
together, including the fire districts. Thank you.
Mr. Huffman. Thank you, Sue. But I am just about out of
time, but I wanted to give Administrator Fenton a chance to
agree with me, if he does, that the Emergency Management
Performance Grant Program is a great way for FEMA to support
communities like Sonoma County that are working on strategies
to quickly evacuate vulnerable populations.
Mr. Fenton. Yes, I definitely agree. Also, I think moving
more funds upfront, as I talked about earlier, will help us
even before disasters to build in resiliency to communities and
specifically on the IPAWS [Integrated Public Alert and Warning
System] and being able to do alert and warnings and
communication infrastructure, all which is critical to provide
people timely information to evacuate when necessary. All those
things and resources could be resolved by better planning,
building better redundancy and hardening infrastructure prior
to events.
Mr. Huffman. Great.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you. Next, I'd like to recognize Ms.
Brownley.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it and
appreciate you allowing me to be here for this committee
hearing. The first thing that I want to say is just a
heartfelt, deep, deep, deep appreciation and gratitude to the
first responders and firefighters who came to Ventura County as
we were fighting this raging, raging fire. It was really
unbelievable to see it and to be there. And I just can't tell
you, on behalf of all the residents of my community, they are
so very, very grateful.
And everyone that I speak to, even those who lost their
homes, their response is always, ``But we're lucky we're alive.
My neighbors are alive.'' And certainly in the city of Ventura
where a lot of the damage occurred, people have lived in that
community for 20 and 30 years. And so they weren't only
concerned about themselves. They were concerned about all of
their neighbors as well. So I just can't overemphasize the deep
gratitude my community has for all of the first responders.
And I will just say that we had--at the height of the
firefighting operation, we had 8,500 firefighters there from
across the Nation, 987 engines, 27 helicopters, 58 water
tenders, 153 handcrews, 80 dozers and firefighters came from
Oregon, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico,
Nevada, Colorado, and Utah. And I think the thing that
impressed me the most was the fact that I know there is a
system in place for firefighters nationwide when a disaster
occurs. Everyone rallies.
But the fact that, at the end of the day, this is really,
truly a volunteer operation. And the fact that everyone came to
our calling was just amazing, and it has really impressed upon
my community and the county just how grateful they are and how
deep their appreciation truly, truly is.
And I also want to thank FEMA and Cal OES because you were
there immediately and took charge. And your swift response was
just overwhelming. And, again, as we are recovering from the
disaster, the community is overwhelmingly grateful to you and
understands your response to the community, how quickly we have
been able to clean up the debris.
Obviously, there is a long road ahead in terms of recovery.
But we are extraordinarily grateful. And I think, Ms. Gorin,
your description in your own community in Sonoma is exactly the
same description that I can say in both Ventura County and
Santa Barbara County so thank you for that. We had a
fundraising event a couple of weeks ago here in Washington for
the Thomas fire. And the Friday before that, we had had 70-
mile-an-hour winds here in Washington, DC.
And I was able to say to all of those--because everyone
that was there was from Washington, DC, or the surrounding
area. And I said, ``Imagine severe drought conditions and
striking a match with 70-mile-an-hour winds.'' And that's
exactly what happened in the Thomas fires in Ventura County.
And I tell you the whole room just sort of gasped. So, thank
you.
I wanted to ask Mr. Ghilarducci. So in terms of--do you
have an idea, an update, on the status of California's
reimbursement requests to FEMA for the firefighting and an
estimate of what you think the future costs will be?
Mr. Ghilarducci. Yes, good question. We do have--well, the
update on the firefighting costs and what we call the emergency
protective measures has been being processed. And many of those
fire agencies have already been reimbursed. I am happy to say
that FEMA has, you know, agreed to provide 100 percent of
reimbursement for firefighting costs or those costs for
protective measures.
And it is a varying level on different kinds of projects
that we are working on. I was also excited to note--and much of
the work of this body being able to successfully get 90 percent
for debris clearance. And that was a huge benefit to the
communities. And we appreciate FEMA's engagement with all that.
Ms. Brownley. Well, thank you for that. And I, too, wanted
to just underscore in terms of my opinion how important
predisaster and post-disaster mitigation truly is. And when
Governor Brown came to Ventura to oversee the disaster that had
occurred there, when he spoke, he said, ``Unfortunately, these
fires are the new normal for California.'' And so I concur with
that statement, and I think it is critically important that we
invest more of our resources in that predisaster mitigation but
also the post-disaster because, today, we are expecting heavy
rains again in Ventura County and are evacuating people as we
speak. And so that needs to be addressed. I see that my time is
up but I thank you----
Mr. Ferguson. The gentlewoman's time--
Ms. Brownley [continuing]. For your indulgence, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Ferguson. Thank you.
Next, Ms. Plaskett, you are recognized.
Ms. Plaskett. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you,
Ranking Member. First, of course, like so many of my
colleagues, I want to extend my thanks to you for the work that
you do, not just in this last horrendous wildfire that we dealt
with but all throughout the year and all the time you all are
prepared and ready to serve the people of this country.
And for that, we are most grateful that you extend not just
yourselves but your families and your lives to support us and
to help us. And we're all really grateful for that. You know, I
think this is very interesting because the other committee that
I am on is the House Agriculture Committee, which has purview
over the U.S. Forest Service. In October, we reported out a
bill that is subsequently adopted by the House in November, the
Resilient Federal Forests Act. So you are probably familiar
with it.
Mr. Fenton, one of the things this bill would do is to
change the way wildfire fighting efforts are funded, ending a
process called the borrowing by allowing now Federal agencies
to tap into disaster funds from FEMA when wildfire suppression
budgets have been exhausted. I understand that one of the
concerns with this approach--and I am wondering if you share
this concern--is that since funding requests for the Disaster
Relief Fund are based on a 10-year average of costs, fires
could--don't kill me for the pun--burn through the fund right
away, and there may not be enough left for other disasters,
such as tsunamis or earthquakes or hurricanes that have
occurred most recently. In your view, would the way this
approach works fix the issue that had been in the past, and do
you share concerns that this would end up being less money for
other disasters, and how would you fix this?
Mr. Fenton. Well, so let me start with right now underneath
the Stafford Act. We pay firefighting costs for all fires on
State and local land.
Ms. Plaskett. Mm-hmm.
Mr. Fenton. And so all the costs for the northern
California fires and a good portion of the costs for the
southern California fires that were on State and local land,
including all the firefighting resources regardless of local,
State or Federal, that fought those fires on those lands, we
are reimbursing those costs right now. So what you're talking
about specifically, fires on Federal lands and to fight those
fires on Federal lands, the Stafford Act was focused on helping
State and local governments during events. So it would be a
change from that.
And to further complicate it, as you pointed out,
underneath the Budget Control Act, based on the 10-year history
and the amount of funding that it would take to fight those
fires on Federal lands, it wouldn't leave sufficient funding.
And we'd probably be coming and asking for supplementals every
month, especially if you got later into the fiscal year.
So we need to look for a way to do that outside of tapping
into the Stafford Act. I think the Stafford Act has been pretty
clearly, up until now, focused on supporting State and local
governments. And I think that should be the continued priority,
and we should look at something outside of the Stafford Act to
support the U.S. Forest Service and their requirements.
Ms. Plaskett. But, now, you haven't said whether or not you
agree with being able to tap into the FEMA funding in other
areas is going to be beneficial for fighting fires or from--if
you're putting on your hat from, you know, when you were
directing FEMA, is this a concern that you would have with
knowing that there may--we're talking care of firefighters from
our supplemental right now, but that means we're going to have
to tap into other funds elsewhere and not knowing if Congress
is going to be willing to give you those supplements and to the
amount that you need.
Mr. Fenton. Right. So I am not sure I fully understand your
question but I think it's--if we tap into the Stafford Act-
specific funds, it's underneath the 10-year average. It's kind
of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Ms. Plaskett. Right.
Mr. Fenton. And, therefore, we have to look for another
way. And we would be happy to sit down and have a discussion.
And I know Administrator Brock Long has done that and would be
happy to entertain the discussions of looking for other ways to
meet those requirements on Federal land.
Ms. Plaskett. Have you talked about lifting the cap on the
amount of funding that would be there?
Mr. Fenton. Well, my understanding is the cap is from
sequestration and it's a cap imposed.
Ms. Plaskett. You're not supposed to say the word
``sequestration'' around here.
Mr. Fenton. Oh, I am sorry. So it's a--learn something
every day. It's a--so the cap, as I understand it, is an
imposed cap.
Ms. Plaskett. Right.
Mr. Fenton. Let me change my word here.
Ms. Plaskett. It's just a dirty word, isn't it?
Mr. Fenton. Yes, it's an imposed cap that would take a
change in order for that to be lifted. So it's something that
we couldn't internally do on our own.
Ms. Plaskett. OK. Thank you. My time is expired. I yield
back.
Mr. Ferguson. OK. Thank you.
And seeing that we've got--do you have any more?
Mr. Garamendi has gone. OK. As said before, I'd reserve my
time to ask a few questions here at the end. And I am going to
kind of focus at the local level with these. First, Chief
Jenkins, you kind of view things from a national level. We've
heard about the disasters in California today but certainly
wildfires occur in other areas of the country as well.
Give me a little bit of an idea about if you were going to
design a program for mitigation, pre-fire mitigation, what
would be the flexibility that you would need to be able to
address, say, the concerns in California and the concerns in
Georgia or western Pennsylvania or even in Arkansas? What are
the things that you think local communities and local fire
districts would need?
Mr. Jenkins. Well, I think the most important attribute of
any effort to make our communities not only more responsive to
impending disasters, specifically wildfires, but also more
resilient is that we have to be able to provide them in a
framework to make it function.
And at the same time, we have to understand that at the
local level, we have to be able to provide some artistic
freedom for the uniqueness of the topography and sometimes the
vulnerability of those populations at a local level. And so I
think if we were to do something like that, we have to be able
to harness an opportunity to work collaboratively with national
best practices and also input from local fire and emergency
management leadership.
Mr. Ferguson. OK. Mr. Holly, I was interested in the
conversation about removing fuel from the surrounding areas. In
Georgia, we do a lot of controlled burns. Every 3 years, you go
through and manage the forest that way, make sure that they are
harvested correctly. Is that something that's done? And I am
just--this is for my own knowledge. Is that something that was
done in this area, or is that not something that you can do
because of the topography? Give me an idea of what that's like.
Mr. Holly. I can't speak to the Federal and to the State
lands. They do controlled burns in their areas. My particular
county is in the valley. We have a lot of air control issues,
air quality control issues. And with that, it's very specific
times of year that we can or cannot do some controlled burns on
the agricultural side. But in some of the areas that are more
fire-prone, it's difficult just because of the topography of
our area.
Mr. Ferguson. And so you have to go in and manually clear
that? When you say that you remove debris----
Mr. Holly. Correct. In the areas that butt up against
cities and towns, the property owners are responsible for
clearing that. Sometimes it's difficult to find those property
owners. They are from out of the area, or there has been issues
where somebody has passed away, and we don't know who the
right, full property owner is and trying to find someone to
clean that, or we can go in and force-clean that. But then that
becomes--the cost is borne by the district itself, and that can
be very expensive, especially for smaller districts.
Mr. Ferguson. OK. Supervisor Gorin, you talked about the
need, you know, lessons learned. You've kind of seen what's
happened and wishing that you had the, as you said, the taller
poles and the cameras that are looking out. From your
perspective at the local level, knowing what you know now,
besides the technology, what would you have done from the
physical standpoint of protecting the community? What do you
think would have been advantageous and knowing what you know
now, looking at other communities, what do you think that that
should look like?
Ms. Gorin. I really appreciate your astute questions,
especially regarding how a community can prepare themselves.
And vegetation management is something that we are really
focusing on. We love our trees, especially me, but those
eucalyptus trees that bordered my property are gone. I did work
with a mountain community and a volunteer fire company on
vegetation management using a chipper program and our Youth
Ecology Corps that we hire at-risk youth to work with property
owners to cut down the excess fuel, bring the chippers along on
the roads, chip it up.
The fire agencies are not exactly thrilled with chipping
because woodchips do burn, but I checked back with the board
president of Mayacamas. She said we lost one out of three
homes. If we had not engaged in this active vegetation
management, we would have lost maybe all or most of those homes
so they are grateful for that kind of program. Also----
Mr. Ferguson. I am about to run out of time and if I----
Ms. Gorin. Yes.
Mr. Ferguson [continuing]. Could--because I've got one
other question.
Ms. Gorin. Good.
Mr. Ferguson. Physical firebreaks and fire roads, is that
something that is normal practice, and do you maintain those
firebreaks?
[Nonverbal response.]
Mr. Ferguson. OK. Because it's--again, me trying to
understand just the severity of what these communities went
through, it sounds like you are doing a lot of the right
things. You are managing the firebreaks. You are removing the
vegetation. You are doing those kind of things.
Was this just such a unique event with the 70-mile-an-hour
winds because it seems like some of the mitigation things were
done correctly and you were being active in doing that? I make
that observation that, you know, I want everybody to know that
you all have been doing some of the pre-event mitigation work.
And yet this was such an unusual set of circumstances with the
drought and the high winds that it was just something that--it
quite candidly was greater than something that we could have
prepared for in many ways. Yes?
Mr. Ghilarducci. You are absolutely correct. The challenge
that we face, though, is that these unique events are becoming
more regular events and that's the delta that we're facing as
public safety and the fire service and how do we address that.
And part of that is how is local land-use planning done now
where you have the Wildland Urban Interface intermix and how
best can we look at preexisting fire conditions through
situational mapping and forecasting to be able to better
identify where those hazard mitigation efforts could take
place.
Mr. Ferguson. OK. Well, thank you.
I want to thank each of you for your testimony. I want to
thank you for taking time to come across the Nation and share
with us your perspective, your expertise, and your knowledge.
So if there are no further questions, I would ask unanimous
consent for the record that the record remain open for 15 days
for any additional comments/information to be submitted by
Members or witnesses, included in the record of today's
hearing, and, by unanimous consent, that the record of today's
hearing remain open until such time as our witnesses have
provided answers to any questions that may be submitted to them
in writing.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Again, I'd like to thank each of you for your testimony and
your time today. If no other Members have anything to add, the
subcommittee will stand adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 12:05 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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