El nino
November 12, 2015
Announcements and Reminders
Rotarian of the week is Stan Abraham.
RotarAct (for college age students) announced two fund raisers: (1) to employ college students to do things you don’t want (2) mentorship mixer coming up this Saturday.
Tim and Al will be at Aptos High School tomorrow (Friday) from 9:00 to 10:30 to talk to the students. You are invited to come.
Chamber of Commerce tree lighting will be Dec 5th. They are asking for donations for a string of 60-80 LED lights.
December 5th is the lighted boat parade at the yacht harbor and Kelly is in charge.
Our local supervisor from the second district, Zach Friend, spoke to us today about emergency preparedness in the case of El Nino. Camilla Boolootian from the Red Cross was also available for questions and information.
The amount of rainfall should compare to the 82-83 winter. November should be normal, but December – March, 220% of normal is expected. There could be blocked roads, slides and downed power lines. Public works has been going throughout the county to clear out culverts and pipes. Let them know if you have one in your neighborhood (831)454-2160. They’ve also been doing street sweeping to keep grates cleared.
Story
Our local supervisor from the second district, Zach Friend, spoke to us today about emergency preparedness in the case of El Nino. Camilla Boolootian from the Red Cross was also available for questions and information.
The amount of rainfall should compare to the 82-83 winter. November should be normal, but December – March, 220% of normal is expected. There could be blocked roads, slides and downed power lines. Public works has been going throughout the county to clear out culverts and pipes. Let them know if you have one in your neighborhood (831)454-2160. They’ve also been doing street sweeping to keep grates cleared.
The county has developed a website specifically for El Nino preparedness (www.santcruzcounty.us/ elnino). You can sign up for alerts from the 911 center to be texted in case of emergency. In addition there is a mobile app for smart phones to report road hazards etc. Sandbags will be available for free at Aptos Chamber of Commerce and Capitola Fire Dept.
Expect flooding from Pajaro River (It has lowest level of flood protection of anywhere in the state). Supervisor Friend is looking into funding for a whole new levy project. There are evacuation plans in place and food maps are posted on the county website. Follow tsunami evacuation signs to get away from flood. Dead trees will need to be removed by public works. Rake out drains yourself if you can.
Camilla spoke about preparing a personal emergency kit. Make sure you have medications, communication with loved ones (like knowing where to meet), food, water etc. Make sure you have an emergency kit at home, in your car and at work. She also said to make sure to heed the alerts, check on neighbors and have flood insurance and renters insurance which are key to recovery. She handed out some materials. Red Cross.org has every imaginable emergency covered with preparedness checklists. They also have classes available.
There was a lively question and answer period where many people reported problems of potential problems in their area.