Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Landers-Big Bear earthquakes. Still consider to be two of the strongest earthquakes ever to strike the southern California desert area and the biggest since the 1906 San Francisco quake. However, the quakes were not the deadliest.
The magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake struck in the San Bernardino County desert east of Los Angeles shortly before 5 a.m. on June 28, 1992. Three hours later a magnitude-6.5 quake struck near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Between the two quakes, 400 people were injured and $91 million in damages were suffered. The physical damage was also significant. The quakes triggered landslides that wiped out roads and opened a 44-mile-long rupture in the earth.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, in conjunction with Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, produced a series of public service announcements to remind people just how dangerous backyard pools can be. On June 16th, 2017, the agencies held a media event poolside at California Family Fitness in Rancho Cordova to officially launch the PSAs.
Below are all six version of the PSA — three in English, and the same three in Spanish.
In this episode we travel to South Lake Tahoe to talk with Chief Tim Alameda of the Lake Valley Fire District. We caught up with him days before they commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Angora Fire.
According to an article in the Lake Tahoe News published September 13, 2016 Chief “Alameda was a division chief and the fire marshal for North Tahoe Fire Protection District prior to joining the LVFD in 2016. Alameda got his start as a firefighter reserve in Meyers in the 1980s. At that time is was a joint program between Lake Valley and South Lake Tahoe fire departments. Starting in 1984 he spent 27 years with Reno Fire Department. He went from a rank and file firefighter to the chief.
Chief Tim Alameda | Lake Valley Fire District
In 2011, Alameda retired from Reno. North Tahoe recruited him to be a fire marshal. He took this job seriously – spending many a day walking around his jurisdiction, into businesses and talking to people. He was seeing where the hazards were, listened to concerns and helped educate people. He rose to division chief and then took over Meeks Bay. Those in the fire community call Alameda a true professional, forward thinker and good with personnel. Until the ink is dry, people were hesitant to go on the record about Alameda. The same goes for his current boss, Mike Schwartz. Wildland fires are something Alameda is well aware of. He was president in 2015 of the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Chief’s Association. The wildland urban interface is a constant issue for fire agencies when it comes to protecting the community from a blaze that starts in the forest. While he didn’t lose a structure during the Angora Fire, a house he and his dad built on Boulder Mountain was destroyed. Those 254 houses that burned in 2007 were part of that wildland urban interface. As a kid, he spent many summer days fishing at Angora Lakes or hunting grouse in the area.” To read the entire article click here.
California is now home to an estimated 102 million dead trees, a number shocking to even the most trained eyes.
“We’ve never experienced anything like this in California,” said Jeffrey Moore, an 18 year veteran of the US Forest Service.
“I never thought there would be a drought to this extent,” Moore said. “This drought has really pushed them over the edge and now the bark beetle population is taking advantage of trees that have been weakened by these multiple years of drought and just finishing them off.”
Moore and his team from the US Forest Service are spending the Summer crisscrossing the state doing tree mortality surveys from the air. What they are seeing is large areas where dead trees outnumber live ones.
“Probably 70 to 80 percent of the whole mortality situation last year was mapped in … continue reading »
Record snowfall in the higher elevations this past season is melting and as a result rivers around California are flowing faster, harder and colder than they ever have. Many of these rivers run through national forests, and that’s where rangers are asking visitors to be very careful, especially after recent deaths. Danger lurks and could lead to tragedy should you and your family let down your guard.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Regional Administrator Michael Vallante of the U.S. Small Business Administration announced today that SBA has approved more than $10 million in federal disaster loans for California businesses and residents impacted by severe storms and flooding that occurred Feb. 1-25, 2017. According to Vallante, SBA has approved $4,738,800 for businesses and $5,283,300 for residents to help rebuild and recover from this disaster.
“Although the deadline to apply for property damage loans has expired, small businesses and most private nonprofit organizations of any size may continue to apply for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster. Economic injury assistance is available regardless of whether the business or nonprofit organization suffered any property damage,” Vallante said.
The interest rate is 3.15 percent for businesses and 2.5 percent for private nonprofit organizations … continue reading »
Today was the first meeting of the California Earthquake Early Warning Advisory Board at the State Capitol. The board consists of leaders from the state agencies, academia, private and public industry, as well as other subject matter experts. Watch the Cal OES Quick Look video below for more on how the inaugural meeting went.
The board was formed after the Governor approved $10 million last year to increase financial support to the state’s seismic network, which consists of researching when and where earthquakes occur in California. This governance structure serves as a venue for public input on development of the system, as well as oversees implementation of California’s Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) program and provides insight.
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