HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 6a. 2022-23 Storms After-Action Report & Post-Incident Action Plan Item 6a
Department: Fire
Cost Center: 8599 – Emergency Management
For Agenda of: 8/15/2023
Placement: Business
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
FROM: Todd Tuggle, Fire Chief
Prepared By: James Blattler, Emergency Manager
SUBJECT: 2022-23 STORMS AFTER-ACTION REPORT AND POST-INCIDENT
ACTION PLAN
RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file the 2022-2023 Storms After-Action Report and Post-Incident
Improvement Plan.
POLICY CONTEXT
Per California Code of Regulations, Title 19, § 2450, any city, city and county, or county
declaring a local emergency for which the governor proclaims a state of emergency, and
any state agency responding to that emergency shall complete and transmit an after-
action report to Cal OES.
DISCUSSION
In addition to California Code of Regulations requirements, it is best practice within
emergency management to complete an after-action report and associated improvement
plan with every Emergency Operations Center (EOC) activation. This allows for both
successes and challenges to be highlighted and evaluated, which can either be continued
or improved for future activations. The City of San Luis Obispo 2022-23 Storm After-
Action Report & Post-Incident Improvement Plan (Attachment A) was completed in June
2023 and transmitted to Cal OES, as required, and to the San Luis Obispo County Office
of Emergency Services, who act as the county’s operational area coordinator. This report
and plan are specific to the late December and January storms. A separate report will be
created for the late February and March storms at a future date.
Background
The after-action report and improvement plan were developed to capture City response
actions and identify preparedness, response, and recovery actions to improve the City’s
ability to manage future flood events and EOC activations. The report and improvement
plan are not intended to judge success or failures , but rather to identify and assess
processes that can be improved for future emergencies.
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Item 6b
The report and improvement plan were developed internally by the City’s Emergency
Management Division under the Fire Department through the collection of internal and
external feedback and observations provided through a variety of methods. The feedback
collection process began in mid-January to ensure key events and observations were not
lost due to time. Feedback was collected through individual conversations, department -
compiled reports, emails, a City-wide survey, partner agency outreach, and a
comprehensive debrief with the City’s leadership team held on April 25, 2023.
The information provided through the report and improvement plan are not intended to
include specific field-level actions, but rather high-level incident management and
activities through the City’s EOC and Public Works Department Operations Center
(DOC). Department-specific field after-action reviews were recommended to be
completed internally by all departments.
After-Action Report Highlights
Overall, the feedback and observed activity showed that the City was effective in
responding to and managing the impacts related to the series of winter storms
encountered between the incident period of December 27, 2022, to January 31, 2023.
Much of this success can likely be attributed to City investments in an effective policy and
operational structure and support of training and investment into preparedness activities
leading up to the incident period, recent experience managing the COVID-19 emergency,
and inter-agency relationships. Council’s coordination with operational staff in
highlighting key information and timely relaying community concerns was also critical.
While the report highlights these successes, many areas of improvement were identified,
which will improve the City’s performance during future events. The primary areas of
improvement identified included communications, facilities, technology, and planning
processes.
Post-Incident Improvement Plan
While the goal of the after-action report is to identify the successes and challenges that
occurred during the incident, the improvement plan is used to create actions items out of
the report’s findings. The improvement plan will be used to assist staff in planning,
executing, and tracking action items moving forward. Each item was assigned a delivery
timeframe, resource needs and priority level. Out of the 27 action items in the
improvement plan, eight (8) were identified as high priority, fifteen (15) as medium priority,
and four (4) as low priority. While most of the items only require staff time, some may
require operating budget dollars, or capital improvement funding. Any action items that
require funding outside of the City’s appropriated operating budgets will be added for
consideration for future budgets or through external funding opportunities , such as grants.
Previous Council or Advisory Body Action
On January 10, 2023 City Council confirmed approval of the Emergency Services
Director’s proclamation of existence of a local emergency issued on January 9, 2023.
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Item 6b
Public Engagement
This item is on the agenda for the August 15, 2023, City Council meeting and will follow
all required postings and notifications. The public will have an opportunity to comment on
this item at or before the meeting.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The California Environmental Quality Act does not apply to the recommended action in this report,
because the action does not constitute a “Project” under CEQA Guidelines Sec. 15378.
FISCAL IMPACT
Budgeted: No Budget Year: 2022-23
Funding Identified: No
Fiscal Analysis:
Funding
Sources
Total Budget
Available
Current
Funding
Request
Remaining
Balance
Annual
Ongoing
Cost
General Fund $ $0 $ $
State
Federal
Fees
Other:
Total $ $0 $ $
There are no financial impacts associated with the recommendation to receive and file
the report and improvement plan. Any costs associated with implementing the
improvement plan will fall under currently appropriated operating budgets or put for
council consideration for future budget or grant opportunities.
ALTERNATIVES
Council could decide not to receive and file the 2022-2023 Storms After-Action
Report and Post-Incident Improvement Plan. This action is not recommended by staff
because the report and improvement plan codify important learning lessons for current
and future staff and are used to enhance the City’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and
recover from future emergencies and disasters.
ATTACHMENTS
A - 2022-2023 Storms After-Action Report and Post-Incident Improvement Plan
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CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
2022-23 STORMS AFTER -ACTION REPORT
& POST -INCIDENT IMPROVEMENT PLAN
FEMA -4683-DR-CA / CDAA 2023 -01
INCIDENT PERIOD: DECEMBER 27, 2022 - JANAUARY 31, 2023
Derek Johnson
City Manager / Emergency Services Director
Todd Tuggle
Fire Chief
James Blattler
Emergency Manager
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CONTENTS
I. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Report and Action Plan Summary .............................................................................................................................. 3
Report Highlights ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
II.Report development process & report limitations ............................................................................................... 5
Feedback Process ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
Report Methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Report & improvement Plan Limitations ................................................................................................................... 5
III.Summary of Events & Response Activities ............................................................................................................ 6
Weather and Incident Summary ................................................................................................................................ 6
Response Activities Summary .................................................................................................................................... 7
Activated Emergency Plans & Procedures ............................................................................................................... 11
Recovery Activites To Date ...................................................................................................................................... 12
IV.Strengths and Challenges Assessment ................................................................................................................ 13
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) ....................................................................................................................... 13
Public Works Department Operations Center (DOC) .............................................................................................. 15
Internal and External Communications ................................................................................................................... 16
External Agency Coordination ................................................................................................................................. 18
Relevent Plans ......................................................................................................................................................... 20
Training .................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Recovery .................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Incident-Specific Actions ......................................................................................................................................... 23
V. Application of the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) & National Incident Management
System (NIMS) ............................................................................................................................................................. 25
California Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) ......................................................................... 25
National Incident Management System .................................................................................................................. 25
VI.Report Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 27
VII.Post-Incident improvement Plan ........................................................................................................................ 28
VIII.Report References & Resources ......................................................................................................................... 31
Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................................. 31
Referenced and supporting resources ..................................................................................................................... 31
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I. EXECUTIVE S UMMARY
REPORT AND ACTION PLAN SUMMARY
The City of San Luis Obispo 2022-23 Storm After-Action Report & Post-Incident Improvement Plan have
been developed to capture city response actions and identify preparedness, response, and recovery
actions to improve the City’s ability to manage future flood events and Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) activations. The Report and Improvement Plan are not intended to judge success or failures but
rather identify and assess processes that can be improved for future emergencies.
The Report and Improvement Plan were developed internally by the City’s Emergency Management
Division under the Fire Department through the collection of internal and external feedback and
observations provided to the Emergency Manager through a variety of methods and mediums.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
Overall, the feedback and observed activity showed that the city was effective in responding to and
managing the impacts related to the series of winter storms encountered between December 27, 2022,
and January 31, 2023. Much of this success can likely be attributed to (1) the City’s top-leadership support
of training and investment into preparedness activities leading up to the incident period, (2) recent
experience managing the COVID-19 emergency, and (3) inter-agency relationships. While this report
highlights these successes, many areas of improvement were identified, which will improve the City’s
performance during future events. The primary areas of improvement identified included
communications, facilities, technology, and planning processes.
• Internal communications improvements likely would have resulted in more timely and complete
external communications, increased support to the Public Works Department Operation Center
(DOC), and overall improved efficiency within the Emergency Operations Center and general City
operations.
• The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has both space and technology limitations that impacted
operational efficiencies. While the space challenges are more difficult to overcome in the short
term, leveraging existing City software platforms can help alleviate some current limitations.
• Earlier integrations of a Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) specialist into the DOC would have
likely improved the EOC’s situational status awareness and the external facing City website
dashboard featuring road closures and storm impacts.
• The relocation of the DOC from the Corporation Yard to the Ludwick Center caused some
operational impacts.
• Overall, partner agency feedback was very positive with potential improvements in the
accessibility of current road closure and storm impact information.
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• Proactive early alerting and outreach to homeless community members living in and near the
creeks potentially saved lives.
• Strengthening the connection between pre-planned shelter locations, the city, Red Cross, and
County OES likely would have resulted in faster activation of shelters for evacuees.
• Improved floodgate program awareness and outreach efforts can improve the number of
floodgate deployments for future events.
• The City highly relied upon non-profits to meet sheltering needs of unhoused community
members.
• Rapidly conducting initial damage estimates utilizing mobile GIS technology assisted in the
recovery efforts of both public and individual needs, however earlier integration and review of
senior engineering staff may have improved the accuracy of damage estimates which increased
over time.
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II. R EPORT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS & REPORT LIMITATIONS
F EEDBACK P ROCESS
Internal and external feedback used to inform this report was gathered through a variety of methods. The
feedback collection process began in mid-January to ensure key events and observations were not lost
due to time. Feedback was collected through individual conversations, department-compiled reports,
emails, a City-wide survey, partner agency outreach, and a comprehensive debrief with the City’s
leadership team that was held on April 25, 2023.
R EPORT M ETHODOLOGY
The information provided through this report and subsequent action plan are not intended to include
specific field-level actions, but rather high-level incident management and activities through the City’s
Emergency Operations Center and Public Works Department Operations Center. Department-specific
field after-action reviews were recommended to be completed internally by all departments.
R EPORT & IMPROVEMENT P LAN L IMITATIONS
While a comprehensive attempt was made to gather feedback from both internal and external
stakeholders, it is inherent that not all useful feedback was gathered through the input process. Without
a complete evaluation from all response personnel and cooperating partner agencies, the report has
limitations in its ability to identify all areas of success and challenges. Additionally, not all incident-related
improvements will have been captured by this report as City staff members made quick, individual
adaptations during their response.
It is also expected that additional challenges and resource restrictions will be encountered while
implementing the Post-Incident Improvement Plan recommendations. Staff will work to identify and
overcome these challenges within the available resources and leverage available external resources to
complete the Improvement Plan as they become available.
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III. S UMMARY OF E VENTS & R ESPONSE A CTIVITIES
W EATHER AND I NCIDENT S UMMARY
A series of winter storms that occurred between the period of December 27, 2022, and January 31, 2023,
resulted in significant flooding and other storm-related impacts City-wide. These impacts peaked on
January 9th when parts of San Luis Obispo received over 6” of rain over 24-hours, most of which fell within
the first 12 hours of the day. The impacts of this rainfall were exacerbated by previous rain events during
the period, which oversaturated the ground and led to widespread flooding. Estimated to be a 25-year
flood event and was the worst flooding observed in San Luis Obispo since the winters of 1995 and 1998.
High winds with the winter storms also created impacts due to downed trees which fell on the City rights-
of-way, private property, and into the creek system. Creek flows transported debris to collection points
such as culverts and bridges and resulted in blockages at various points throughout the city.
This section summarizes the four distinct weather periods and resulting impacts during the entire incident
period between December 27 and January 31.
RAIN AND CREEK LEVEL DATA
Rainfall increment and accumulation, and creek level data were pulled from the County of San Luis Obispo
Public Works Department Water Resources Division website.
The rainfall totals referenced below are an average between the three local rain gauge monitoring sites,
(1) the “Gas Company” near Broad St. and Industrial Way, (2) “Camp San Luis” located North of the city
limits, and “SLO Reservoir – P” located North of Highway 101, Northeast of the City limits.
The creek levels mentioned in this report will use two locations of reference, the “Marsh Street Bridge”
near the intersection of Marsh St and S Higuera St. and “Madonna Road” where laguna lake outflows into
Prefumo Creek underneath Madonna Rd. While flooding was observed in many locations throughout the
city, these are the primary areas where flooding most significantly impacted residents and businesses.
DECEMBER 27 – JANUARY 7
Over the 12-days between December 27 and January 8 parts of San Luis Obispo received over 6” of rain
that was delivered over a series of storms. While the creek systems were able to convey the amount of
rainfall during this period without reaching flood stages, this recurring rainfall led to significant ground
saturation leading up to the January 9 weather event. Additionally, these series of storms also brought
high winds which resulted in fallen trees throughout the city. The Marsh St. sensor reached “Full Storm
Flow Stage” on December 31 and January 4, but did not reach the bottom of the bridge. The Madonna
Rd. sensor peaked at approximately 3.6’ below the bottom of the bridge on these days as well.
JANUARY 8 – 10
Between January 8th and 10th, San Luis Obispo received nearly 7” of rainfall, with the majority of this rain
falling during the first 12 hours of January 9. The steady and heavy rainfall and high winds in the early
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morning hours on January 9 led to most creek gauges reaching or exceeding flood stage between 5:15 AM
and 6:15 AM. San Luis Obispo Creek under Marsh St. Bridge exceeded the roadway level after 5:30 AM
and significant flooding was observed in the area along S. Higuera St., Parker St., and Beebee St. between
Marsh St. and Madonna Rd by 6:00 AM. At the Madonna Rd. sensor, water levels peaked at approximately
4 PM on January 9. The areas most impacted by the heightened water levels at this point in the day were
on the West side of Oceanaire Dr.
Other areas that observed significant flooding included the areas of (1) Los Osos Valley Rd. and Calle
Joaquin, (2) Tank Farm Rd. between S. Higuera St. and Broad St., and (3) Fiero Lane off of Broad St.
NOTE: The Marsh St. sensor became damaged and was removed by San Luis Obispo County Public Works
Staff at approximately 6:17 AM on January 9.
JANUARY 11 – 16
A brief break in weather systems on January 11 and 12 allowed the creek levels to recede, which helped
reduce the impacts associated with a significant weather system that delivered over 3” of rain between
January 13 and 16. This system brought periods of heavy rainfall, which was most active on January 14.
The creek systems were stressed during this event, however, only limited flooding occurred throughout
the city. The Marsh St sensor was reinstalled on January 13 and registered San Luis Obispo Creek
exceeding the bottom of the bridge on January 14 between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM but later fell below
the “Full Storm Flow Stage” by 3:45 PM that day.
JANUARY 17 – 31
Limited rainfall was observed in San Luis Obispo between January 17 and 31. Nearly 0.5” fell during this
period which was delivered between small weather systems on January 19th and 29th.
R ESPONSE A CTIVITIES SUMMARY
For the purposes of this report the City’s response activities have been divided up into three separate
sections: (1) field operations, (2) emergency operations center, and (3) pre-EOC activation response
activities.
FIELD OPERATIONS
Public Works: The City’s Public Works response team was active during the entire incident period from
response to recovery efforts. The public works storm patrol was activated for a total of eight days with
the Public Works Department Operations Center (DOC) supporting those efforts each day. Storm Patrol &
Department Operations Center Active Days: December 27, 31, January 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14.
During these active periods, the Public Works Department led the City’s effort to manage city-wide
impacts including inspecting known flood sites, clearing rock guards, replenishing sand at the four sand-
fill locations throughout the city, processing storm-related calls for service, rapid removal of debris and
downed branches and trees in the city right-of-way, traffic control for road closures, removal of debris
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from creeks that hindered water conveyance, inspected damage sites, and managed contract crews to
augment the high service demand. While active, the storm patrol operated 24 hours/a day through day
and night shifts.
One particularly notable action taken by Public Works was the proactive closure of the Marsh St. /
Highway 101 on and off ramps to allow for the closure of the Marsh St. Bridge at South Higuera. This
action was first taken in advance of the January 14 storm. The closure allowed public works staff to
partially remove bridge railings to reduce potential strainers for San Luis Obispo Creek flowing underneath
and, install k-rail barriers to re-divert flood waters back into the creek channel. This location was the
source of much of the flooding that impacted the South Higuera Corridor.
After January 14 through the end of the incident period, the Public Works department activity was focused
on recovery activities including debris and contractor management addressing both emergency and
exigent needs that resulted from the storm and flooding.
Utilities: The Utilities Department provided significant support to the public works storm response teams
and department operations center, particularly during the January 9-14 period. Some of the highlights of
the Utilities Department-specific response activities throughout the incident period include:
• Utilities staff were initially assigned to storm patrol areas with Public Works Streets crews to
monitor and identify flood-prone areas. As the incident period progressed, Utilities staff became
more familiar with the storm patrol areas more were able to assume responsibility for field
response from Public Works crews, affording them rest from the continuous work.
• Crews utilized specialized Utilities equipment including hydro-excavating trucks with high ground
clearance to clear drainage and remove mud and other debris.
• The Chief Water Distribution Operator acted as a field coordinator for storm patrol and field
response crews, provided City administration with a tour of affected areas, and later during the
storm event moved to the DOC to supplement command staff with field response and
communications. The Utilities Director aided in the DOC during the event, assisting the Public
Works Director and City Administration.
• Crews proactively serviced sewer facilities to improve the system’s ability to convey sewage to
the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) and reduce the potential for overflows.
• Staff located level monitoring devices in key, high-risk locations to monitor for potential spills.
While the WRRF received the highest flows on record, the facility remained in compliance for the
duration of the storms. The wastewater collection system had only one minor spill (<5,000
gallons) on 12/31/2022 related to grease accumulation in the downtown corridor. While other
agencies in the region had numerous high-volume spills, no other spills were recorded in SLO,
which is a testament to an effective pretreatment program and sewer preventative maintenance
and active monitoring. Staff responded to a downed power line near the Calle Joaquin lift station,
which resulted in flooding and pump failures, and kept the system operational with no spills.
Crews were able to mitigate the damage to the control panels and keep the 250,000+ gallon per
day station operational without issue.
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• Crews proactively serviced stormwater facilities to improve the system’s ability to convey
stormwater through the multiple storm events.
• Staff coordinated dumpster drop-off locations in city limits for residents to dispose of their storm-
generated debris from their homes and yards at no cost to residents. Over 19 tons (38,000
pounds) of materials were disposed of.
Public Safety: Public safety teams participated in both proactive outreach and emergency response
activities. The proactive activities are summarized in the “Pre-EOC Activation Response Activities” section
below. During the early morning hours of January 9, the on-duty Fire Department Battalion Chief began
patrolling the city to identify potential rain-related impacts. Between 6:00 and 6:30 AM the Battalion
Chief identified rising creek waters approaching and exceeding flood levels and began to coordinate and
assign resources to assist with potential rescues and evacuations that may be needed should waters
continue to rise. The Fire Department identified two temporary refuge sites to send evacuees until
conditions improved or a Red Cross shelter was established. These sites were at the Marigold Shopping
Center at Broad St. and Tank Farm Rd. and the Foothill Plaza at Foothill Blvd. and Broad St . One Fire
Inspector was sent to each location to help liaison with evacuees however no evacuees were identified at
these temporary sites. To help manage the incident, Fire Incident Commander organized their response
by splitting the city into two branches. Branch 1 covered areas North of South St. and Brach 2 covered
areas to the South. On January 9th the fire department responded to a total of 55 calls for services including
3 swift water rescues, 12 medical emergencies, and a water evacuation. To put the number of calls for
service in perspective, the annual average daily calls for service in 2022 was less than 20. In response to
the surge in demand for service and widespread flooding, the fire department held all personnel on-duty
and called in all off-duty staff to augment to standard daily staffing numbers of 14 bringing to total to 39
allowing the department to up-staff three additional response units including Patrol 1 (a type 6 fire
engine), Engine 5 (a type 1 reserve fire engine) and Engine 6 (a type 3 fire engine).
The Police Department also saw a surge in response demand on January 9 as they responded to a total of
95 calls for service. The dispatch center received a total of 746 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls from the
public while the average daily numbers in comparison are 296. The response focus from the police
department on January 9 included evacuations, road closures, and traffic hazards related to the storm.
Additionally, after the January 9 storm event began to subside, staff conducted creek checks related to
the unhoused population. The evacuation notifications were made at 7 different locations including Dana
St. Matthews Trailer Lodge at 274 Higuera St, and Valle Vista Trailer Park at 333 Elks Ln. The Police
Department also issued a “Shelter-in-Place” advisory on January 9 due to continued forecasted rainfall
and existing flooding. Staffing levels also increased significantly on January 9 with a total of 33 officers on
duty for both day and night shifts, 16 of which were on overtime, and a total of 7 dispatchers for both day
and night shifts which was an increase of 3 dispatchers from their normal levels.
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER
The Emergency Services Director first activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 0745 on
January 9 at the recommendation of the Fire Chief after receiving field reports of widespread flooding,
evacuation, and rescue operations. The EOC was opened at a Level 2 activation and remained physically
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staffed between 0745 to 2100 on January 9 and 0530 to 1700 on January 10 at which point the EOC was
transitioned into a virtual Level 3 EOC through the remainder of the incident period. The Emergency
Manager began assembling the EOC at 0630 based on observed conditions and anticipated need to
activate and notified the County OES Duty Officer of local conditions and impacts at 0700.
After activation, the EOC focused on gathering operational intelligence for the 0930 “Initial EOC Briefing”
and established management objectives to meet incident needs. The initial operational period length was
established at 12 hours which remained in place for two periods before switching to a 24-hour operation
period on January 10 and a 7-day operational period beginning on January 11. EOC Staff followed the EOC
Operational Period planning cycle to produce an EOC Action Plan and continued this cycle through
operational periods throughout the activation.
The primary activities of the EOC involved public communications, supporting the Public Works DOC and
field staff, supporting the EOC staff, and ensuring appropriate coordination between County OES, allied
agencies, and participating local volunteer and non-profit organizations. The EOC also established
temporary sheltering at local hotels for city staff members who were unable to travel home due to safety
concerns or road closures. Several employees utilized this sheltering.
As immediate threats to life and safety diminished, the EOC began actively managing recovery activities
through the coordination of initial damage estimates and documentation for state and federal public
assistance programs.
PRE-EOC ACTIVATION RESPONSE ACTIVITIES
City and County Coordination Calls: In preparation for potential widespread impacts associated with the
forecasted storms, the city Emergency Manager attended several County Operational Area Coordination
calls that were organized and facilitated by the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services.
These calls included San Luis Obispo County-specific weather briefings from the National Weather Service
and County-wide updates on preparedness actions across jurisdictions. Prior to January 9, these briefings
took place on January 3 and January 8. The city also held a storm coordination call among all departments
on January 4 to ensure all departments were informed of the anticipated storm impacts and that internal
resource needs were met leading into the forecasted significant weather events.
Staff also attended National Weather Service (NWS) briefings provided by the NWS Los Angeles Office
which here held to inform area agencies of the forecasted weather events that had the potential to bring
flooding and other storm-related impacts.
Public Communications: The Fire Department and City shared multiple public communications leading
up to the EOC activation on January 9th. The information focused on the weather forecast, preparedness
actions, and how to report storm-related issues. Social Media alerts were issued on January 3rd in
anticipation of significant weather on January 4 and 5, and on January 8 in anticipation of significant
weather between January 9 and 10. A City news release was issued on January 4th. Additionally, the City
Emergency Manager completed a media interview regarding city and community preparedness actions.
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Homeless Outreach: City staff and departments involved in homeless services or response attended a
“Creek Encampment Discussion – Storm Impacts” meeting to discuss the best approach and strategy to
address safety concerns for unhoused community members living in encampment areas in and adjacent
to the Creek. The meeting resulted in an agreed-upon strategy to conduct extensive outreach to all known
encampments along the city creeks to communicate the impending danger and stress the need to move
to higher ground. The primary teams conducting this outreach included the Mobile Crisis Unit, Community
Action Team, fire and police emergency response staff, and ranger services. All areas where occupants
refused to leave or showed resistance to leaving were identified.
A CTIVATED E MERGENCY P LANS & P ROCEDURES
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN
The City’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) underwent a comprehensive update in 2020 and was again
updated in 2022, prior to these changes the City’s EOP was a 2011 document. The city benefited greatly
from these changes as it added both a Debris Management and Recovery Plan, both of which were
leveraged during the incident period. In addition to these plans, the EOC activated the Adverse Weather
Annex of the EOP which includes storms, windstorms, severe winter storms, and localized flooding among
other adverse weather conditions. Information on how the plans were specifically leveraged is discussed
in the Strengths and Challenges Assessment section below.
PUBLIC WORKS STORM AND FLOOD RESPONSE PLAN
The Public Works Storm and Flood Response plan was most recently revised in March 2018 but has not
undergone a comprehensive update since at least 2009. The plan provides response staff guidance on
response levels, emergency call-taker procedures between City dispatch and the DOC, objectives and
priorities, roles and responsibilities, resource inventories, and communication procedures. The Response
Plan was leveraged by the Public Works team during the eight days that both the storm patrol and DOC
were active during the incident period.
INCIDENT AND EOC ACTION PLANS
The Public Works Department developed Incident Action Plans for each Storm Patrol and DOC activation.
These plans provided incident objectives, details on the weather event forecast and anticipated impacts,
operational deployment structure based on the level of actual storm impacts, and communication
resources including contact information, public information news releases, and social media copy. The
operational period of the Incident Action Plans was set to match the forecasted adverse weather period.
The EOC produced a total of six (6) Action Plans to support the City’s response to the storms during the
incident period, beginning on the morning of January 9. The operational periods began at 12 hours and
ran for two cycles. On January 10 at 0800 the EOC moved to a 24-hour operational period and on January
11 the EOC moved to a seven-day operational period after the EOC was downgraded to a level 3 virtual
activation.
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R ECOVERY A CTIVITES T O D ATE
SUMMARY
The city began recovery activities in the early hours of the initial EOC activation on January 9 through
various functions of the EOC. The local emergency proclamation, documentation, and initial damage
estimate planning all occurred on January 9 which set the city up for success through short- and long-term
recovery activities.
RECOVER BRANCH & ACTION PLANS
On January 10 the EOC formalized the Recovery function of the EOC by establishing an organizational
structure of a Recovery Unit under the Finance Section, as outlined in the City’s EOP. The initial recovery
objectives focused on completing public and private damage estimates, restoring city services to pre-
storm condition, connecting impacted businesses and community members to support resources, and
conducting debris management activities.
The objectives and activities of the recovery unit were captured under the EOC Action Plan through the
Incident Period. As the workload and complexities of recovery increased after the incident period ending
January 31, the city moved from an EOC Action Plan to a Recovery Action Plan which provided a more
robust and defined organizational structure, objectives, and assignments.
PUBLIC AND INDIVIDUAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
Due to the impacts the storm and flooding had on both public and individual property. On January 17, San
Luis Obispo County was added to the Presidential Major Disaster Declaration including both Public and
Individual Assistance. The Public Assistance categories initially only covered categories A and B (debris
removal and emergency protective measures accordingly) until the permanent work categories C-G were
later added on February 1. Categories A & B were added at 100% FEMA coverage, 25% the normal cost
share for the first 60 days of the incident.
For Public Assistance the City has participated in the Cal OES Applicants Briefing, FEMA Exploratory Call,
FEMA Recovery Scoping Meeting, completed the Damage Inventory and is working through project site
visits and scoping, along with project formation at the time this report was written. The city hired a
consultant agency to assist with subject matter expertise to help maximize cost recovery through FEMA
Public Assistance through the use of Category Z, management costs.
To assist with Individuals, the city expanded permit review hours to help streamline any construction
permits needed to resolve storm-related damage and widely promoted the available federal programs
offered under Individual Assistance. Additionally, the County’s Disaster Recovery Center (DAC) / Local
Assistance Center (LAC) was opened in San Luis Obispo at the Veterans Memorial Building which provided
services for those seeking Individual Assistance. The DAC/LAC remained open until February 14. Limited
support was provided to the DAC / LAC from the City staff as the facility was managed by FEMA, Cal OES ,
and County OES.
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IV. S TRENGTHS AND C HALLENGES A SSESSMENT
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (EOC)
Overall, the City quickly and effectively activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and was
successful at reaching established objectives supporting the protection of life, and safety and limiting the
loss of property and should be commended for the effectiveness that the EOC operated given that outside
of COVID-19, the City’s EOC had likely not been activated since the flooding that occurred in the mid-late
1990s.
The rapid and successful activation can be attributed to several factors: (1) much preparedness work was
completed the week prior due to anticipated impacts associated with the January 4-5 storms system
including ensuring position-specific resources were organized and readily available, updating and printing
maps and EOC aids including the Planning P, (2) City storm coordination calls that took place the previous
week, (3) proactive communications between emergency response field staff, City Emergency Manager
and Fire Chief Officers the morning of January 9, (4) decisive action from the City Manager/Emergency
Services Director to activate, and (5) rapid response of personnel to the EOC.
The success of the EOC was aided by City leadership’s investment in emergency management and
preparedness. Prior to the incident, this support translated to funding contract EOC training for City staff
between 2021 and 2022, participating in the FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s Community-
Specific Integrated Emergency Management Course in April 2022, and funding a full-time emergency
manager position. These investments increased the skills and depth of the EOC team and provided a
strong foundation for staff to fill the roles required with an EOC activation.
Despite the overall success, there were several challenges that the EOC encountered:
(1) The Public Works DOC voiced that EOC support could have been improved during the first 24
hours following activation. Based on feedback received from the DOC at the end of the first
operation period, the EOC was able to focus attention on these shortcomings to make
improvements. Some of the areas of needed support included assigning a GIS specialist to the
DOC, improved direct communications between the DOC and EOC, and improved timing of meals
being delivered for field staff coming off the night shift. The lack of a GIS specialist in the DOC
resulted in delayed and incomplete road-closure details populating the City’s public dashboard.
Communications between the DOC and EOC may have been improved through a change in EOC
Operations Section staffing structure. On January 9, the Fire Chief filled the Operations Section
Coordinator role, and the Deputy Director of Public Works / City Engineer filled the Public Works
Branch Leader position which is the structure that continued throughout the incident period.
Placing the Public Works Director into the EOC Deputy Operations Coordinator on January 9 would
likely have improved communications and support to the DOC. Additionally, the support likely
would have been improved had the EOC transitioned the Operations Coordinator position to the
Public Works Director beginning on January 10 after rescue and evacuation life safety concerns
diminished.
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(2) The EOC facility is a shared space and is limited in both size and technology which impacted
operational efficiencies. The facility, which primarily serves as the Fire Department Training room,
lacks the square footage necessary to seat the staffing required to operate a level 2 or level 1 EOC
activation and requires sections and staff to work in separate areas. Additionally, because the
space is shared, the EOC resources must be pulled from storage and assembled at the time of
activation. Additionally, the EOC contains a total of three monitor screens and a projector. The
maximum variation of displays currently capable is 2. This limitation limits what essential
elements of information can be in the EOC. Finally, the city has yet to deploy a robust EOC
Software Program to manage documentation and communications during an activation. This
challenge was lessened by the prior development of an EOC Resource Page on SharePoint, which
serves as the central repository of all EOC documentation including incident-specific documents.
An integration of this site and EOC Microsoft Teams may be a viable, low cost, and near-term
solution to the software shortcoming.
(3) Communication flow gaps between the various response groups including the EOC, DOC, field,
and dispatch impacted the timeliness and accuracy of information to both internal and external
stakeholders. One of the most apparent items was the status of road closures. It became clear
that a number of issues and concerns that were identified in the DOC were not relayed to the EOC
due to a lack of staffing resources to relay the information. An EOC software with situation status
reporting and defined liaison roles between the working groups may be a solution to these gaps.
(4) At times meetings used for the planning process to develop the EOC Action Plans lacked clarity on
who should participate and the agendas of the meetings. These resources were available but did
not get fully leveraged. Training and verbiage updates to the “Planning P” should help overcome
these challenges.
(5) Request tracking from the DOC and other field staff was limited. While all resource requests
seemed to have been met, having a tracking spreadsheet would have helped confirm this and
improved the accountability of resources. Additionally, this tracking would have likely expedited
any resource requests needed to be made to the Operational Area Coordinator, County OES.
(6) The City has a Disabilities, Access, and Functional Needs Officer identified in the EOC
organizational structure; however, a staff member was not assigned to fill this role and ultimately
responsibilities were assumed by the Emergency Services Director who lacked the capacity to
address the position’s responsibilities. A conversation occurred early on January 9 to staff the
position, however, there was a lack of follow-through by EOC staff to activate it. Part of the reason
this occurred is the pre-identified staff position in the city was vacant at the time of the activation.
Training and pre-established expectations should resolve this from being repeated for future
events.
(7) While ultimately not needed, the EOC lacked an identified plan or structure to staff the EOC
overnight beyond a small skeleton crew. This may have caused significant operational impacts
should the incident have required full EOC staffing overnight.
(8) Currently no robust notification system exists to push notifications to staff, which is the policy
under the EOP when the EOC is activated. This challenge did not ultimately impact the EOC as an
email sent to EOC staff members on January 9 successfully reached staff, however, emails are not
effective ways to reach staff, especially during off-work hours.
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PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS CENTER (DOC)
Overall, the Public Works Department Operations Center (DOC) effectively managed the demanding and
complex response needed to manage the impacts caused by the series of storms that San Luis Obispo
experienced during the incident period. The DOC was especially successful at adapting response levels to
meet community and incident needs, including the relocation of the DOC facility and the proactive closure
of the Marsh Street bridge at the intersection of S. Higuera St. The incident response also provided an
opportunity to conduct knowledge transfer between seasoned staff and newer employees. Additionally,
the DOC was successful at deploying a combination of city staff and hired contractors to address reported
hazards and staff road closures.
Several DOC challenges were identified above as they were related to EOC activities (see items 1, 3, and
5). In addition to these aforementioned items, the DOC faced some other notable challenges:
(1) DOC Location: The Public Works DOC’s primary location is the City Corporation Yard at 25 Prado
Ln. which is the operational headquarters for the department and houses fleet, equipment, and
supplies. Under normal circumstances this is the ideal location for a Public Works DOC, however,
the property sits in a flood plain and was impacted by flooding during the January 9 Storm which
required staff to move the DOC to the alternate site, the Ludwick Community Center (Ludwick).
This site served the DOC well as it provides ample staging area for equipment and vehicles, has
the needed infrastructure to support DOC activities, and is well outside any flood zone. The
transition to Ludwick caused some operational impacts and subsequently staff preemptively
located future DOC activations at the Ludwick. It is recommended that the DOC’s primary location
be moved to the Ludwick for all flood-related incidents unless a more suitable location is identified
outside of flood-prone areas.
(2) Staffing: Due to the extended and repetitive nature of the storms during the incident period,
Public Works Staff worked extended hours for multiple days at a time, with little relief. While DOC
staff did an admirable job at keeping up with the incident despite the challenging conditions, and
effectively managed the storm, a staffing plan including outside department staff member
support would likely establish a more sustainable schedule for staff. Additionally, this will help
ensure department leadership can maintain a presence within the City EOC as Operations Section
Coordinator or Deputy Operations Section Coordinator. Finally, better leverage of the Incident
Command System can improve the DOC’s ability to match staffing levels to meet incident
demands.
(3) Resource Tracking (location availability): While the DOC effectively assigned resources, significant
communication and coordination was required to dispatch the proper units needed to address a
newly identified incident, or an existing incident that required additional resources. Having a
visual location identification system, similar to technology used by police and fire, would create
efficiencies for DOC dispatching staff and the incident commander.
(4) Communications between the Field and DOC: Per the Public Works Storm and Flood Response
Plan, radio communications utilize plain talk and first and last names. Mixed feedback was
received regarding the use of names as some feedback indicated that call signs might avoid
confusion for staff with duplicate first names. Radio communications naming structure should be
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evaluated during future Storm and Flood Response Plan updates. Additionally, the high call
volume, specifically on January 9, caused staff to be overwhelmed, which impacted
communications. A reflexive staffing model built into the storm response plan would be beneficial
for future responses.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
SUMMARY
One of the most essential elements of an effective response and management of large-scale incidents and
natural disasters is communication but is also of the greatest challenges in emergency management.
Communication needs apply to both internal (response staff, leadership, policymakers, and non-
responding employees) and external (the general public, and partner agencies) stakeholders to ensure
these groups get the right information, at the right time, so they can make the right decisions.
Overall, feedback regarding communications was widely positive from both internal and external
stakeholders. Despite this positive feedback, there were many challenges that impacted communications.
Many of these challenges have been identified in the EOC and DOC sections above (see EOC items I, 2, 3,
and 8 and DOC item 1), this section outlines other key findings related to communications.
INTERNAL
(1) One of the most frequent public-city interactions occurs at the front desk and general phone lines
of city departments and facilities. As such, most city administrative assistant staff who are
responsible for these areas saw a significant number of requests for information from community
members. During the incident period, most of these staff members lacked access to the incident
update chat that the EOC and DOC used on Microsoft Teams and did not have current information
to answer public inquiries. As the incident period progressed, more and more of these staff
members gained access but very few had the information available on January 9. Moving forward
a process should be formalized to ensure that these staff members are automatically included on
updates of verified and publicly approved essential elements of information. Additionally, quick
sheets with key incident information and referral sites (phone numbers, websites) should be
provided to these employees as quickly as possible.
(2) The city currently lacks any program to provide instant notification to City employees outside of
email or computer-based platforms. This delays essential information from being received by staff
until they review emails, causing even further delays if the employee does not have a city-issued
cell phone with email capabilities. On January 9 the EOC decided to close non-essential city
facilities and encourages staff to work from home, if possible. Most employees did not learn or
see this information until arriving at work that morning. A mobile phone-based notification
system can make significant improvements to this challenge.
(3) To improve the situational awareness of the storms and associated hazards a total of 17 “All City
Employee” emails were issued to alert staff to severe weather forecasts and issued warnings from
the National Weather Service. Additionally, an All-City Email was sent out at 7:56 AM on January
9 informing staff that the City EOC had been activated and included some instructions for actions
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that staff should take along with a brief situation status report and safety message. These
communications received a significant amount of positive feedback both during and after the
incident. One area of improvement that was expressed was for City leadership to conduct a city-
wide virtual briefing summarizing the extent of the emergency, actions taken by the city, and
future outlook.
EXTERNAL
(1) On January 9 the EOC developed a city landing page with a website banner that included essential
incident-related information including storm preparedness, sandbag fill locations, and a map
dashboard showing road closures and hazard details. This site remained open throughout the
incident period and later added key recovery information for community members. One of the
biggest challenges with this page was the timely updating of the road-closure map on January 9.
This challenge has been previously discussed and likely occurred due to the communication gaps
between the EOC and DOC and the DOC not having a GIS specialist in-house on that day.
(2) Communication challenges were observed with the business community. While communications
were reaching these groups, feedback received from downtown businesses was that earlier
proactive communications would have been helpful. This includes information on floodgates and
potential pre-established trigger points for floodgate deployment or evacuations. Given the
successive nature of the storms during the incident period, there was general fatigue reported
from businesses regarding closures and business disruptions. Additionally, certain areas, even
within downtown, saw very limited storm impacts while others experience significant flooding
and loss. Education on emergency procedures around shelter-in-place, evacuation warnings and
orders, and road closures and legal authorities from the city would be very impactful for some
business owners.
(3) While there is limited feedback on how well the information was received, a significant amount
of proactive storm communications took place leading up to the January 9 events. A summary of
these activities is included in the “Pre-EOC Activation Public Communications” section above.
Communications took place over traditional and social media platforms, some lacked multi-
language formatting, which means the messaging may have missed certain community groups.
Additionally, these traditional communication methods don’t reach a large group of the
population as they require community members to be active on social media, watch local news,
or subscribe to City news notifications. Leveraging other communication methods would likely
improve the reach of key messaging and may include door-to-door notifications, targeted mailers,
and physical signage.
(4) After the immediate health and safety threats diminished, external communications transitioned
to focus on recovery resources and established an abbreviated recovery URL for the City website
(slocity.org/recover). This included possible individual recovery resources available through the
City, County, State, FEMA, the Small Business Administration, and other programs. Additionally,
an initial concern and focus related to assisting community members handle debris associated
with the storms, which very shortly after the January 9 and January 14 weather events began to
be deposited onto City right-of-way areas, posing health and environmental concerns. To assist
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the community with debris removal and management, the city provided several roll-off
dumpsters near the hardest hit areas and the City Corp Yard at no cost to the community. While
these events were widely used and a huge help and benefit, some feedback stated that
communications could have been improved by showing the rules, requirements, and operating
hours of these resources. Detailed signage, door hangers, and improved knowledge from those
staffing these sites would have likely eased some community frustrations over the lack of
information.
(5) After the storm, the city sent out several staff members to conduct damage surveys. Because
these staff members were often the first direct post-storm interaction with residents, the
community members were often hungry for information. While the damage survey teams were
equipped with some key talking points and direction on where to send community members for
questions they weren’t able to answer, some feedback reported frustration over the lack of
information these staff members were able to provide. A more robust resource page for these
teams would have likely helped this challenge.
EXTERNAL AGENCY COORDINATION
SUMMARY
A critical component to managing complex incidents that require the activation of the EOC is effective
external agency and partner coordination. This function is primarily managed by EOC staff and led by the
Liaison Officer. The primary external agencies that the City coordinated or partnered with fall under four
categories: (1) educational institutions, (2) government agencies, (3) private industry, and (4) non-
governmental organizations or non-profits.
The city proactively fosters these relationships through day-to-day business interactions and through the
provision of city services, which helped the city leverage these relationships during the incident to ensure
community groups were informed on critical information, and secured assistance when needed.
While most of this coordination was successful, a few notable challenges were identified both during the
incident and during the after-action surveys, interviews, and outreach.
EDUCATION
Local lower-education institutions including the local school district, private, and charter schools often
look for information and guidance from the County Board of Education. Due to the county-wide nature of
the storms, information making it to local agencies may have been delayed and impacted local lower-
educational institutions to make timely decisions on school closures or altered operations.
Cal Poly State University and the City EOC were in continuous contact with each other. Cal Poly had critical
decisions to make regarding the cancellation of in-person classes and the closure of non-essential services.
The city provided information to the University to assist in their decision making including an early
morning conference call on January 10. One challenge that occurred between Cal Poly and the City related
to the disposal of dairy lagoon supernatant. The University needed to dispose of this contaminated water
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as it was at risk of spilling into nearby waterways and sought disposal sites. Early confusion on January 9
led the University to temporarily believe the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant would accept the pond
volume, however, the City Utilities Department quickly corrected this miscommunication and attempted
to assist the university in an alternate disposal site including the City of Santa Maria while continuously
evaluating their ability to later accept the lagoon water. Ultimately, Cal Poly was able to resolve the issue.
GOVERNMENT AGENCY
An isolated challenge between the EOC and the County of San Luis Obispo was related to local homeless
shelter overflow. The EOC requested assistance with sheltering these individuals as traditional Red Cross
Evacuation Shelters are not generally able to accept transient populations who have not been evacuated
due to the incident. Ultimately a solution was found by transporting shelter overflow individuals to other
County homeless shelters run by non-profit organizations. While a solution to was identified and
successfully implemented, a lack of issue ownership of the issue resulted in unnecessary delays.
PRIVATE
The ability of local private organizations to withstand and recover from natural disasters is vital to the
local economy and vitality of the city. One of the most robust hazard mitigation programs in place is the
floodgate program for businesses in flood zones. While many businesses successfully deployed floodgates,
the deployment was not universal and if the flooding were more widespread, many local businesses that
did not deploy floodgates would have likely sustained more damage than businesses that did. Because
the successful deployment of floodgates requires a partnership between the city and private businesses,
an improved coordinated effort should yield higher deployment rates. The effort will likely require
communication, inspections, information and training resources, maintenance and accountability of the
gates and installation sites, and reliable deployment plans.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGAN IZATIONS / NON -PROFITS
Non-governmental organizations and non-profits played a major role in aiding the unhoused community
members in San Luis Obispo. Because a significant number of this population group reside in creek areas,
many were displaced by the flood waters and sought shelter at the CAPSLO’s 40 Prado Homeless Shelter
Facility. Because of the influx in demand, the facility quickly ran out of space. To add to this challenge, Red
Cross Evacuation Shelters, are not generally able to support this population group. This required the city
to identify a place to shelter the 40 Prado overflow group and sought assistance from the County of San
Luis Obispo. Fortunately, CAPSLO worked with other non-profit facilities in the county including 5Cities
Homeless Coalition and El Camino Homeless Organization to temporarily house this group. Without these
organizations’ facilities and willingness to assist, the city would have been met with a significant challenge
in meeting the needs of this group.
Separately, the city requested through Country OES to activate an evacuation shelter due to
approximately 100 local evacuees from the storm. Red Cross initially experienced challenges establishing
a shelter on January 9. During “blue sky” conditions, the Central Coast Red Cross establishes pre-existing
agreements with shelter sites throughout the County. While many of these agreements were in place
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locally, Red Cross struggled to identify a facility that was willing to honor the agreement. Additionally, Red
Cross has experienced a significant drop in volunteer numbers organization-wide, reducing the staffing
available to stand up a shelter. Eventually Red Cross was able to open an evacuation shelter at 4:30 PM
on January 9 at the Church of the Nazarene, which housed approximately 10 individuals overnight. The
shelter was closed the next day due to improved storm conditions, low census numbers, the lifting of a
local shelter-in-place, and the cancellation of flash flood warnings. The challenge of activating a shelter
persists and will require further coordination between the city, County OES, and Red Cross to address.
RELEVENT PLANS
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN (EOP)
The Adverse Weather Annex guides when to activate the EOP and EOC, including the EOC location and
activation level provides a structure for situation reporting and department responsibilities,
communication considerations, and resources. One section of the annex that was not utilized was the
“Situation Reporting Zones” which provides a written description of four pre-identified zones in the city.
It would be beneficial to update the written zones with a map and ensure the map and zones are aligned
with the Public Works Storm Response Plan zones and other public safety response zones.
The City’s Recovery Plan is a robust document that provides direction on short-term and long-term
recovery activities and operations to improve the City’s ability to manage the impacts of an emergency.
The plan also outlines department roles and responsibilities. A particularly useful portion of the plan
includes different state and federal recovery assistance programs and the pre-requisites for each program
to be activated, or available. It also provides details of the assistance pro grams including cost share
requirements, implementation criteria and helped identify the possible assistance of private landowners
through the Emergency Watershed Program under the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Detailed
information on the FEMA Public Assistance Program was also useful outlining the different categories,
program eligibility, procurement processes, and closeout. Finally, the plan includes specific resources such
as a Recovery Unit Leader checklist and damage estimate and assessment worksheets. Staff identified
some inconsistencies with these worksheet titles and FEMA terminology. An update to these document
titles along with the details collected by County OES will improve the usefulness of these resources.
Due to the complexities of debris management after a natural disaster, staff created a specific Debris
Management Plan within the EOP to help City staff maximize cost recovery eligibility within the California
Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) and Federal programs including FEMA Public Assistance. This plan provides
significant guidance on the activities that can and should be taken while removing debris from various
locations including roads, buildings, natural streams, and private property. While the Plan provides
guidance, the lack of plan familiarity from Public Works staff led to confusion during the early days of
debris removal activities, specifically the scope of work and potential public assistance eligibility.
Additional confusion was encountered when it became difficult to define what may meet an “immediate
threat to life and health” for debris within waterways. Staff found several FEMA public assistance guidance
documents and appeal decisions that used a 5-year rain event as the threshold for the debris to cause a
threat to life and health. This information was shared with the staff managing the debris removal;
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however, it would be beneficial to provide this guidance within the plan. It would also be beneficial to
have established routine debris management training for public works and Utilities Staff who manage
debris and waste post-natural disasters.
PUBLIC WORKS STORM AND FLOOD RESPONSE PLAN
The Public Works Storm and Flood Response plan was most recently revised in March 2018 but has not
undergone a comprehensive update since at least 2009. Due to its extended age, Public Works staff
identified the need to conduct a comprehensive update and had been scoping out a process to complete
this update before the incident period. The current plan was originally developed by a staff member that
had not experienced significant flood events and subsequently lacks key components. Additionally, the
plan was not updated when the city completed a comprehensive update to the EOP in 2020 and contains
incongruencies. For example, a level 1 activation in the EOC is the largest response, while level 5 is the
largest response in the Storm and Flood Response Plan. Staff are planning to utilize many lessons learned
from this incident to inform a comprehensive update scheduled to take place mid-late 2023 and will work
with city emergency management to ensure the plan is aligned with the EOP.
PUBLIC WORKS INCIDENT ACTIO N PLANS (IAP)
The Public Works leadership team developed Incident Actions Plans (IAP) for each major storm event
during the incident period. The IAPs provide essential elements of information for the DOC to operate
including objectives, weather event forecasts and anticipated impacts, operational deployment structure
based on observed storm impacts, and communication resources including contact information and public
information news releases, and social media copy.
There is an opportunity to have the DOC utilize the formatting and standard forms of the EOC action plan.
These are well-vetted ICS forms and documents and have continually shown success in providing structure
to action plans. This transition will require training, however once initial draft action plans are developed,
they can be easily duplicated for future events. Additionally, it will improve familiarity with staff that cross
between the EOC and DOC.
EOC ACTION PLANS
EOC staff successfully generated six EOC Action Plans during the incident period. These plans were
essential to ensuring roles, responsibilities, and work efforts were known to EOC staff so they can meet
the management objectives established by the Emergency Services Director. One of the challenges of the
development of the modified ICS 202 is that the form was widely used by existing staff during COVID-19
which was a unique incident with extended operational periods and many ongoing work efforts. This
experience has led to an overly detailed 202 form which may be easily managed during initial operational
periods but becomes difficult to manage once the incident transitions away from the initial response.
Many activities identified within the EOC Action Plan spanned beyond operational periods, and the list of
activities was often unachievable within the operational period. The modified ICS 202 should be explored
as more of a working document outside of the EOC Action Plan to help improve efficiencies and ease the
administrative management of this plan. Leveraging ICS 204 forms should help with this transition.
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Additionally, the number of management objectives began to grow to an unmanageable level due to the
specificity of the objectives. Many of the assigned management objectives could have been condensed
into broader objectives. Limited management object changes should occur from one operational period
to another without a significant change in incident status.
TRAINING
As mentioned in the EOC section above, previous training was key to the success in responding to and
managing the incident. The training provided strong familiarity with both the response and recovery
aspects of the storms. In the two years leading up to the incident period, the city held the following
trainings:
• 2 EOC functional exercises (one covering a flood event, another covering a downed commercial
passenger aircraft)
• 3 EOC position-specific courses
• 1 general-employee EOC course
• 1 elected official’s course
• A 4-day FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s Community-Specific Integrated Emergency
Management Course, which included:
o Multiple PowerPoint-led training sessions
o 2 EOC tabletop exercises (one involving an earthquake recovery, another involving a
passenger train derailment)
While these training opportunities provided a strong foundation for staff to respond to this incident,
several future training opportunities have been identified to both enhance existing capabilities and
improved response. This includes Disaster Service Worker training for all employees to improve employee
expectations and home preparedness when those employees are required to work during times of a
locally proclaimed emergency or state of emergency. Additionally, specific sections within the EOC have
expressed a desire to have more focused training within their section of the EOC outside of the larger EOC
group. Finally, field-level training was identified including regular “tailgate” training and incorporating
emergency documentation requirements that are not utilized during day-to-day operations.
Another area in which training will likely improve response is the incorporation of DOC training into EOC
training opportunities or holding DOC exercises outside of EOC drills. Finally, significant feedback was
received to improve the depth of positions which will require additional staff to participate in training
opportunities including shadowing opportunities.
RECOVERY
Initially, a Public Works employee was designated to lead the recovery unit and filled that role during the
first two weeks of the incident and primarily oversaw the initial damage estimate work effort. Once that
was concluded, the management of the Recovery transitioned to the Assistant City Manager as the
Recover Branch Director and the Emergency Manager as the Deputy Director, and a Recovery Branch was
formalized with an established organizational structure. This organizational transition was more in-line
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with the City EOP, which designates the Assistant City Manager as the primary position to lead the City’s
recovery efforts.
Due to the complexities of the recovery effort and the needed support from both the Finance and Public
Works Departments, the Recovery Branch developed a Recovery Action Plan to replace the EOC Action
Plan. This organization remained in place for several months until the work became operationalized, and
the FEMA Public Assistance Process was initiated and well-established.
The earlier establishment of this structure would have likely resulted in a more organized response and
support of the departments involved in Recovery. Additionally, as mentioned previously prior training
with the City’s Recovery and Debris Management Plan would have improved staff’s clarity on
recommended actions to take, and documentation to collect.
One of the greatest assets put in place during recovery was the use of a mobile “field maps” application
to document and track damaged locations. This data was easily pulled into an Excel format, allowing an
initial damage estimate to be comprehensively made, continuously updated for project tracking, and also
fed into a dashboard showing estimated damages and damaged site locations. The early activation of this
resource was invaluable to staff. Some challenges that did exist with this process were the high number
of staff inputting data and inconsistencies between damage estimates and the level of detail. Previous
training and pre-identified staff would help resolve this. Additionally, earlier assessment from more
qualified staff to estimate damage totals would have likely resulted in more accurate damage estimate
numbers earlier on during the recovery process. This was partially delayed by the higher creek levels that
hid the full extent of the damage and the high demand for engineering staff to address emergency repairs.
INCIDENT -SPECIFIC ACTIONS
While this report is not intended to address the variety of operational response actions and tactics, several
notable items should be considered for future incidents.
Temporary Refuge Areas (TRA): Fire staff (Battalion Chiefs and Emergency Manager) quickly identified two
locations as temporary refuge sites until the hazard was mitigated, or until an evacuation shelter was
established. These sites were located in the southern and northern portions of the city (Marigold Shopping
Center and Foothill Plaza). One Fire Inspector was sent to each location to help liaison with evacuees
however no evacuees were identified at these temporary sites. The lack of evacuees may have been due
to insufficient communications, lag-time of establishing and communicating the zones from the actual
evacuations, difficulty navigating City streets to the locations due to roadway flooding, or the lack of
temporary sheltering needs around the impacted areas. Staff noted that other areas of the city would be
well served for a TRA including central and eastern portions of the city.
Pro-Active Marsh Street Closure: The proactive closure of the Marsh St. / Highway 101 on and off ramps
to allow for the closure of the Marsh St. Bridge at South Higuera was seen as a success and operationalized
since the January 14 event. Per public works leadership staff, this tactic had been previously identified,
but the speed at which the January 9 storm materialized prevented public works from implementing this
tactic due to the dangerous flood waters moving across the bridge. The January 14 and subsequent storms
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did not generate as large of an impact as January 9 and so it is difficult to assess the effect the tactic would
have had the morning of January 9. Regardless, there seemed to be enough benefit to continue making
this an operational response option to adverse weather conditions. It would be recommended to explore
trigger points for making this proactive step to avoid missing the opportunity to implement this flood
reduction tactic prior to flooding across the roadway.
Sandbag fill locations: The City maintains four sandbag locations throughout the city, the Corp Yard at 25
Prado Rd., Laguna Lake Golf Course at 11175 Los Osos Valley Rd., Santa Rosa Park at 190 Santa Rosa St.
and Sinsheimer Park at 900 Southwood Dr which are activated at certain forecasted rain amounts. These
locations remained stocked with sand throughout the incident, however, access became a challenge at
Prado Rd on January 9 due to flooding. While sand remained sufficient, the City has not historically
provided sandbags at the fill locations but alternatively provide a list of local vendors that sell the bags.
On January 9 these vendors saw a sudden surge in demand for sandbags and ran out of inventory. To help
improve access to sandbags, it would be recommended to explore (1) providing sandbags at the fill
locations to ensure adequate supply, and (2) providing staffing or coordinating volunteer efforts to assist
with filling sandbags to improve accessibility to those with access, disability, or functional needs to help
improve the likelihood these community members can secure and deploy sandbags.
Homeless encampment surveys: The proactive notification and outreach to the homeless populations
living in and near the creek was seen as a huge success due to the lack of any reported injuries, or rescues
among this group who was in the direct path of the dangerous flooding that occurred during the incident
period. This work was accomplished by a large team of staff members including the Community Action
Team (CAT), Mobile Crisis Unit, Ranger Staff, Police, and Fire staff. While staff observed some groups as
being resistant to moving, most individuals and groups moved to higher ground before the stor ms. Prior
to the January 5 storm staff explored conducting an actual evacuation of the areas, or instead taking the
outreach approach. The outreach model was ultimately selected due to the anticipated low evacuation
participation rate and the lack of a realistic housing plan to support the group. This decision is viewed as
a success. It may be beneficial to explore a written and exercised outreach and evacuation plan for the
unhoused community to formalize procedures during emergency events including post-incident surveys.
Police staff did conduct several creek surveys after the storms; however, they were done pro-actively and
independently, rather than part of a pre-identified plan.
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V. APPLICATION OF THE STANDARDIZED EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
(SEMS) & NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NIMS)
CALIFORNIA STANDARDIZED EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SEMS)
The California Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) is the State’s emergency response
system and provides the structure for the response phase of emergency management. The system brings
together the different elements of the State’s emergency response community into a single integrated
and standardized system including the Incident Command System (ICS), Multi/Inter-agency coordination,
Mutual Aid, and the Operational Area Concept. At its heart, SEMS helps ensure incidents start and end
locally. Per the California Emergency Services Act 2021 (ESA) local government agencies must use SEMS
in order to be eligible for any reimbursement of response-related costs under California’s disaster
assistance programs.
During the incident period, the city utilized many pre-established SEMS elements. ICS was used at the
incident level by response staff up to the Emergency Operations Structure. ICS allowed the city staff to
manage the incident by objectives and included the development of Incident Actions Plans at the field
level and EOC Action Plans at the EOC level. The EOC utilized the Operational Area Concept and
multi/inter-agency coordination to support incident needs that the city lacked the resources to
accomplish on its own. The City participated in Operational Area Coordination calls to provide County OES
with conditions, actions, and needs, communicated the activation of the EOC and proclamation of a local
emergency on January 9, and continued to remain in direct contact throughout the incident through
established communication methods. Ultimately neither fire nor police mutual assistance was requested
by the city, however sheltering support requests were made to the Operational Area Coordinator, County
OES. The City Public Information Officer also coordinated with the County’s EOC PIO to help ensure unified
messaging and critical information was shared appropriately. City staff also ran all information and details
that needed to be provided to Cal OES and FEMA for recovery purposes through the Operational Area
Coordinator, who ultimately transmitted the details up the SEMS structure to OES Region who passed it
along to the State. Finally, the City’s current 2022 Emergency Operations Plan is SEMS compliant and was
used to manage operational response to the incident.
To improve city staff member familiarity with SEMS, city emergency management is rolling out a training
requirement for all staff to complete G-606 “Standardized Emergency Management System Introduction”.
All staff are expected to have this training completed prior to the end of the calendar year 2023.
NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Per the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) The National Incident Management System
(NIMS) guides all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work
together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from incidents. NIMS provides
stakeholders across the whole community with the shared vocabulary, systems, and processes to
successfully deliver the capabilities described in the National Preparedness System. NIMS defines
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operational systems that guide how personnel works together during incidents. Local, state, territorial,
and tribal nation jurisdictions are required to adopt NIMS to receive federal preparedness grants.
The city has adopted NIMS throughout the organization and the City Emergency Operations Plan is an
extension of the State Emergency Plan and is written to be NIMS compliant and the National Response
Framework. Additionally, the city requires all staff members to complete basic level ICS and NIMS training
to ensure all first responders can respond and act in accordance with NIMS during emergencies. By law,
all City employees are emergency responders during times of local emergency, state of emergency, or
wartime. Depending on the rank of the employees the training includes ICS 100 “Introduction to the
Incident Command System”, ICS 200 “Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response”, IS 700 “An
Introduction to the National Incident Management System”, IS 800 “National Response Framework, An
Introduction” and IS-908 “Emergency Management for Senior Officials”. At a minimum, all staff must
complete ICS-100 and IS-700.
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VI. REPORT CONCLUSION
The City of San Luis Obispo faced a challenging natural disaster event during the incident period. The
resulting impacts challenged the organization, its staff, and community members in ways the city has not
experienced in decades. The resulting whole community response to meet the needs of the incident was
nothing short of impressive. This includes the city, governmental and non-governmental partners, the
private business community, educational institutions, and grassroots volunteer groups.
Despite many successes experienced by all levels of the community, there were many areas of
improvement that will make future responses more effective. This report hopes to formalize these areas,
especially due to the low frequency that these events do occur.
An important note is that the value of this report diminishes as time passes if staff does not carry out,
institutionalize, and share the identified improvements and lessons learned with future staff members.
This report should be incorporated into all succession planning that occurs at the emergency management
level of the city and regular training should take place to ensure the items outlined in this report and
subsequent improvement plan are institutionalized moving forward.
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VII. P OST -I NCIDENT IMPROVEMENT P LAN
The goal of the after-action report is to identify actions to improve future responses and EOC activations
which will allow the city to manage major emergencies and disasters more effectively while also providing
essential services. The following table outlines the identified improvement items during the after-action
review and reporting process. This improvement plan is intended to assist city emergency management
in planning, executing, and tracking action items moving forward. It is important to identify the priority
level, and resources needed to accomplish each action item to allow staff to provide a realistic framework
to achieve the work effort.
The priority levels were defined as follows:
• High: Action item addresses an issue that either hampered response during the incident period,
has a high likelihood of hampering future response, or addresses a safety issue.
• Medium: Action item would provide measurable improvement for future responses.
• Low: Action item would assist in future responses, or improve operational efficiencies, however
lack of action would not likely hamper or reduce response capabilities.
Item
#
Subject Area(s) Description Delivery
Timeframe
Resource
Needs
Priority
Level
1 EOC, DOC,
Communications,
Training
Identify and implement an EOC software program
for communication and document tracking. Once
identified, train staff to use within both DOC & EOC
< 1 Year Staff time High
2 Plans, DOC Update the Public Works Storm and Flood Response
Plan that is compatible with City EOP and ensures
adequate organizational structure and capacity.
< 1 Year Staff Time,
possible
contract
funding
High
3 DOC Explore updating the primary PW DOC location to
the Ludwick Center or an alternate site located
outside of the flood zone. Ensure selected option
has infrastructure capable of housing the DOC.
< 1 Year Staff Time,
possible
infrastructure
funding
Medium
4 DOC, Planning,
EOC
Incorporate GIS specialist into DOC activation
staffing and designate PW staff to fill Operations
role in EOC.
Immediate Minimal staff
time
High
5 EOC, Planning Update the City Emergency Operations Center Set-
Up Plan including staff resources such as wall
mounted job-aids, position-specific binders, and IT
needs. Include deployment plans based on
activation level and information on what each
activation level means.
<1 Year Staff Time,
possible
operating
expenses
Medium
6 EOC Improve flexibility to display information on EOC
screens and explore the addition of more connected
screens throughout the EOC/Station 1 (offices,
training room, work areas, engine bay)
1-2 Years Staff Time,
Infrastructure
costs
Medium
7 Communications,
Coordination,
Update City Floodgate program to ensure (1)
business locations are inspected in some capacity to
< 1 Year Staff Time High
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Planning,
Training
ensure compliance and deployment plans are in
place, (2) improve public communication and
training resources, (3) Explore the development of
trigger points to make recommendation for
businesses to deploy flood gates.
8 Coordination Work with County Office of Emergency Services and
Red Cross to improve reliability of shelter locations
and expediency of activation.
< 1 Year Staff Time High
9 Coordination Work with the County Office of Emergency Services,
Social Services, and no-profits such as CAPSLO to
ensure pre-plans are established to house homeless
populations and accommodate local shelter
overflow.
< 1 Year Staff Time Medium
10 Planning Update Emergency Operations Plan Situation
Reporting Zones and align with other City response
plans such as the Public Works Storm and Flood
Response. Use map images to go along with written
zone descriptions.
1 – 2 Years Staff Time Low
11 Planning,
Recovery
Update the City Recovery Plan resources to match
correct terminology and required information for
Initial Damage Estimates for Preliminary Damages
Assessments.
1 – 2 Years Staff Time Low
12 Training,
Recovery
Train appropriate city staff on City Recovery and
Debris Management Plan at least once every two
years.
Ongoing Staff Time Low
13 Recovery,
Training
Pre-train damage assessment teams for more
uniformity in damage cost estimates. Incorporate
City Engineering staff earlier into the process to
update costs as needed.
Ongoing Staff Time,
possible
training
budget for off-
site training
Medium
14 Planning Update the Debris Management Plan with best
practices on evaluating immediate threats to life,
health, and safety, especially with guidance on
handling debris removal in waterways.
1 – 2 Years Staff Time Low
15 Flood-Specific
Response Actions
Explore including sandbags at sandbag fill locations.
Explore a staffing or volunteer led model for
assisting with filling and loading of sandbags for
community members. Include evaluating trigger
points for these actions. Incorporate all decisions
into the PW Storm and Flood Response Plan.
< 1 Year Staff Time High
16 Flood-Specific
Response Actions
Pre-identify Safe Refuge Areas from flooding at 4
separate locations in the city and ensure they are
known to public safety staff ordering or
implementing evacuations (South, North, West and
Central)
Immediate Minimal Staff
Time
Medium
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17 Flood-Specific
Response
Actions, Planning
Identify trigger points for deployment k-rails at of
the Marsh St. / S. Higuera intersection and removal
of railings on bridge. Incorporate into Storm and
Flood Response Plan.
< 1 Year Staff Time Medium
18 Flood-Specific
Response Actions
Establish protocol for conducting creek outreach to
homeless encampments and groups. Develop creek
evacuation plan along with mid- and post-
emergency survey of area.
< 1 Year Staff Time High
19 Planning, training Update PW Incident Action Plan for to utilize ICS
established forms. Train staff on proper use of the
forms and field staff with how to use the new IAPS
< 1 Year Staff Time Medium
20 Communications
and Coordination
Incorporate local schools (school district, private,
charters) into city communications and liaison
efforts regarding emergency incidents.
Immediate Minimal
resources
required
Medium
21 Communications Identify and implement process to ensure staff who
regularly field public calls or occupy a city facility
front-desk are provided with essential elements of
information about major emergency incidents.
< 1 Year Staff time Medium
22 Communication Identify and operationalize a mobile phone-based
mass notification system to provide critical
emergency information to internal staff members.
< 1 Year to
2 years
Staff time,
possible
subsc. costs
High
23 Coordination Provide annual disaster preparedness training
available to the business community. Work with
Downtown SLO and the Chamber of Commerce.
Ongoing Staff Time Medium
24 Communication Identify and operationalize non-digital based public
communication systems to leverage during
anticipated events or during events to maximize
reach of communications including the addition of
Spanish language communications
<1 Year Staff Time,
possible
contract
services
Medium
25 Training, DOC Cross train public works dispatch staff for DOC with
City ECC Dispatchers to help establish best practices
and efficiencies while dispatching high call volumes.
< 1 Year Staff time Medium
26 DOC Identify system to improve non-public safety field
response vehicle tracking and availability similar to a
computer-aided dispatching (CAD) system leveraged
by public safety for use by DOC dispatchers.
1 - 2 Years Staff time and
technology
investment
costs.
Medium
27 EOC, Planning Train with Planning Section Team to refocus how
forms ICS-202 is utilized. Train with Emergency
Services Director and Deputy Director on
management objectives
<1 Year Staff Time Medium
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VIII. REPORT REFERENCES & RESOURCES
ACRONYMS
Cal OES – California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
Cal Poly – California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
CAT – Community Action Team
CAPSLO – Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo
CDAA – California Disaster Assistance Act
DAC – Disaster Recovery Center
DOC – Department Operations Center
EOC – Emergency Operations Center
EOP – Emergency Operations Plan
ESA – California Emergency Services Act
FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency
GIS ‐ Geospatial Information Systems
IAP – Incident Action Plan
ICS – Incident Command System
IS – Independent Study
LAC – Local Assistance Center
NIMS – National Incident Management System
NWS – National Weather Service
OES – Office of Emergency Services
PIO – Public Information Officer
SEMS – Standardized Emergency Management System
TRA – Temporary Refuge Area
WRRF – Water Resource Recovery Facility
REFERENCED AND SUPPORTING RESOURCES
1. Storm of January 9‐10, 2023 Hydrologic Brief for Executive and Engineering Staff – County of San Luis
Obispo Public Works Development Services
2. San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department Water Resources Division
3. City Staff After Action Storm Survey Results
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August 15, 2023
Receive and file the 2022-2023 Storms After-Action Report and
Post-Incident Improvement Plan
•Required Per California Code of
Regulations
•Emergency Management Best Practice
•Evaluates and codifies lessons learned
•Provides structure for improvement
•Tool for future city staff members
Feedback Process
Report Methodology
Limitations
1.Weather and Incident
Summary
2.Response Activities
3.Activated Emergency Plans
and Procedures
4.Recovery Activities to Date
Challenges
•Communications
•DOC Location
•Sheltering
•Road Closure
Dashboard
•Facility Limitations
Strengths
•Communications
•Response
•Homeless Outreach
•Rapid Damage
Estimates
•Partner Agency
Relationships
Receive and file the 2022-2023 Storms After-Action Report and
Post-Incident Improvement Plan
August 15, 2023
•San Luis Obispo Creek
near High School
•350 feet vertical slopes
eroded
•Slide after March Storms
•Install soldier pile wall
•Construction complete Nov
•$6 million – Design/Build
•Prefumo Creek – Los Osos
Valley Road to Laguna Lake
•Re-aligned in 1960’s into
Lake
•Flooding during storms
•Remove sediment and
overgrown vegetation
•Ensure drainage from
culverts
•Phased approach
•Under design