Responding to California's Weather Emergency

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the powerful winter storm systems that are currently impacting my district and much of the State of California.

Rainfall in recent weeks has been several times above average, which, along with severe winds, has had devastating and cascading impacts. This includes flooding in Folsom and Lincoln, avalanches, and mudslides. The Tahoe area and Mono County are currently under avalanche warning. There are localized mudslides occurring in Plumas County.

There have been road closures from downed trees, hundreds of downed trees that have disrupted travel plans; power outages affecting roughly 345,000 Californians, 4,500 people in the Third District; and hundreds of school closures, including all schools in the Lake Tahoe Unified District.

There have also been, tragically, at least 17 deaths in the State, including 5 in the Sacramento area.

I extend my most sincere sympathies to everyone who has been affected, who has been harmed, and whose lives have been disrupted.

I also extend my most heartfelt gratitude to all the first responders who are working tirelessly to mitigate these impacts and to protect life and property.

My office is working to ensure the greatest measure of Federal assistance is available to the affected communities. FEMA has issued an emergency declaration for most counties in California now, including Placer, Sacramento, El Dorado, and Yuba.

My office is in constant communication with FEMA, and I have spoken personally to FEMA Regional Administrator Bob Fenton, who briefed me on the State Operations Center in California.

We are also in close contact with local authorities, including members of the boards of supervisors in affected counties, and continue to closely monitor developments as more storms are expected.

Mr. Speaker, California now finds itself in both a flood emergency and a drought emergency at the same time. That absurdity underscores a fundamental failure of governance.

Citizens are told to take shorter showers. Farmers are told to fallow their fields. All the while, they watch water flow abundantly into the ocean. An estimated 8 billion gallons of water from these storms will flow into the ocean in the Los Angeles Basin alone.

Cycles of wetness and dryness are nothing new to our State. Joan Didion, in 1977, wrote: ``California summers were characterized by the coughing in the pipes that meant the well was dry, and California winters by all-night watches on rivers about to crest.''

Yet, since that time, we have done little to build the storage capacity that is needed to stabilize our water supply. That is why I am cosponsoring the WATER for California Act to expand our storage capacity. We must also strengthen our flood defenses to be better prepared for extreme weather events in the future.

Our focus right now is on the days ahead. These storms are impacting different areas very differently, so it is important to be closely attuned to the advisories of your local government.

On my website, we have a comprehensive emergency contacts document that constituents in affected areas can access for resources and phone numbers. You can find that at kiley.house.gov.

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