Monterey County Resilience Digest

Cell phones buzzed 10 seconds ahead of shaking in Northern California.

“As we continue to revitalize the Moss Landing Power Plant site to meet the power needs of the future, we are in the process of safely dismantling the superstructure ... and recycling the scrap,” said Meranda Cohn, a Vistra spokesperson.

On Election Day, a tornado with wind gusts of up to 70 mph touched down in a rural area of Sacramento County near Galt. The Bee looks at how common tornadoes are in California, what causes them and how dangerous they can be.

The $45 million Carmel River FREE project aims to restore habitat and reduce flood risks in the lower Carmel River watershed. “This project has been decades in the making,” explained Rachel Saunders, Big Sur Land Trust’s director of conservation.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, trying to ease an insurance crisis that’s hurt rural California, has announced that all carriers active in fire-prone communities must incorporate his “Safer from Wildfires” program into their premiums.

According to the first in a series of reports to come from a consulting firm hired by California officials, PG&E’s efforts to improve wildfire safety are hindered by aging equipment, damaged power poles and hazardous trees that went undetected by the utility’s crews.

For those living in wildfire-ravaged regions, help might be on the way. Covered California recently announced an application window for victims of wildfires, as well as those who live in fire-prone regions, to apply for assistance.

More than 100 representatives and employees from the state, county governments and transportation agencies gathered in Salinas to test Monterey County’s emergency response capabilities.

California faces the prospect of a drought-fueled summer of power shortages, hydroelectric plant shutdowns and rising electricity costs, a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration warns.

Some Californians have spent thousands of dollars trying to fireproof their homes to reduce their risk of burning. But taking those steps doesn’t prevent their premiums from ballooning, or keep them from being dropped by their insurance company.

There are only six air monitoring stations in the Monterey Bay Air Resources District, which covers the counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito. During the CZU lightning complex fires, that small number left many uncertain about local air quality. Now, residents are collecting their own measurements and sharing them as part of a network.

President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest forests sparks a question: When does a forest grow old? Underlining the urgency of the issue are wildfires in California that killed thousands of giant sequoias in recent years.

Standing in a field that was used as a helibase during Big Sur’s Colorado Fire earlier this year, Cal Fire officials discussed wildfire preparedness. Cal Fire’s Joe Tyler said, “Fire season is no longer a fire season but rather it is a fire year with fires burning from January through December.”

For the first time, renewable electricity provided just shy of 100% of California’s electricity demand—a record-breaker hit on April 30, officials said, with much of the juice coming from solar power produced in the Coachella Valley.

The state of California has released an Extreme Heat Action Plan outlining a comprehensive set of state actions to adapt and strengthen resilience to extreme heat.

The Cal Fire Air Attack Base in Hollister now has an even greater defense going into this fire season: the S70i. Also known as the fire hawk, the chopper is the newest version of the Blackhawk and its capabilities are a turning point for fighting fires.

This year figures to be a bad one for California wildfires. The driest regions include parts of the North Bay area and the northern Sacramento Valley, each devastated by major fires since 2017.

Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.

Winery owner and UC Santa Cruz chemistry professor Phil Crews teamed up with a group of researchers to conduct a study on how the taste of wine was affected by wildfire smoke.

Two California congressional representatives, Tom McClintock and Doug LaMalfa, have introduced legislation directing the U.S. Forest Service to suppress wildfires on national forest system lands and end the policy of letting fires burn.

Despite spending nearly $4.9 billion last year to prevent wildfires, PG&E Corp. still found itself responsible for the second-largest fire in California history. This year it promises to shell out almost $6 billion on its 2022 “wildfire mitigation plan.”

California’s wildfires have been burning hotter and longer. Cal Fire keeps records of acres burned, structures destroyed and human lives lost, but there are no records of how many animals die or are injured by wildfires.

Big Sur had two fires in two weeks, both human-caused, in the middle of winter. We are not accustomed to this, writes Kate Novoa, author of the BigSurKate blog.

Some plants and patches of Earth withstand heat and dry spells better than others. A new Stanford University study shows those different coping mechanisms are closely linked to wildfire burn areas.

To address the growing need for a competitive insurance market for farm owners, wineries, ranchers and other outdoor agricultural businesses, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has approved the FAIR Plan starting Feb. 1.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a 10-year strategic plan, “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests,” that maps out actions it believes is needed to protect communities and improve forest health.

If your cell phone is more than a few years old, it might be time for an upgrade, as providers are phasing out 3G service.

A change to Pacific Gas & Electric’s power lines has dramatically reduced the risk of sparking wildfires. But as a result, hundreds of rural residents often lose power for hours, sometimes days. “It’s like camping,” said Barbara Melchin, a Santa Cruz Mountains resident.

Even though not a single structure burned in the city of South Lake Tahoe, a preliminary estimate shows that the Caldor Fire cost tens of millions in lost economic activity to the region. But is that really the total? Experts believe it’s not clear how much fires cost the state each year.

The city of Salinas has started a new initiative to clean up the city and inspire a sense of pride in its residents. Mayor Kimbley Craig encouraged all facets of the community to get involved.

On July 21, PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe announced a plan to bury 10,000 miles of electric transmission cables throughout its Northern and Central California service areas, aiming to reduce the risk of utility-caused wildfires.

The second largest wildfire in California’s history, the Dixie Fire also affects the California State Water Project, which provides water to over 25 million Californians and spins giant turbines that generate roughly 15 percent of the state’s hydropower.