Santa Clara County Resilience Digest

Residents of Planada and Pajaro want state aid to help alleviate debt incurred from rebuilding after January floods. Local officials want some money to go elsewhere.

With war raging in the Middle East, the Silicon Valley chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hosted an event called “The Israel-Palestine Crisis: Call For Peace” at the Baitul Baseer Mosque as “a live discussion on the heartbreaking situation unfolding between Israel and Palestine."

Much of California could get hit by extreme weather conditions this winter. A major storm is due to hit Northern California this week.

A vigil is set to take place in King Plaza, where community members will mourn those who have died in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and stand with those who are facing hatred.

Michael Love was hired, housed and fired by HomeFirst — one of five ex-employees who alleges the non-profit targeted them because they are Black.

More than 1.5 million acres of forest have been burned or scarred in California. Climbers go high in trees to grab pine cones that could help in reforestation.

Forecasters have struggled to understand why tropical storms sometimes blow up into major hurricanes. Scientists have shed some light on this forecasting challenge.

In a broad show of solidarity with Israel, about 2,000 residents and more than a dozen religious leaders came to Palo Alto to light candles, sing and pray for the civilians who were killed, wounded or abducted by Hamas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has identified nearly 500 “zones” that are ill-prepared to tolerate flooding, earthquakes, heat waves, wildfires, landslides and other natural hazards. California topped all states with 51 total zones, followed by 35 in Texas and 32 in Florida.

A new study that found human-caused climate warming has increased the frequency of fast-spreading California wildfires has come into question from the unlikeliest of critics—its own lead author.

After California lost over 4 million acres to fire in 2020, the state funded Task Force Rattlesnake, with National Guardsmen to assist Cal Fire.

The use of artificial intelligence has spread like wildfire into the world of fire prevention in Santa Clara County. County officials are implementing AI sensors to analyze air temperature and particles in the air to locate fires and prevent larger ones from igniting.

A new contract aimed at beefing up VTA’s emergency preparedness is getting attention among some officials for its large price tag. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said with such a significant dollar amount, the contract’s services should be tracked closely.

The California Fire Foundation has set up a disaster relief fund to support the people and firefighters impacted by the recent firestorm in Maui.

Summer heatwaves can strain California’s electricity supply, prompting energy emergency notifications to appear across highway signs and social media.

As Palo Alto embarks on the most significant overhaul of seismic-safety laws in four decades, officials are zooming in on soft-story structures and other building types that have fared poorly during recent earthquakes.

Huge winter rains and snow are continuing to reduce fire risk, experts say.

As sea levels rise, many countries are considering a controversial strategy: relocation of communities. A Stanford analysis of planned relocations around the world reveals a blueprint for positive outcomes from an approach often considered a last resort.

Luis Yauri Oyola hopes one day to buy a tractor to start a business in Peru; he estimates that he is six years away from that goal, for which he will have spent more than a decade of his life living thousands of miles away from his family. He is on call 24/7 and doesn’t leave the job site except for necessities.

City officials have long sought to renovate or replace the building that houses police, fire and emergency dispatch staffers. The project, expected to cost between $160 and $165 million, may need a ballot measure.

Cal Fire announced the suspension of all burn permits for outdoor residential burning in Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties as well as western portions of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.

An ambitious plan to replace the flood-prone Pope-Chaucer bridge between Palo Alto and Menlo Park is on the verge of faltering after the agency overseeing the project concluded that project would place downstream areas at risk.

The five-year, $1.25 million contract with the county’s FireSafe Council focuses on defensive-space brush chipping and debris removal services for owners and residents of properties in the Central Fire Protection District’s wildland urban interface.

Sounding alarms about artificial intelligence has become a popular pastime, taken up by high-profile figures. Now, pioneering researcher Geoffrey Hinton has quit his role at Google so he could more freely speak about the dangers of the technology he helped create.

A network of volunteers is preparing for the next big quake, fire or other emergency by knocking on doors, getting to know their neighbors and creating strategies should first responders become strapped.

For most Californians, the sight of aircraft spewing neon pink liquid over flaming trees and brush has become a hallmark of aggressive wildfire suppression campaigns. But some forest advocates say the substance does more harm than good. A federal lawsuit could reshape how the U.S. Forest Service battles wildfires throughout the western United States.

As wildfire season intensifies each year, scientists at NASA Ames want to utilize drones to help modernize firefighting.

Despite a funding shortage and pockets of resistance from residents, an agency charged with improving flood control is preparing to enter its next major phase of construction next year.

In his initial climate budget proposal, the governor has cut about $561 million from local coastal resilience projects. Legislators, cities express concerns.

As seismic engineers study the earthquakes that killed more than 20,000, it's becoming clear that a significant cause involved a building design common in California.

"It isn't just a slap of the Band-Aid," said one official. "This is going to take some time."

A number of climate researchers say recent storms appear to be typical of the deluges the state has experienced periodically and not the result of global warming.