>> good afternoon everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and thank you all for being here today with a number of our city department heads who are responsible for responding to emergencies specifically as it relates to the severe weather we just experienced over the holiday weekday. i want to start by really thanking our first responders. in fact, we were under the impression and notified by our national weather service that we could anticipate not even a inch of rain and in fact what we saw was within 24 hour period was a 5.5 inches of rain, which is the second largest amount of rain we have seen in a

24 hour period. it had not happen in san francisco in this capacity since 1849 so it ipacted our city in such a significant way and including businesses, homes, our streets and number other things and the information we had was not sufficient to help us prepare in the capacity that we needed to address the issue, our first responders many from the public utilities commission who cleared out storm drains along with department of public works, our fire department, our police department, so many of the folks in the department of emergency management stepped up and did what we needed to do to address this unprecedented event. now, in addition to the response, over 8500 sand bags were distributed to folks throughout san francisco and we anticipate coming up

another storm. a storm tomorrow which was estimated to be 2 to 3 inches, but we are definitely preparing for more. we also expect 24 to 29 miles per hour winds with a gust of up to 50 miles per hour. so, we anticipate something just as significant tomorrow as what we experienced and we will be prepared. with sand bags we will be prepared with support and we want to just say to the public, please use 911 wisely. we have a lot of emergencies that we will need to respond to, so we want to make sure that line 11 is used as a life or death tool only. we do have 311, so if there is major flooding in specific areas or other needs, please use 311 as a tool to be directed

to the appropriate resource so we can respond. we have a number of our city agencies that are here today to talk more specifically about what we need to do to be prepared. this again is something that san francisco has only seen once and even in 1994 to a certain extent we saw during that time as well. we saw it all over the bay area, not just in san francisco and our hope is that while we are still recovering cleaning out storm drains and working really hard to get our city back on track, the time is not going to be sufficient between now and the next storm to completely recover and so we are asking the public to just limit a number of things. limit unnecessary travel. make sure that if you need sand bags we have carla short from dpw providing information as to where you can go to get additional sand bags.

stay focused on using 911 for emergencies only and use 311 as a alternative. we are prepared to deal with this and we are hopeful that the public will help us and for those san franciscans who have been adopting drains over the years, i know a lot of community members have taken responsibility to help clear drains to insure that the water flow is able to make it into the storm drains, but we know the amount of water that had come down during new year's eve and possibly happen tomorrow may overwhelm our system. this is why we are out working 24/7 to get our storm drains cleared, get our city prepared and we are asking members of the public to be patient, to be understanding as we get through this, because we will get through this. and at this time, i want to introduce the director of the department of emergency management who will be responsible for

overseeing our emergency operation as we get through this very challenging time mary ellen carol. >> good afternoon. thank you madam mayor as always. i appreciate your leadership and your support for san francisco emergency preparedness efforts. i want to echo my appreciation for all of my colleagues and the countless public servants including our 911 dispatchers and emergency managers. at the department of emergency management who responded on new year eve. official forecast were less then a inch and got more then expected. the city employees rallied and activated our eoc late morning when we relized that the what was happening actually was a little different then the forecast. what will happen now is that we have a flood watch in

san francisco starting tomorrow at 4 a.m. through thursday at 4 p.m. and we also have wind watch. right before this press conference, i got a briefing from the national weather service and the predictions are upping a little bit, so we are looking to perhaps have another inch of rain more then what was predicted earlier and winds are going to be stronger with up to 60 to 70 degree-mile per hour gust expected during the afternoon tomorrow. we do expect localized flooding and mud slides, down trees and power lines to occur in san francisco. our job at our emergency operation center is to insure that our storm operations are coordinated and that we can respond effectively during this storm

incident. so, our emergency operation will be activated for a 12 hour shift starting tomorrow and will continue for as long as necessary. we will provide storm preparedness response, recovery and we'll be coordinating city resources. we'll also be providing public alerts warning and any information that we believe necessary. in addition to the eoc activation the 911 dispatchers are always on duty and ready to respond and answer calls, but this becomes a lot harder when everyone calls in to 911 for non life threatening issues and this did happen for a period of time on new year's eve so we are asking the public to only use 911 for the life safety emergencies. we have 311 and we would like the public to use 311. you can report storm effects and are events on the app,

online at sf311.org or call directly to 311. we understand flooding in the home can be a scary situation, but unless there is in danger and there is a life safety issue we ask that be reported to 311. on new year eve the 311 reps dispatched 800 calls for storm related issues and ready to do it again for the next incoming storm. i want to echo the mayor, we urge people to avoid traveling on the roads during the heaviest rains which are all day most of the day toferm and into the evening tomorrow night. if you have to be out, please avoid flooded areas and of course please avoid any power lines that may be down. 6 inches of rain can take down a pedestrian and a foot of moving water can

disable or sweep a vehicle away. and finally, we urge everyone to be prepared. high winds are (inaudible) that may cause power to go out, please make sure you have extra supplies that you need like a flaxlight and batteries. storm preparedness and safety information with details about sand bag distribution and all of our emergency alerts can be found on sf72.org. you can sign up for alert texting to 888777. as we have been preparing and all city colleagues have been over the last 48 hours it reminds me these are the same people and some same issues if we had a earthquake. while we don't- we wish this wasn't happening, please remember all of this preparedness is important not only for a storm but could be for a earthquake also.

please take the steps you need to to prepare and look out for one another. at this time, i like to introduce my partner and public safety who is your fire chief, jeanine nicoleson. thank you. >> thank you director carol and thank you mayper breed for your leadership. my name is jeanine nicoleson your san francisco fire chief and here before you today you have quite a few leaders of city departments and you have before you what we call a city family and as the city family our departments are here to help, to help the citizens of this city whether whatever storm it is, however, i can't stress it enough, call 911 for life threatening emergencies only. we still have to run all of our

critical 911 calls whether it is a cardiac arrest or car accident or a fire, and if you add all of these flooding issues that we had earlier this week, it can really over tax the system so again, if you have a little of flooding in your home, call 311. if someone is having a heart attack and someone sweft away by water, call 911. the san francisco fire department receives all most 800 calls for service in a 24 hour period. during this last storm. that is about twice what we normally receive and fortunately the san francisco fire department is prepared for a disaster. it is what we do, but we could really use the public's help. please stay home. please do

have your flashlights and if you have generators have fuel in them to be able to take care of yourselves and your family and not have to go out in this and then have to call 911 for someone to rescue you. please stay safe, stay home, 911 for life threatening emergencies only. 311 for other issues. with that, i would like to introduce another city department, a partner in the city family, director of public works, carla short. >> thank you chief nicoleson and thank you mayor breed for your leadership during this challenging storm event. as the mayor noted, woe have already given out approximately 8500 sand bags. we have additional sand bags on the truck on the way to the operation yard as we

speak. as what we are asking the public is if you have not experienced flooding in previous storm events, you are not likely to experience flooding, so please leave those sand bags for people who had flooding issues in the home. we are doing everything to source sand bags reon and we r the will continue to provide updates through sf72.org and twitter feed at san francisco public works and the website. we will be updateing our hours of distribution for sand bags on those platforms and additional locations. the operation yard at 2323 cesar chavez will be open to 8 p.m. for distribution of sand bags and you can enter that off-if you have not experienced flooding we ask you

leave them for people who have had flooding in the past. they are more likely to to have additional flooding but we will do everything we can to make sure we have sufficient sand bags available. thank you. i like to introduce the general manager of the public utilities commission. >> are thank you carla, thank you mayor breed and thank you all of you for being here to help inform the public. so we are all prepared for what everybody i think agrees are unique weather events but unfortunately are going to become all the more common with climate change. the fact we are focusing on protecting our residents and focusing on flood resiliency and incredibly important. at the puc we have a 3 pronged approach. the first is operation and are maintenance many know you year round our crews clean repair and replace aijsing sewer infrastruck chur through capital projects and ongoing

maintenance and preventative operations and maintenance. with large storms like we are experiencing now, we increase staffing and prioritize low lying neighborhoods to clear storm drains and then respond to 311 calls related to sewers during and after the storm. we deploy crews to clear storm drains and specialized equipment like (inaudible) to remove debris storm water helps prevent storm water moving into the storm system and with respect to this storm we have 3 strike crews on the street ready to be deployed with potential for 4th and 10 trucks already ready to go, 5 trucks and 5 other trucks that are designed to clean and pump out catch basins and sewer lines. so, they are all ready to go to respond on a moment notice and

will be proactively out there. the second prong we have is infrastructure projects. we have 3 separate projects in low liar neighborhoods of the city. many are familiar with them. (inaudible) 17 and folsom and the lower al meiny and those designed to inclees the volume of storm water sewers can handle and collectively these three projects reflect $600 million investment from the puc in trying to get more flood resiliency. the 15 (inaudible) project is already under construction and i would say that the 17 and folsom some are familiar with right outside the spot bar and others that is a low lying area. we already made the decision to deploy flood barriers in that area even though on the last storm that wasn't as intense as we had seen previously but abundance of caution we are deploying at 17 and

folsom and standing up our flood response unit throughout the puc to make sure we are coordinating our efforts. many of you are familiar with the green infrastructure program, which handed out 10 and a half million dollars of grants to schools and non profits to fund rain gardens green roofs and green infrastructure to help slow down and redirect our flood waters and we are hopeful long-term the grants will be accelerating to make a even bigger impact. the third impact-third approach is city wide policy. we work on all client departments to foster development projects that prioritize green infrastructure and in a 12 year anniversary of our city storm water management ordinance, we already have 400 projects throughout the city that are incorporating green infrastructure and storm water resiliency in development and redevelopment of new

projects and hopefully that is something that will continue to benefit san francisco more generally. now, while all this work is great, we all know we can't do this on our own. we can't do it-the storms are (inaudible) depend on our community partnerships. we have 25 thousand storm drains in this city. we are lucky we have 2500 volunteers in the city who become our partners to help clear the storm drains. we have 2500 volunteers who already volunteered to take on about 3800 of those different drains, spending their time racking and help clear the drains and happy we have david lang here our community partner who adopted 8 drains on his very own to take responsibility for. so, we need to go out and spread the word about the good work that our community partners can do to help us

collectively manage a problem. a problem that is going to become all more intense with increasing challenges we face from climate change. david, thank you very much. for those of you that are sort of wondering what else you can do, you heard preventive things you can do as a resident and encourage you to get flood insurance. it is available for renters, for your belongings and building owners yourselves. and also at the puc to take advantage of the flood water management grant program where we reimburse you up to hundred thousand dollars for projects that are flood resilient that qualify. if you install back water valves, flood barriers on door steps of the drive bp ways, water resisant seals, sump pumps, please take advantage of the grant program. we want to be your partner and will reward you for taking the step to help us along.

so, you can find information on our website in multiple languages about flood insurance by visiting sfpuc.org/rainreadysf.c om. that is we have in the short term and more long-term how to partner together to make sure we are all doing our part to be as flood resilient as possible and thank my city partners and mayor breed for her leadership to make sure we are as coordinated as possible to protect the resident of the city and county of san francisco. thanks very much. >> thank you director herrera. we also have joining us our city administrator, carmen chu rks director of homelessness, (inaudible) our sheriff and deputy chief from the police department david lazar. with

that we'll open up for questions. >> can i ask about the [difficulty hearing speaker] >> well, we do expect some delays with our public transportation system in light of the heavy rains, but it appears as though the last storm it wasn't as impacted as what we would have anticipated in light of such significant rains. our hope is to continue to make sure our trains and buses are running on time as much as possible, but there will be delays. >> (inaudible) you mentioned this is more common with climate change, (inaudible)

>> i think you are already seeing the investment in that kind of thing. i just talked about $600 million. it is in recognition of the fact we do have a changing normal. you heard me talk about the 400 development and redevelopment projects the city has which represent a city wide approach to development and redevelopment to demand that development projects incorporate green infrastructure and resiliency so we can have diversion and reroot water and make sure it lessens the impact so think those projects reflect the collective political will of everybody up here as well as the board of supervisors that we have to get ready for a new

normal so i think that is indicative of the fact that under mayor breed's leadership and other members of the board, that everybody takes this very seriously and we have to continue to look how to attack it in a very comprehensive way. >> (inaudible) are they cleaned regularly? because i talk people at 15th and folsom who said the water was gushing out of the storm drain and don't (inaudible) >> we do. we prioritize-as i said we have 25 thousand drains and we partner with people like david lang and there is a shared response. we have crews that go out and rake and get to those and up that during a time when we know will have a flood. we have 3 strike teams out there now doing that so they are regularly cleaned, maintained, we use the trucks and have ongoing maintenance, but when we have a storm things get washed in. we also heighten up our intensity when

we know we have something coming. >> i talked to (inaudible) canceled the flood insurance because of the pandemic and has all this damage at 15 and folsom, what will she do? >> we have flood insurance, and also have flood mitigation improvalment program. there are people at 17th and folsom, there is a cafe on the corner who took advantage of that program. we have been publicizing our program and encouraging business owners and individuals with a history of flooding to take advantage so we can be a partner and it hasn't gotten the up tick we would have hoped. we want to get the word out there so hopefully your inquiry and your message will help people get out there because we are there to be a partner with you and hopeful folks will take advantage of the program. >> (inaudible)

>> i will tell you, if you look at in the last storm we didn't have (inaudible) lower al many we didn't have much problems and think that is because of the preventative maintenance we are doing. 17th and folsom we know we have a issue so didn't have a huge problem the other day but we are deploying the flood barriers now. when we hear about things, it is a combination of ongoing maintenance, but also when we become aware we try to be as proactive and preventative as we can and i think we have been very very successful and successful the other day even though that was a storm that exceeded everybody's prediction and we will be ready tomorrow as well. >> (inaudible) >> i can't say. i

can tell you marina boulevard was impacted the other day. that was because i think where the-how the rain came in. i -itp depends on intensity and location where water comes particularly, but we will be as ready best we can to respond to resident issues. >> next question. >> (inaudible) >> i'll lettia renemic faden answer the question. i want to reiterate we haven't rain of this magnitude within a 24 hour period in san francisco only 2 other times in 1849 and 1994, and in addition to doing all the work and cleaning out the drains, this water is

coming down fast, so with all the work that is happening out there to prepare, please keep in mind that a lot of this may be out of our control, because of the intensity and amount of rain we are getting, which is not just happening here in san francisco. you are reporting the news, you are reporting some of the challenges that have existed that were happening here in the bay area as a whole but even in sacramento where people experienced a number of challenges andive saved from floating thin river. i think we have a lot of intensity as it relates to the water that we can expect and we are doing everything we can to be as prepared as we can and in light what we receive from the national weather service about what to expect, the fact that it was so significantly different, so out of range and we were still able to respond with a significant number of emergency personnel in

this city, it is something that i must say i'm very proud of and grateful to the people who work for this city who showed up during a holiday weekday to go above and beyond and address the situation that was not brought to our attention in a timely manner. however, even though we anticipate anywhere between 2 and 3 inches we are going to be prepared for more in light of what happened this past weekday and with that i'll let sharene talk about the plans around the shelter system including the ability for people to walk up on first come first serve basis. >> thank you mayor breed for your leadership on this. what we have done is been able to repurpose beds between our winter interfaith shelter system and other beds we had dedicated to certain populations. we repurposed those within our system right now we got as of this morning

we got 170 vacant beds within our system and we are flexing the system so people with walk up and access shelter in 4 different places. that is sankuary, next door, msc south and saint mary, the winter shelter. we also have staff stationed at the eoc tomorrow along with mary ellen director carol and her team and we will be monitoring the situation on a daily basis. we know that the rain will be with us for a while and worse in the next couple days it will be around for a while and we'll keep that system flexible through the 15th of january, but we will be monitoring on a daily basis to see what else we need whether we need to do a pop up or anything like that. in addition the homeless outreach team will be on the street talking with people experiencing homelessness, letting know about shelter beds available and how toic a access them and they will

pass out things to people who need ponchos, benies and blansts and putting information on social media and website so people know how to access shelter beds. >> (inaudible) in regard to national weather service (inaudible) would there be consideration as far as alternatives-it appears the message was far off (inaudible) would there be- >> we are following all-national weather service, local-the puc tracks this by the minute because of their response. i just want to reiterate what general manager herrera said, we have climate change. the planet is changing. we experience this in the summer. we come in front of you when we have heat waves and we

experience air quality issues. these are things that i have been doing this work 18 years. the last 6 years, 5, 6 years have been completely different then what i have done over my more then all most 2 decades worth of work in emergency management. this is realty and not just in san francisco, it is across the board. across this country. depending where you are, it is different kinds of storms. could be snow, could be hurricanes and other things. yes, we are going to do-we have not stopped since it started raining basically on new year's eve. our team has been working on this. we are going to have be as coordinated as we can. we will get all the information out to folks, but as the mayor also said, there is a certain amount of this that is out of our hands. i think i maybe said to you, we don't have a device that stops the water from hitting the ground before it gets here, so it is

really around public information and everyone taking responsibility for keeping themselves safe, keeping our first respondsers available for those that truly need it. as i said and as fire chief said, people still have heart attacks and strokes and babies during all kinds of events, so we have to have that first response capability available. so, yes, we'll always plan for a little bit more and flex as much as we can, but we are looking at all different kinds of forecast. we worked with noa and national weather guys and women that do that work, they are challenged as much as anyone else. it is a whole new world and so we are going to follow everything they say, we are going to over-prepare and like for instance on new year's eve we were home hoping for a

quite day and didn't turn out to be the case but that is our job. we show up as did people in the field and we'll continue to do that. >> (inaudible) are they considering to be at the level of hundred year storm? (inaudible) >> they didn't describe that and i don't have all those metrix in my head, but it is-we know it is more then probably what our storm system is going to be able to handle which means during the heaviest periods of rain there will be flooding. i think the other concern what i'm concerned about is high winds. we have a saturated ground and we have trees that become much more vulnerable to the wind in that case so we will see i'm sure see trees down and branches down, which leads to power outages, so it is compounding impacts of the storm that we are getting ready for.

>> (inaudible) >> i don't know what it was ultimately categorized as and also you know, they don't know immediately. they take time even the puc to calculate the actual rainfall then to determine what category it was. sorry i dont know that information. >> (inaudible) have you been in contact (inaudible) >> we have been in touch with the school district and administrator been in touch with the superintendent. (inaudible) keeping kids in school is a priority for everyone. of course

sfusd will be monitoring the situation and make their own decision but as of now they are keeping kids in school and we support that decision. >> any other questions? >> (inaudible) >> we have been in touch. we are in touch. they were just on our incident management team call. they are doing their best. as you know, we have outages today. we had outages over the weekday. i fully expect we will have outages over the next few days and we will be in close contact with pg&e. for us, we try to make sure-we are monitoring our most critical infrastructure such as 911 center, hospitals and other operation centers and pg&e is well aware of what those are. yes, we are close partners with

pg&e. >> (inaudible) that concludes the press conference today. one over here. >> (inaudible) >> as i said, this is something that is unprecedented for our city, for the bay area, and we are going to do everything we can to prepare, but we can't control the weather, we can only make sure we are doing everything we can prepare to insure our storm drains are clear, to insure our emergency responses are prepared and that we are able to respond to people to provide help or to provide support more so probably going to be after the fact in a case like what we are talking about as it

relates to folsom. we know a lot of people are experiencing this not just there but also in the bayview hunter point community and other neighborhoods where their homes have been red tagged so i think at the end of the day making sure we are making investments in infrastructure make adjustment like the public utility commission director had talked about, all these investments-if our city was not on a path to think about the possibility of heat waves and extreme weather as it relates to rain and other things, capturing the rain water in a more responsible way and providing the level of support and changes to our infrastructure that we have over the past couple years thing s could have been a lot worse. what we can say is, we will do everything we can to prepare, reassess the situation and make additional improvements to infrasfruck dhr throughout the city to hopefully make sure this doesn't continue to impact our residents and businesses in

such a significant way. thank you. >> thank you everybody. san francisco, 911, what's the emergency? >> san francisco 911, police, fire and medical. >> the tenderloin. suspect with a six inch knife. >> he was trying to get into his car and was hit by a car.

>> san francisco 911 what's the exact location of your emergency? >> welcome to the san francisco department of emergency management. my name is shannon bond and i'm the lead instructor for our dispatch add -- academy. i want to tell you about what we do here. >> this is san francisco 911. do you need police, fire or medical? >> san francisco police, dispatcher 82, how can i help you? >> you're helping people in their -- what may be their most vulnerable moment ever in life. so be able to provide them immediate help right then and there, it's really rewarding. >> our agency is a very combined agency. we answer emergency and non-emergency calls and we also do dispatching for fire, for medical and we also do dispatching for police. >> we staff multiple call taking positions. as well as positions for police and fire dispatch. >> we have a priority 221.

>> i wanted to become a dispatcher so i could help people. i really like people. i enjoy talking to people. this is a way that i thought that i could be involved with people every day. >> as a 911 dispatcher i am the first first responder. even though i never go on seen -- scene i'm the first one answering the phone call to calm the victim down and give them instruction. the information allows us to coordinate a response. police officers, firefighters, ambulances or any other agency. it is a great feeling when everyone gets to go home safely at the end of the day knowing that you've also saved a citizen's life. >> our department operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. >> this is shift work. that means we work nights, weekends and holidays and can involve over time and sometimes

that's mandatory. >> this is a high stress career so it's important to have a good balance between work and life. >> we have resources available like wellness and peer support groups. our dispatchers of the month are recognized for their outstanding performance and unique and ever changing circumstances. >> i received an accommodation and then i received dispatcher of the month, which was really nice because i was just released from the phones. so for them to, you know, recognize me for that i appreciated it. i was surprised to even get it. at the end of the day i was just doing my job. >> a typical dispatch shift includes call taking and dispatching. it takes a large dedicated group of first responders to make this department run and in turn keep the city safe. >> when you work here you don't work alone, you work as part of a team. you may start off as initial phone call or contact but everyone around you participating in the whole process. >> i was born and raised in san francisco so it's really

rewarding to me to be able to help the community and know that i have a part in -- you know, even if it's behind the scenes kind of helping the city flow and helping people out that live here. >> the training program begins with our seven-week academy followed by on the job training. this means you're actually taking calls or dispatching responders. >> you can walk in with a high school diploma, you don't need to have a college degree. we will train you and we will teach you how to do this job. >> we just need you to come with an open mind that we can train you and make you a good dispatcher. >> if it's too dangerous to see and you think that you can get away and call us from somewhere safe. >> good. that's right. >> from the start of the academy to being released as a solo dispatcher can take nine months to a year. >> training is a little over a year and may change in time. the training is intense.

very intense. >> what's the number one thing that kills people in this country? so we're going to assume that it's a heart attack, right? don't forget that. >> as a new hire we require you to be flexible. you will be required to work all shifts that include midnights, some call graveyard, days and swings. >> you have to be willing to work at different times, work during the holidays, you have to work during the weekends, midnight, 6:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the afternoon. that's like the toughest part of this job. >> we need every person that's in here and when it comes down to it, we can come together and we make a really great team and do our best to keep the city flowing and safe. >> this is a big job and an honorable career. we appreciate your interest in joining our team.

>> we hope you decide to join us here as the first first responders to the city and county of san francisco. for more information on the job and how to apply follow the links below. >> we have been without a major seismic event for over 20 years now. will happen at a moment's notice [♪♪♪] >> today we are practising the activation of our department emergency operations center. >> this is really an exercise for us to train, and we are using fleet week and the entire -- the italian heritage festival as the exercise. we have four different sections that are working today. there is operations, and operations basically is our contact with people out in the fields. they are finding out how things are going, and if there are problems, they are letting us

know and we can identify through our action plan what what resources are needed and dispatch those resources. they will fill out reports and then the report gets to planning you will identify if additional resources need to be happening over a long-term timeframe and then they will provide for that by talking with our logistics staff. the logistic staff logistics staff is the one that will order labor, materials, they will do that, first of all, looking within our own organization, then if we don't have that within our own organization, they will contact the p.o.c. and then they will look at getting resources to us. and then last but importantly as our finance staff. and they are here to make sure that we first of all fill out all the paperwork so in an actual event, when the federal government will be reimbursing s., then we are following the proper protocol, and they are also making sure the money is there in place. >> today in the field we have

the environmental service is following the parade, and doing the final cleanup of the parade. and an emergency situation, they would likely be doing something similar to this, only with debris. also in the field is the inspectors from the mapping. they are doing some live streaming. >> there is an intersection of beach making sure that everything is safe for our public, our visitors, and everyone participating in the event. >> there will be so many different departments working during a seismic event or any other kind of emergency. they will all have a separate action plan, and we are here making sure that for public works the action plan for that emergency event is actually followed through. >> engineers will likely be doing damage assessment of roads , bridges, overhead passes, architects and engineers as well

would be doing damage assessment of facilities and buildings. building repair it would probably be doing some immediate repairs to make facilities operational, especially things like shelters, street and sewer repair, as the urban forestry crew also has big equipment that can help clear the roadways. [♪♪♪] >> we have been without a major seismic event for over 20 years now, so it is important that we are ready, we know the roles that we need to play, and we are able to act quickly because it will happen at a moment's notice so that is one of the reasons why we do this, and again, the more comfortable we feel in our roles, then the better we can respond quickly to emergencies. >> for an emergency planning communication is very important, and so i can't stress enough the importance of figuring out a communication plan for your

family, and for the department. that is why we are practising today how we communicate and interact with each other, how we share information, and how we use that information, and then for the city as a whole, so that the city as a halt knows what is going on as well. >> i try to start every day not looking at my phone by doing something that is grounding. that is usually meditation. i have a gym set up in my garage, and that is usually breathing and movement and putting my mind towards something else. surfing is my absolute favorite

thing to do. it is the most cleansing thing that i'm able to do. i live near the beach, so whenever i can get out, i do. unfortunately, surfing isn't a daily practice for me, but i've been able to get out weekly, and it's something that i've been incredibly grateful for. [♪♪♪] >> i started working for the city in 2005. at the time, my kids were pretty young but i think had started school. i was offered a temporarily position as an analyst to work on some of the programs that were funded through homeland security. i ultimately spent almost five years at the health department coordinating emergency programs. it was something that i really

enjoyed and turned out i was pretty good at. thinking about glass ceiling, some of that is really related to being a mother and self-supposed in some ways that i did not feel that i could allow myself to pursue responsibility; that i accepted treading water in my career when my kids were young. and as they got older, i felt more comfortable, i suppose, moving forward. in my career, i have been asked to step forward. i wish that i had earlier stepped forward myself, and i feel really strongly, like i am 100% the right person for this job. i cannot imagine a harder time to be in this role. i'm humbled and privileged but also very confident. so here at moscone center, this is the covid command center, or

the c.c.c. here is what we calledun -- call unified command. this is where we have physically been since march, and then, in july, we developed this unified structure. so it's the department of emergency management, the department of public health, and our human services hughesing partners, so primarily the department of homelessness and supportive housing and human services agency. so it's sort of a three-headed command in which we are coordinating and operating everything related to covid response. and now, of course, in this final phase, it's mass vaccination. the first year was before the pandemic was extremely busy. the fires, obviously, that both we were able to provide mutual support but also the impact of

air quality. we had, in 2018, the worst air quality ten or 11 days here in the city. i'm sure you all remember it, and then, finally, the day the sun didn't come out in san francisco, which was in october. the orange skies, it felt apocalyptic, super scary for people. you know, all of those things, people depend on government to say what's happening. are we safe? what do i do? and that's a lot of what department of emergency management's role is. public service is truly that. it is such an incredible and effective way that we can make change for the most vulnerable. i spend a lot of my day in problem solving mode, so there's a lot of conversations with people making connections, identifying gaps in resources

or whatever it might be, and trying to adjust that. the pace of the pandemic has been nonstop for 11 months. it is unrelenting, long days, more than what we're used to, most of us. honestly, i'm not sure how we're getting through it. this is beyond what any of us ever expected to experience in our lifetime. what we discover is how strong we are, and really, the depth of our resilience, and i say that for every single city employee that has been working around the clock for the last 11 months, and i also speak about myself. every day, i have to sort of have that moment of, like, okay, i'm really tired, i'm weary, but we've got to keep going. it is, i would say, the biggest challenge that i have had

personally and professionally to be the best mom that i can be but also the best public certify chant in whatever role i'm in. i just wish that i, as my younger self, could have had someone tell me you can give it and to give a little more nudge. so indirectly, people have helped me because they have seen something in me that i did not see in myself. there's clear data that women have lost their jobs and their income because they had to take care of their safety nets. all of those things that we depend on, schools and daycare and sharing, you know, being together with other kids isn't available. i've often thought oh, if my kids were younger, i couldn't do this job, but that's

unacceptable. a person that's younger than me that has three children, we want them in leadership positions, so it shouldn't be limiting. women need to assume that they're more capable than they think they are. men will go for a job whether they're qualified or not. we tend to want to be 110% qualified before we tend to step forward. i think we need to be a little more brave, a little more exploratory in stepping up for positions. the other thing is, when given an opportunity, really think twice before you put in front of you the reasons why you should not take that leadership position. we all need to step up so that we can show the person behind us that it's doable and so that we have the power to make the changes for other women that is going to make the possibility for their paths easier than

ours. other women see me in it, and i hope that they see me, and they understand, like, if i can do it, they can do it because the higher you get, the more leadership you have, and power. the more power and leadership we have that we can put out

>> you don't know what will be inside the canister until you open it. [♪♪♪] >> these are beautiful, historical drawings of san francisco. these drawings range from 1908 to 2010. [♪♪♪] [laughter] >> i build muscle. a lot of people don't know this, but we have a full team of architects that designed specific buildings and public safety. sometimes it is creating a brand-new building from the ground up. other times it is giving new life to one of our historic structures.

[♪♪♪] >> i had to have some degree of artistic skill from a handcraft point of view to become an architect at that time. it is an incredible amount of loss, in my opinion, to not draw by hand. that skill of having to manipulate a pencil or a pen to make line wait and to make the drawing we've. i have seen this development of technology and this huge transformation in the world his that you do leave some things behind that have beauty to them. [♪♪♪] >> now a day, technologies a completely different. we're not using paper, we are not using paint pencils, but we are using computers to model our buildings to produce drawings, it is different craftsmanship. >> in addition to the beautiful drawings, the person who was taking care of our file for

almost 30 years was the one who organized those drawings and listed all of them in big binders with all the name of the projects, and they were still using these which is amazing. >> 840. we are building an electronic archive of all the drawings for future use. the scanning project started back in march, 2018. we have scans about 36,000 sheets of paper and there's the remaining balance of 93,981. we can do about 100 sheets per day. hopefully by february 2020, it will be completed. >> we feel that our collection of historical drawings represents san francisco's a rich history. not only do we help make history , we also preserve it for the benefit of future generations.

>> please respond to the roll call with here or present. >> newhouse, segal. >> here. warren post. >> here. paul woolford. >> present. and commissioner vice chair zoubi has an excused absence. with 3 members present we have quorum for the public works commission. due to the covid-19 health emergency and given the public health recommendations by the san francisco department of public health and emergency orders of the upon govern and mayor concerning social distancing and lifting