>> 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 from all over the region and we 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.

shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus.

it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a. it has its own businesses and

personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's

>> i went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. i am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. ♪ ♪ i am a community ambassador.

we work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. >> what i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. they ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. checking in, you guys. >> wellness check. we walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. you never know. somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. you never know if they are alive. we let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote

safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they don't want to call the police on, they don't have to call the police. they can call us. we can direct them to the services they might need. >> we do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. there are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. it is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. when we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. they give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. we take pride. when we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. >> it makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them

feel safe walking to the play area and back. the stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. >> you can see the community ambassadors. i used to be on the streets. i didn't think i could become a community ambassador. it was too far out there for me to grab, you know. doing this job makes me feel good. because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. i am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. i used to be like this, you know. i have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction

because now, i feel like i can give them hope. it reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. welcome to the janua 2023 health commission vacation. i have the privilege of chairing the meeting today. will you call the roll. >> sure this meeting is fully remote today and the health