San Francisco Announces Preparations For Upcoming El Nino
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – With El Nino rains expected this winter, San Francisco city officials announced Wednesday their plans to prepare for a major dousing ahead.
"If we're lucky, we'll be over-prepared," Mayor Ed Lee said at Wednesday's briefing. "I think that's the way to deal with unexpected dangers."
• READ MORE: Storm Packing Rain, Strong Winds Passing Through Bay Area On Thursday
While the rain is needed, officials are hoping it won't be as strong as the winter of 1997-98, when widespread flooding and mudslides wreaked havoc up and down the state.
An increased danger this winter: the earth is too dry to hold much water.
"There's going to be a lot of trees coming down," said Anne Kronenberg of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, "because they don't have the root structure that they would have had before."
The city has already given out 13,000 sandbags in preparation for street level flooding.
"Crews have been scheduled to work around the clock and they've been performing inspections," said Mohammed Nuru of the city's Department of Public Works.
For the homeless, San Francisco is also planning to open additional shelters this winter.
"We'll be learning as we go, it's difficult to assess demand," said Trent Rhorer of the city's Human Services Agency.
San Francisco is preparing 1,100 beds for anyone in need.
The city has a central hub of information for disaster preparedness and response at http://sf72.org.
