[{"_1":2,"_100":-5,"_101":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76,88],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6650617,"mediaKeyId","2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb","parentId",2505960,"title","Commissioners, disability advocates and rural legal aid press for faster action on egress, registries, schools and language access","audioSeconds",660,"startMs",2910280,"endMs",3570430,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb&start=2910&end=3570","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb/thumbnail_2910280.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6650617/California/Commissioners-disability-advocates-and-rural-legal-aid-press-for-faster-action-on-egress-registries-schools-and-language-access","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6650617-85de2d3a17f03d3ba924e2379f639741/orig.mp4?Expires=1770575161&Signature=cGvVR9eJ7virIDiNd0K5YL76UKEkS89oT5hu6DGV22DgSgvYrP1lag6to6tTFRhCJCjWBMXisOadwvf85-jPChdQd9A5OOp1vE6jXn-8YW7uSbqqj4BZ~pEEzJlNWkElSWOmu43o5S0yeSb6W~gro4BGYidv-yGBQS4dRUFq3EZMOofijCLQjkVrvTkVt67N2TelQcuyzErZLr0OH4HQ0a~eNmuoJymTjtkTJ~SCzVxjp~urCewUcgBk9aoKkif1P2W6AbqB5U2wr~kpfASMSaV3Y9pr3MrEOEOX1aTEF7PXxjPSsCK2EL9UY9t-1ZBkzhnKJHI7~wpKBgbg61xg3g__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","California State Senate","date","2025-03-05T00:00:00Z","article","Advocates and state advisory officials told a joint oversight hearing that recent wildfires exposed persistent gaps in evacuation (egress), sheltering and language access that particularly endanger older adults, people with disabilities and rural limited-English populations.

Dr. David Lindemann, chair of the California Commission on Aging, told the committee older adults are disproportionately affected by disasters because mobility limitations, dependence on powered medical equipment and isolation make evacuation and sheltering more perilous. \"The initial minutes of a natural disaster can be critical to survivability,\" Lindemann said, noting more than 1.3 million older Californians live alone and describing shelter shortfalls for medical equipment and continuity of long-term care.

Jim Frazier, director of public policy for The Arc of California, described gaps for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, noting special-education Individualized Education Programs and adult IPP plans often lack explicit evacuation provisions and that a registry concept has promise but needs reliability, funding and consistent local adoption. Frazier urged mandated planning in schools and better funding to convert guidance into practice.

Noe Paramo, project director at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, focused on rural farmworker communities and language access. Citing a 2025 Stanislaus-Obispo study, he said 69% of some rural areas speak a language other than English (Spanish dominant, Mixtec and other indigenous languages common) and reported that technology barriers, low literacy and absence of linguistically competent support at emergency centers reduce access to shelter, relief and benefits. Paramo highlighted Cal OES's Listos California program as a useful statewide outreach model and urged its expansion and local partnerships with community-based organizations.

Panelists and lawmakers emphasized egress and pre-positioning: multiple members noted retirement communities and other areas with single-route exits present acute egress problems and asked for mandatory local registries, pretranslated prescripted alerts, stronger county-state redundancies and transportation surge agreements among neighboring jurisdictions.

Ending: Witnesses asked the legislature to fund implementation—training, registries, accessibility at shelters, school evacuation planning, multilingual outreach and local capacity building—and to ensure that statutory changes translate into operational tools for vulnerable residents during future disasters.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Joint Hearing Joint Legislative Audit Committee and Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and Assembly Emergency Management","oneSentenceSummary","Advocates and state advisory officials told a joint oversight hearing that recent wildfires exposed persistent gaps in evacuation (egress), sheltering and language access that particularly endanger older adults, people with disabilities and rural limited-English populations.","taxTitle","California State Senate, Senate, Legislative, California","taxId",77650,"location","California","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6650622,"Cal OES outlines new AFN guidance, training and county reviews but officials acknowledge limits",1217,2365570,3582810,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb&start=2365&end=3582","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb/thumbnail_2365570.jpg","/articles/6650622/California/Cal-OES-outlines-new-AFN-guidance-training-and-county-reviews-but-officials-acknowledge-limits","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6650622-c094086f2ff3dc7fab8ac8d8910e6ae5/orig.mp4?Expires=1770575161&Signature=TTs0Lft6y4QW0Vm3pQfpSh4EA9SoJCsn4EECc-iDiHR5P4wacH2bna-MemNGFuzP1tfH3Fz7QfEohDulzRiP2KGLDUlIpRO~6jln4BX8PeCB7Xhtt0Ic0DNq2cSmGjapKAF00LW5gYvyxCPJ-z1GycASRGHqOnbjsilWSYIi2ovCEGmlyN62xwC0EbhsDxwdWTZBz3gNr5Ml-TyMBa6mVhniKilQGGykXFcZrHZEXfb4XfUS6cygzBjeOKUUTYSV2hNKbkBrMu76UsVYQLpnfPiXohvIUOCXfiUxAVDCQFOGM68WeNb0WFd0yWUJ--f-CleNDuFT3XUm-M1~bUhVEA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The Governor's Office of Emergency Services told lawmakers it has developed new guidance, training and advisory structures to improve planning and response for older adults, people with disabilities and those with limited English, but officials acknowledged the state cannot unilaterally enforce local compliance.

Laurie Najura, deputy director for planning, preparedness and prevention at Cal OES, said the agency and its Office of Access and Functional Needs (AFN) have created a suite of resources since the wildfires covered in the auditor's report. Najura told the committee the state had added language libraries, expanded style guides and updated a functional needs library; she said those improvements are part of implementing statute passed after the audit.

Vance Taylor, chief of Cal OES's Office of Access and Functional Needs, described two statewide structures: the AFN State Advisory Committee, created in 2020, and a \"priority populations task force\" convened by the governor in 2022 to coordinate agencies working with high-need groups. Taylor said the advisory committee includes organizations such as Disability Rights California, the Arc of California, Alzheimer's Association and others and meets quarterly to review guidance and provide feedback.

Cal OES said it has authored a California Statewide Alert and Warning Guidelines document for jurisdictions and alerting authorities; the guidance addresses technologies and AFN considerations and was used to provide backup alerting assistance to Los Angeles County during the 2025 fires.

Najura described training work through the California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI), including courses on creating accessible PDFs and social media, inclusive evacuation and sheltering, accessible messaging via IPAWS (the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System), and a \"Disaster Response Interpreter\" credentialing program for sign-language interpreters. Najura emphasized that many of the guidance documents and toolkits are available in multiple languages.

Cal OES also described the statutory review process now in place: under the legislative changes the auditor referenced, Cal OES will review a minimum of 10 county emergency operation plans (EOPs) each year until all 58 counties have been reviewed by 2028. Taylor said his office conducts AFN reviews of EOPs that include consultants with lived experience and offers in-person consultations when requested by local jurisdictions.

On limitations and accountability, Najura and Taylor acknowledged Cal OES is not a regulatory agency that can compel implementation. Najura said Cal OES provides written exit reports and recommendations to counties and can connect jurisdictions to resources and consultants; Taylor said some jurisdictions lacked capacity or did not post EOPs publicly so the state relies on collaboration and grant leverage to raise standards.

Ending: Cal OES officials told lawmakers the state has expanded AFN-focused guidance, training and an annual plan-review process; they asked legislators to sustain oversight and resources to close remaining gaps and to support testing and redundancy so state support can reliably backstop local failures in real time.","Cal OES officials described new advisory committees, training, multilingual resources and an annual county-plan review process that they say have improved planning for people with access and functional needs, while acknowledging resource and authority limits and remaining gaps in redundancy and real-time fail-safes.",{"_33":89,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":90,"_41":91,"_43":92,"_45":93,"_47":94,"_49":95,"_51":96,"_53":97,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":98,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":99,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6650627,"State auditor: California 'not adequately prepared' to protect vulnerable residents from disasters",1150,10320,1160340,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb&start=10&end=1160","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2505960-184b60825785a45d520245500e0484eb/thumbnail_10320.jpg","/articles/6650627/California/State-auditor-California-not-adequately-prepared-to-protect-vulnerable-residents-from-disasters","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6650627-d166850fc14c87155c9827e5251207c1/orig.mp4?Expires=1770575161&Signature=oRC10PbZ~AN4jmuOdEXgn2VoEvfWfNS1AZjIEhWvwqcGFNLYciMqdmx4dHZy4D1zxzn13HdlC2nU0ELUufv2e42nrdaTnHHGfOtT2KQZrzV3RN56Bc3pS3c94ohLP77r2QJpauNUOF4iOcVSKoAJvFAvbqZi4Uy1TjKUkydwBFo1g0OCuISIWIP2DslDlLcoxPW9Z~do53G~KMaUI58frQijxGIovE78dhrgzlICoywyLrXcRvvHQXzzp~3Yb6Sv2bV7jTroTExDW-7fwZLNaYoGfXeDdCtyYm4J6tXWTj4Ok7qfU~Lzqmo4rO1UeXYMbwndTKNhTzQKnIpYUhWcyQ__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The California state auditor told a joint legislative oversight hearing that the state and several counties lacked complete, up-to-date plans and systems needed to protect older adults, people with disabilities and residents with limited English during wildfires and other disasters.

The audit, released in December 2019 and summarized by Grant Parks, the state auditor, found that Butte, Sonoma and Ventura counties had plans that were missing, out of date or in draft form and that local alerting and sheltering practices often did not follow FEMA best practices.

The audit matters because counties are the front line for evacuations and sheltering, and people with access and functional needs (AFN) are disproportionately affected, the auditor said. Parks told the committee: \"A lack of planning is a contributing factor to failure during a disaster.\" He warned that failures in planning and alerting increase risk to life for people who have mobility, sensory, or language barriers.

At the county level, auditors said:
- Butte County's emergency operations plan had not been updated in seven years, though FEMA recommends updates at least every two years.
- Butte and Sonoma failed to use area-based wireless emergency alerts (WEA) effectively; instead they relied on landline or preregistered calls and experienced a 50–60% failure rate on those calls during the incidents audited.
- None of the three counties consistently issued crucial alert messages in languages other than English; auditors estimated limited English residents composed roughly 10–14% of those counties' populations at the time.
- Counties had limited evidence they solicited input from organizations representing AFN communities when drafting emergency plans; that lack of stakeholder engagement likely hampered response and sheltering.

At the state level, the audit said the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES):
- Did not incorporate AFN best practices into the state emergency plan as required by law (audit cites a statutory requirement dating to 2013).
- Hosted AFN guidance on a separate, hard-to-use website rather than integrating it into the state plan, producing a library with many poorly labeled links and no English back-translations for non-English messages.
- Had not timely completed after-action reports; auditors found that from January 2014 through December 2018 Cal OES had 65 proclaimed disasters requiring after-action reports and had not completed reports for 57 of those events. The most recent completed after-action report at the time of audit concerned a February 2015 event and was not finished until May 2019.

The audit included recommendations to the legislature, Cal OES and counties. Parks summarized the legislative follow-up he said had already occurred: \"AB 32 67 (2020) required Cal OES to coordinate with access and functional need populations when it updates its state emergency plan and to complete after-action reports within 180 days,\" he said on the record. He also cited \"AB 23 86 (2020)\" requiring Cal OES to review a minimum of 10 county emergency plans annually for FEMA conformance, and \"AB 5 80 (2021)\" requiring counties to submit emergency plans to Cal OES and directing Cal OES to review all counties by January 2028.

Auditors recommended that Cal OES be directed to review local plans with AFN representatives, improve guidance on disaster registries and alert-message libraries, and broadly disseminate lessons learned. Parks told members that, while some progress has been made, the state and local jurisdictions still face gaps in implementation and testing of systems.

Committee members pressed auditors on whether the failures identified by the audit increase the risk of loss of life. Bob Harris, the audit principal, summarized counties' explanations at the time: rushed timelines, key personnel being unavailable, and untested software. Harris said counties had begun to improve practices after the audited events but that testing and prescripted translated alerts were best practices counties had not always followed.

Ending: Auditors told lawmakers the statutory changes after the audit created stronger review roles for Cal OES, but they urged continued oversight and testing to ensure the statutes' improvements translate into operational readiness across all counties. \"No amount of planning will guarantee success during a disaster, but a lack of planning is a contributing factor to failure,\" Parks said.","A December 2019 audit and follow-up testimony on May 1, 2025 found gaps in county emergency plans, language access, alerting systems and Cal OES after-action reporting; the legislature responded with laws directing reviews and improvements, but auditors found incomplete implementation at the county level.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Commissioners, disability advocates and rural legal aid press for faster action on egress, registries, schools and language access

Cal OES outlines new AFN guidance, training and county reviews but officials acknowledge limits

State auditor: California 'not adequately prepared' to protect vulnerable residents from disasters