Latest news with #EmergencyManagementDepartment
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
At least 1 dead, several injured after tornado tears through Kentucky county
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ky. – At least one person is dead and multiple people are hurt after a tornado ripped through a rural part of Washington County, Kentucky, on Friday morning. The Washington County Sheriff's Office confirmed the death to FOX Weather. Deputies said the twister touched down in the area of Long Run Road, several miles east of the city of Springfield. The director of Washington County's Emergency Management Department said the tornado hit several homes and ripped off roofs. Gov. Andy Beshear posted on social media that at least six people were injured. Beshear canceled his scheduled activities for the afternoon and urged people to stay weather aware. Download The Fox Weather App The National Weather Service Office in Louisville warned of a radar-indicated tornado just before 7 a.m. local time. FOX Weather Meteorologists Craig Herrera and Michael Estime tracked this tornado live on FOX Weather First Friday morning. "Pretty significant [debris] ball there," noted Herrera, referring to an area of Washington County where radar picked up signatures of debris being lifted into the air. The Sheriff's Office said the scene is active at the moment and is asking the public to allow first responders space to operate. San Antonio Submerged As Flash Floods Halt Texas City's Morning Commute Several hours later, a different storm caused damage and injuries in Loudon County, Tennessee. The Tennessee Highway Patrol posted images on social media of a home and several buildings with roofs ripped off. The department said four people were taken to the hospital after tornado or wind-related damage near Sweetwater and Philadelphia, Tennessee. According to the FOX Forecast Center, this is the final day of a week-long severe storm pattern that has dominated the South and Southeast. Check back for updates on this developing article source: At least 1 dead, several injured after tornado tears through Kentucky county
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Funding for L.A.'s emergency management unit, vital to Palisades recovery, remains static
Myriad calamities could hit the city of Los Angeles in coming years: Wildfires. Floods. Mudslides. Drought. And of course, the Big One. Yet this month, L.A. leaders once again balked at dramatically increasing the budget of the city's Emergency Management Department, even as the office coordinates recovery from the Palisades fire and is tasked with helping prepare for a variety of disasters and high-profile events, such as the 2028 Summer Olympics. Facing a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, the L.A. City Council voted 12 to 3 last week to pass a budget that rejected the funding increases requested by EMD leaders to hire more staffers and fix broken security equipment around its facility. The only budgetary increase for EMD will come through bureaucratic restructuring. The department will absorb the five-person Climate Emergency Mobilization Office, which Mayor Karen Bass had slated for elimination in her initial proposal to trim the budget deficit. The funding allotment for EMD — with an operating budget of about $4.5 million — puts the department short of similar big cities in California and beyond. Read more: As L.A. rebuilds from the Palisades fire, residents ask: What's the plan? As a 2022 audit by then-City Controller Ron Galperin noted, San Diego ($2.46), Long Beach ($2.26) and San Francisco ($7.59) all spent more per capita on emergency management than L.A., which then spent $1.56 per resident. Whereas L.A. has a staff of roughly 30, New York, with more than double the population of L.A., has 200 people in its emergency management team, and Philadelphia, with a population less than half of L.A.'s, has 53. The current leaders of EMD, General Manager Carol Parks and Assistant General Manager Jim Featherstone, had specifically requested funding this spring to build an in-house recovery team to better equip the city for the Palisades recovery as well as future disasters. "We are one of the most populous and at-risk jurisdictions in the nation, if not in the world," Featherstone told the L.A. City Council's budget committee April 30. "I won't say negligent, but it's really not in the city's best interest to [not] have a recovery capability for a disaster similar to the one we just experienced.' Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, pushed back against the idea that EMD's funding level would hamper the Palisades fire recovery or preparation for the Olympic Games and 2026 World Cup. "During a difficult budget year, Mayor Bass focused on emergency management to keep Angelenos safe — that absolutely includes ensuring EMD has continued staffing and resources," Seidl said in a statement. "We will continue to push forward with one of the fastest recovery efforts in state history." Councilmember Traci Park — who represents the Palisades — was among the trio on the City Council who opposed the budget that passed last week, citing insufficient funding for public safety as one of her main objections. Read more: With PCH reopening this weekend, state and city tussle over Palisades security plans "It's inevitable that we are going to have another disaster, and we still won't be prepared. We'll be in the same position we were before," said Pete Brown, a spokesperson for Park, who decried cuts to EMD and a lack of resources for the Police and Fire departments. "We got a horrible taste of what it's like when we are not prepared," Brown said, "and despite all of that, we haven't learned a lesson from it, and we are doing the same thing." Rick Caruso, the developer whom Bass defeated in the 2022 mayoral race, called both the budget proposal put forward by Bass and the spending plan approved by the City Council "a blatant display of mismanagement and bad judgment," expressing incredulity over the rationale for EMD's funding level. "We are in an earthquake zone. We are in a fire zone. Come on," Caruso said in an interview. Seidl, Bass' spokesperson, disputed that L.A. had not learned from the Palisades fire and emphasized that the spending on emergency management included "continued and new investments" in EMD as well as the city's police and fire agencies. Emergency management experts, audits commissioned by the city and EMD's current leadership have warned that the department lacked the staff and funding to accomplish its mandate in one of the nation's most disaster-prone regions. 'That department could be the world leader in emergency management, and it could be the standard for the rest of the country, but with a third of the staff and a tenth of the budget that they need, that's not possible,' said Nick Lowe, an independent emergency management consultant and the president and chief executive of CPARS Consulting. The general manager of EMD and an agency spokesperson did not respond to written questions last week about the approved budget. In recent public statements, Parks disclosed that her budget requests this year received opposition and appeared to have been whittled down. She told the Ad Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery in March that she had sought 24 more staffers at EMD, but that officials under the city administrative officer balked at her request. Read more: The L.A. wildfires left lead and other toxic material in the soil of burn zones. Here are their health risks Featherstone, who is now coordinating the Palisades fire recovery, said Parks' requests received "a qualitative negative response," and suggested that there was a lack of understanding or appreciation of the import of EMD's role. "There was a qualitative opinion not in favor of Ms. Parks having these positions and people who aren't emergency managers opined about the value or the worth of these positions," Featherstone said. Parks said she scaled her request down "given the city's current fiscal situation," adding, "I need a minimum of 10" more positions. In a memo, Parks said these 10 positions would cost about $1.1 million per year. When Bass unveiled her budget proposal, those 10 additional positions were not included; EMD remained at roughly 30 positions, similar to previous years, which costs about $7.5 million when pensions, healthcare and other expenses are included. Bass' budget proposal touted that she was able to preserve all of EMD's positions while other departments faced steep staff and funding cuts. Both Parks and Featherstone had argued for the creation of a designated, in-house recovery team, which EMD has lacked. When the Palisades fire broke out in January, EMD had no person assigned full-time to recovery and instead had to move its limited staff onto a recovery unit. Bass also retained Hagerty Consulting, a private firm, to boost EMD and provide instant expertise on a yearlong contract for up to $10 million, much of which Bass' spokesperson said is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Still, Featherstone has told the City Council that, since L.A. had no in-house recovery expertise, the need to train and create an in-house team has occupied much of the initial Palisades fire recovery effort. Phasing in an in-house recovery and reconstruction division with 10 staffers would cost an additional $1.5 million next year, according to a memo prepared by the city administrative officer. Hiring an additional 21 staffers to prepare for the Olympics and other major events would cost nearly $3 million. Parks also requested $209,000 to repair the video system at the emergency operations center, saying the lack of surveillance cameras posed a threat to city employees. "Multiple incidents have occurred where the safety and security of the facility have been compromised without resolution due to the failing camera system," Parks wrote in a budget memo submitted this spring. The request for funding for replacement cameras was also denied. L.A. officials have long been warned that EMD lacks resources. The 2022 audit by Galperin, the former city controller, found that L.A. provided less emergency management funding than peer cities, and that the COVID-19 pandemic "strained EMD resources and staffing, causing several existing preparedness programs to lag behind, likely impacting the City's readiness for future emergencies." An after-action report on EMD's handling of COVID-19, authored by Lowe, the emergency management consultant, found that the agency was 'undervalued and misunderstood, underfunded, and demoralized.' Parks took over as general manager after the time period covered by Lowe's report. Read more: Trump's FCC delays multilingual emergency alerts for natural disasters, sparking concern in L.A. The lack of training and funding became apparent at a budget hearing in April 2024. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky asked Parks directly at the meeting: 'With your current budget, are you able to staff your [emergency] response centers 24/7 during emergencies?' 'The answer is no,' Parks said. "If there are multiple days that the emergency operations center needs to be activated, we do not have enough staff.' During the Palisades fire, EMD said it had to bring in additional emergency management officials from other cities to sustain the emergency operations center around the clock. Lowe said L.A. leaders had failed to recognize EMD's role within the broader public safety infrastructure of the city. "I'm not sure at a political level that the city understands and appreciates emergency management and the purpose of the department, and that trickles down to the budget and the size of the department," Lowe said. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Funding for L.A.'s emergency management unit, vital to Palisades recovery, remains static
Myriad calamities could hit the city of Los Angeles in coming years: Wildfires. Floods. Mudslides. Drought. And of course, the Big One. Yet this month, L.A. leaders once again balked at dramatically increasing the budget of the city's Emergency Management Department, even as the office coordinates recovery from the Palisades fire and is tasked with helping prepare for a variety of disasters and high-profile events, such as the 2028 Summer Olympics. Facing a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, the L.A. City Council voted 12 to 3 last week to pass a budget that rejected the funding increases requested by EMD leaders to hire more staffers and fix broken security equipment around its facility. The only budgetary increase for EMD will come through bureaucratic restructuring. The department will absorb the five-person Climate Emergency Mobilization Office, which Mayor Karen Bass had slated for elimination in her initial proposal to trim the budget deficit. The funding allotment for EMD — with an operating budget of about $4.5 million — puts the department short of similar big cities in California and beyond. As a 2022 audit by then-City Controller Ron Galperin noted, San Diego ($2.46), Long Beach ($2.26) and San Francisco ($7.59) all spent more per capita on emergency management than L.A., which then spent $1.56 per resident. Whereas L.A. has a staff of roughly 30, New York, with more than double the population of L.A., has 200 people in its emergency management team, and Philadelphia, with a population less than half of L.A.'s, has 53. The current leaders of EMD, General Manager Carol Parks and Assistant General Manager Jim Featherstone, had specifically requested funding this spring to build an in-house recovery team to better equip the city for the Palisades recovery as well as future disasters. 'We are one of the most populous and at-risk jurisdictions in the nation, if not in the world,' Featherstone told the L.A. City Council's budget committee April 30. 'I won't say negligent, but it's really not in the city's best interest to [not] have a recovery capability for a disaster similar to the one we just experienced.' Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, pushed back against the idea that EMD's funding level would hamper the Palisades fire recovery or preparation for the Olympic Games and 2026 World Cup. 'During a difficult budget year, Mayor Bass focused on emergency management to keep Angelenos safe — that absolutely includes ensuring EMD has continued staffing and resources,' Seidl said in a statement. 'We will continue to push forward with one of the fastest recovery efforts in state history.' Councilmember Traci Park — who represents the Palisades — was among the trio on the City Council who opposed the budget that passed last week, citing insufficient funding for public safety as one of her main objections. 'It's inevitable that we are going to have another disaster, and we still won't be prepared. We'll be in the same position we were before,' said Pete Brown, a spokesperson for Park, who decried cuts to EMD and a lack of resources for the Police and Fire departments. 'We got a horrible taste of what it's like when we are not prepared,' Brown said, 'and despite all of that, we haven't learned a lesson from it, and we are doing the same thing.' Rick Caruso, the developer whom Bass defeated in the 2022 mayoral race, called both the budget proposal put forward by Bass and the spending plan approved by the City Council 'a blatant display of mismanagement and bad judgment,' expressing incredulity over the rationale for EMD's funding level. 'We are in an earthquake zone. We are in a fire zone. Come on,' Caruso said in an interview. Seidl, Bass' spokesperson, disputed that L.A. had not learned from the Palisades fire and emphasized that the spending on emergency management included 'continued and new investments' in EMD as well as the city's police and fire agencies. Emergency management experts, audits commissioned by the city and EMD's current leadership have warned that the department lacked the staff and funding to accomplish its mandate in one of the nation's most disaster-prone regions. 'That department could be the world leader in emergency management, and it could be the standard for the rest of the country, but with a third of the staff and a tenth of the budget that they need, that's not possible,' said Nick Lowe, an independent emergency management consultant and the president and chief executive of CPARS Consulting. The general manager of EMD and an agency spokesperson did not respond to written questions last week about the approved budget. In recent public statements, Parks disclosed that her budget requests this year received opposition and appeared to have been whittled down. She told the Ad Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery in March that she had sought 24 more staffers at EMD, but that officials under the city administrative officer balked at her request. Featherstone, who is now coordinating the Palisades fire recovery, said Parks' requests received 'a qualitative negative response,' and suggested that there was a lack of understanding or appreciation of the import of EMD's role. 'There was a qualitative opinion not in favor of Ms. Parks having these positions and people who aren't emergency managers opined about the value or the worth of these positions,' Featherstone said. Parks said she scaled her request down 'given the city's current fiscal situation,' adding, 'I need a minimum of 10' more positions. In a memo, Parks said these 10 positions would cost about $1.1 million per year. When Bass unveiled her budget proposal, those 10 additional positions were not included; EMD remained at roughly 30 positions, similar to previous years, which costs about $7.5 million when pensions, healthcare and other expenses are included. Bass' budget proposal touted that she was able to preserve all of EMD's positions while other departments faced steep staff and funding cuts. Both Parks and Featherstone had argued for the creation of a designated, in-house recovery team, which EMD has lacked. When the Palisades fire broke out in January, EMD had no person assigned full-time to recovery and instead had to move its limited staff onto a recovery unit. Bass also retained Hagerty Consulting, a private firm, to boost EMD and provide instant expertise on a yearlong contract for up to $10 million, much of which Bass' spokesperson said is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Still, Featherstone has told the City Council that, since L.A. had no in-house recovery expertise, the need to train and create an in-house team has occupied much of the initial Palisades fire recovery effort. Phasing in an in-house recovery and reconstruction division with 10 staffers would cost an additional $1.5 million next year, according to a memo prepared by the city administrative officer. Hiring an additional 21 staffers to prepare for the Olympics and other major events would cost nearly $3 million. Parks also requested $209,000 to repair the video system at the emergency operations center, saying the lack of surveillance cameras posed a threat to city employees. 'Multiple incidents have occurred where the safety and security of the facility have been compromised without resolution due to the failing camera system,' Parks wrote in a budget memo submitted this spring. The request for funding for replacement cameras was also denied. L.A. officials have long been warned that EMD lacks resources. The 2022 audit by Galperin, the former city controller, found that L.A. provided less emergency management funding than peer cities, and that the COVID-19 pandemic 'strained EMD resources and staffing, causing several existing preparedness programs to lag behind, likely impacting the City's readiness for future emergencies.' An after-action report on EMD's handling of COVID-19, authored by Lowe, the emergency management consultant, found that the agency was 'undervalued and misunderstood, underfunded, and demoralized.' Parks took over as general manager after the time period covered by Lowe's report. The lack of training and funding became apparent at a budget hearing in April 2024. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky asked Parks directly at the meeting: 'With your current budget, are you able to staff your [emergency] response centers 24/7 during emergencies?' 'The answer is no,' Parks said. 'If there are multiple days that the emergency operations center needs to be activated, we do not have enough staff.' During the Palisades fire, EMD said it had to bring in additional emergency management officials from other cities to sustain the emergency operations center around the clock. Lowe said L.A. leaders had failed to recognize EMD's role within the broader public safety infrastructure of the city. 'I'm not sure at a political level that the city understands and appreciates emergency management and the purpose of the department, and that trickles down to the budget and the size of the department,' Lowe said.
Los Angeles Times
18-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
As L.A. rebuilds from the Palisades fire, residents ask: What's the plan?
Carol Parks, the chief of Los Angeles' Emergency Management Department, sat before a budget committee last year and painted a dire picture. Although tasked with responding to crises in the nation's most disaster-prone region, her department had received just a tiny fraction of the city's budget and was getting by with a staff of roughly 30. There was no staffer devoted full-time to disaster recovery, which meant that if an earthquake or major wildfire struck, the city would have to scramble. But the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass balked at devoting more money to the department. Seven months later, flames tore through Pacific Palisades and nearby communities, destroying more than 6,000 structures and displacing tens of thousands. Now, the Emergency Management Department is in charge of coordinating the monumental task of recovery — but with a budget smaller than what the city's Police Department uses in roughly two days. To supplement the bare-bones emergency management team, Bass turned to an Illinois-based disaster recovery firm, Hagerty Consulting, inking a yearlong contract for up to $10 million. She also brought a former EMD general manager, Jim Featherstone, back from retirement to serve as the de facto recovery chief. More than four months after the fire, Palisades residents and some of their elected officials are increasingly frustrated, asking: Who is in charge? What have they been doing? How is Hagerty spending its time? And what is the plan to restore the Palisades? As flames chewed through the Palisades on Jan. 7, EMD assigned a mid-level staffer to take on the recovery. Soon, Featherstone — a former firefighter who once served as interim LAFD chief — arrived at the emergency operations center. In public, Bass touted civic leader Steve Soboroff as the city's recovery czar, with a controversy over his salary taking center stage for a period. In practice, Featherstone — a self-described 'operator' and 'tactical person' — assumed the recovery director role, helping to choreograph a massive, multiagency response. Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, disputed that characterization and said the two men had different roles. Featherstone's 'role is largely internal to the City,' while Soboroff, whose term ended last month, 'worked externally with the community along with other engagement teams within the Mayor's Office,' Seidl said in an email. While the city code puts EMD in charge of coordinating disaster recovery, it operates with fewer resources than similar departments in other large California cities. A 2022 audit found that L.A. spent $1.56 per resident on emergency management — far less than Long Beach at $2.26 and San Francisco at $7.59. With such a small team for a 469-square-mile city, EMD has struggled to staff its emergency operations center in crises, prepare for events like the 2028 Olympics and help residents recover from smaller-scale calamities like building fires, storms and mudslides. Parks told the City Council in a 2024 memo that her department 'lacks the experience and dedicated staff to oversee long-term recovery projects.' After recent emergencies, EMD handled recovery duties 'on an ad hoc basis,' yielding 'delays, postponements and possible denial of disaster relief funds,' she wrote. To boost EMD, Bass in early February tapped Hagerty after hearing proposals from firms including AECOM and IEM. Her reasons for choosing Hagerty were unclear, although the firm had already signed a wildfire recovery contract with L.A. County's emergency management office and had long worked with the state Office of Emergency Services. It's not unusual for a state or local government to retain a recovery consultant after a disaster, even if it has a recovery arm of its own. Hagerty has routinely been hired to help with hurricane recovery, including managing billions of dollars in funding after Superstorm Sandy in New York in 2012. Because Bass hired Hagerty under her emergency authority, the city has also solicited bids for a longer-term recovery contract worth $30 million over three years, with Hagerty among the companies vying for it. Initially, Hagerty spent 'a significant amount' of time compensating for the lack of a city recovery team, said Featherstone, who supervises Hagerty's work, at a budget hearing last month. By contrast, L.A. County had a dedicated recovery operation that consultants could plug into — and the muscle memory from recent disasters like the Woolsey fire. 'The structure had to be built out,' Featherstone told council members at the budget hearing. 'Folks were pulled out of their regular day-to-day functions … to start to build out a recovery capability.' That structure is a series of tactical teams focused on issues including infrastructure, economics, health and housing. Under each umbrella are multiple working groups composed of several city departments working with federal and regional agencies. Under the infrastructure team, for example, is a debris removal group, a utilities team and a group for hazards such as mudslides, according to a recording of a recovery meeting reviewed by The Times. The housing team, meanwhile, brings together the Department of Building and Safety and the city Planning Department to streamline the permitting process. Debris removal was one of the first orders of business — so that group was among the first to be organized and has been the 'busiest,' as one EMD staffer said in a recording of an internal March meeting. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has the primary responsibility for clearing debris from lots, with most expected to be done by Memorial Day and the rest largely due to be finished this summer. The city, with Hagerty, helped explain the debris removal process to residents, including the decision to opt in to the Army Corps cleanup or do it on their own. With Hagerty's guidance, the Emergency Management Department also created a dashboard showing the progress of debris removal, with real-time maps tracking the status of each lot. Tracey Phillips, a Hagerty executive, told City Council members in March that her firm was organizing these tactical teams and holding weekly meetings so that 'we can develop a short-term and mid-term operational framework.' 'This is the first step to that: [determining] who the players are, getting them in the room, getting them trained up and developing that operational cadence,' Phillips explained. 'It's already happening — it's just not being reported and it's not kind of coalesced yet.' As of mid-March, Hagerty had about 22 employees working on Palisades fire recovery, billing the city at hourly rates ranging from $80 to nearly $400 per employee. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez is among those who say that some of the money used for Hagerty would have been better spent bolstering the Emergency Management Department's rank and file — as Parks had requested last year. 'I don't understand their purpose. I don't need another contractor,' Rodriguez said in an interview. 'What my city staff needs is staff to do the work.' Asked whether funding for Hagerty would be better spent on EMD, Seidl, the spokesperson for Bass, said most of the firm's work is reimbursable by the federal government, a point that Featherstone made at a March budget hearing. Featherstone also suggested that Hagerty's guidance could yield more funding in the long run because of the firm's expertise with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hagerty and Featherstone declined interview requests from The Times. Joseph Riser, a spokesperson for EMD, provided written responses to questions. EMD was 'very pleased' with Hagerty for building out recovery teams 'where they did not previously exist,' Riser said, noting that the firm has improved coordination and provided 'high-level briefings' to City Hall and department general managers, among other duties. Seidl emphasized that the mayor has taken steps to preserve EMD's budget, 'even in difficult budget times like this year.' He also touted steps the city has taken to hasten the recovery, like a one-stop permitting and rebuilding center, measures to allow for the re-issuance of permits for homes built in recent years, and restoring water and power in two months compared to the 18 months it took in Paradise after the 2018 Camp fire. 'Despite one of the worst natural disasters in recent history, L.A.'s recovery effort is on track to be the fastest in modern California history,' Seidl said. Some Palisades residents say that Hagerty and EMD — and ultimately, Bass and her team — have done a poor job of communicating what their plan is going forward. Citing the cornucopia of government agencies involved in the rebuild, City Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes the Palisades, said, 'Sometimes it feels like there are so many people in charge that no one is in charge.' Maryam Zar, who runs the Palisades Recovery Coalition, said that at times, 'we feel like we are doing this ourselves.' Zar and her group have been among the most vocal advocates for a logistics plan governing how thousands of homes will be rebuilt in a community with narrow streets and already-snarled traffic. The group has circulated ideas that include a concrete plant in the Palisades, short-term housing for construction crews and one-way roads to ease congestion. Zar said that Hagerty has 'shown up to community meetings, and they have been so unable to deliver any kind of information.' In an interview, Park said that 'for weeks and weeks now,' she also has been asking Hagerty and city departments for 'a logistics and operations plan' for moving people, vehicles and materials in and out of the Palisades. Park has visited Lahaina, Hawaii, which was devastated by a wildfire in 2023, and studied other communities rebuilding from fires. She said those areas had consultants who were 'very, very engaged' with communities in identifying priorities and solving problems. She wants the city and Hagerty to push forward on a longer-term recovery plan that establishes criteria for fire-safe rebuilding and a timeline for restoring parks, schools, libraries and businesses. 'I know that those things can take significant time to develop. But this is Los Angeles, and this is the Pacific Palisades, and we are not waiting around,' she said, adding that she and her constituents were 'moving at warp speed.' Riser, the EMD spokesperson, said that traffic and logistics were not handled in a 'single, static, formal plan,' but that problems were being addressed in coordination with city and state agencies. He also said EMD has brought in traffic experts to 'structure this work more effectively.' 'Recovery is dynamic and complex and changes daily as debris is cleared, infrastructure is repaired, and reentry phases evolve,' Riser said. Frustration with Hagerty boiled over at an April 10 meeting of the Palisades community council, where Hagerty representative Harrison Newton touted recovery as 'a chance to become more resilient to the next disaster.' Residents could barely contain their fury, criticizing Newton for an abstract presentation that seemed divorced from their real needs around rebuilding, permitting and traffic control. 'It feels extremely generic,' said Lee Ann Daly, who then turned her ire toward City Hall. 'You need to know that we have a trust issue with the people who are paying you. ... We have a trust issue, and it's huge.' Palisades resident Kimberly Bloom, whose home burned in the fire, pressed Newton to provide a 'concrete example' of Hagerty's work in a prior disaster 'that is not just another layer of bureaucracy, because that's what it feels like at the moment.' Newton referred residents to Hagerty's website and spoke of how his firm provides 'augmentation support,' prompting residents to interrupt and criticize his use of jargon. After some back and forth, Newton emphasized that he and his team were trying to accelerate the city's response to the issues raised by residents. Hagerty, he said, was 'bringing more people to bear so they're less thinly stretched, and you're achieving work faster.' So far, more than 1,500 parcels in the Palisades have received a final sign-off from L.A. County that they are cleared of debris, paving the way to begin rebuilding. As of this week, 54 construction permits for 40 addresses have been issued in the Palisades, said Seidl, who noted that hundreds of permit applications are now under review. The burden will increasingly shift onto city agencies like the Department of Building and Safety to serve thousands of homeowners and businesses seeking plan checks, permits, inspections and certificates of occupancy. The logistics of whole neighborhoods undertaking simultaneous construction projects on hillside streets, with only a few major arteries in and out, will test the recovery framework that EMD and Hagerty have been working to erect. In the coming weeks, Bass is expected to name a new chief recovery officer, and her team is 'currently interviewing ... qualified candidates,' Seidl said. Featherstone, who was initially hired on a 120-day appointment, is now serving as an assistant general manager at EMD, and Parks, the EMD chief, has asked for funding in the coming fiscal year's budget to keep him. Hagerty could be replaced by a different firm if it loses the competitive bidding process for the multi-year recovery contract. One of the many 'deliverables' for that contract is developing a long-term recovery plan. That type of overarching plan governing the rebuilding — and direct communication about the plan — is what residents and local officials say they have been pleading for. 'We have more debris clearing to do, but we are also breaking ground on new buildings,' said Councilmember Park. 'If we don't get those plans under control and in place, this is going to turn into 'The Hunger Games' very quickly.'
See - Sada Elbalad
26-04-2025
- Sport
- See - Sada Elbalad
Iran: 500 injured in explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port
Basant Ahmed Hormozgan Province's Emergency Management Department reported that approximately 500 people injured in the Shahid Rajaee Port explosion have been transferred to hospitals in the province so far. The director general of the Hormozgan Crisis Management Department announced that investigations are underway in the area to determine the cause of the explosion. He added that they are working to quickly determine the cause of the incident and will announce it to the public soon. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News Egypt confirms denial of airspace access to US B-52 bombers News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia Lifestyle Pistachio and Raspberry Cheesecake Domes Recipe News Australia Fines Telegram $600,000 Over Terrorism, Child Abuse Content Arts & Culture Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's $4.7M LA Home Burglarized Videos & Features Bouchra Dahlab Crowned Miss Arab World 2025 .. Reem Ganzoury Wins Miss Arab Africa Title (VIDEO) Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Sports Neymar Announced for Brazil's Preliminary List for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers News Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly Inaugurates Two Indian Companies Arts & Culture New Archaeological Discovery from 26th Dynasty Uncovered in Karnak Temple
