Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with approximately 20 elected officials from areas in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties affected by the wildfires. The meeting was held in an effort to learn how the Governor’s office can assist in the aftermath, as well as to learn what went well and what did not during the recent series of wildfires that caused a state of disaster to be called in several California counties.
“It was a great meeting and a pleasure to be able to meet the governor personally in a smaller setting. The Governor was very attentive and interested in hearing from communities who were affected by the wildfires,” commented Mayor Marsha McLean.
Mayor McLean discussed two major areas of concern in Santa Clarita that arose during the fires: the need for major road connectors and the loss of cellular phone service during the disasters.
A few Verizon cell towers went down or were damaged as a result of the fires. This limited the ability of City staff to communicate via mobile devices to the Incident Command Center in Central Park, and with workers in the field. Roughly only one or two, out of every five calls were going through. These problems lasted all day on October 22nd and most of the 23rd. The problem was not resolved until a temporary cell tower was put in place. With more citizens being reliant on cell phone technology, coupled with increased cell phone reliance by emergency responders, exploration of ways to provide priority cell service to emergency responders should be explored.
With regard to roads, the City of Santa Clarita is currently seeking approximately $7 million in funding to complete the Cross Valley Connector, a six and eight lane arterial connecting Interstate 5 and State Route 14 through the heart of Santa Clarita. This road, if it were already complete, would have provided badly needed emergency access and traffic relief during the recent Interstate 5 truck lane crash that closed Interstate 5 that rerouted the freeway traffic through local neighborhoods and aided in traffic evacuations of neighborhoods in Santa Clarita during the Buckweed Fire. Local transportation projects that provide emergency access should receive enhanced funding consideration.
Additionally, Mayor McLean shared that preliminary damage estimates in the City of Santa Clarita are $2 million in damage to public facilities and $20 million in damage to private property, although more specific assessments are currently underway.
