Sonoma County supervisors call for a state of emergency

Sonoma County has urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in response to extreme flooding that forced mandatory evacuation of two dozen communities along the Russian River.

The Board of Supervisor made the request Tuesday, saying a proclamation would allow the county to receive state disaster assistance and waive competitive bidding requirements for recovery work.

If the state of emergency is granted, Sonoma County will request funding in the form of reimbursement, an amount that county officials can begin to determine as soon as this weekend, county spokeswoman Jennifer Larocque said.

There was no estimated time for when the governor would make the decision on the request, she said.

“What we’re looking at is the extraordinary challenge to public safety and civil governance,” Sonoma County Emergency Manager Chris Godley said during a Wednesday news conference.

Among the biggest challenges were allocating enough resources, including Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies and fire personnel, to each of the communities isolated by the high flooding, Godley said.

County emergency officials no longer were evacuating flooded areas Wednesday, though thousands are believed to have ignored mandatory evacuations sent out a day earlier, Godley said. Emergency responders were only rescuing people in imminent threat as of Wednesday afternoon, he added.

Since Tuesday, Redcom, the county’s fire and medical dispatch center, has received double the call volume, said Aaron Abbott, its executive director.

The dispatch center typically receives about 100 calls within a 24-hour period, most of them for medical emergencies, Abbott said. By Wednesday afternoon, dispatchers had received about 200 calls within the time frame. The majority involved reports of hazardous conditions, such as downed electrical wires, large amounts of standing water or trees blocking the roadway, he said.

Some also involved requests for assistance, including reports of people whose cars were stranded in ankle-deep water, Abbott said.

“The majority of the activity is happening in Guerneville right now, so right on the river,” Abbot said. “That’s the area of the county that’s most impacted by the floods and it’s the largest amount of people who are interacting with the (storm).”

REDCOM has brought in an additional dispatcher to help field the influx of calls, Abbott said. Another dispatcher embedded at the Graton command post on Wednesday, helping take flood-related calls.