Emergency services: disaster preparedness.

Assembly Member Caloza's disaster preparedness legislation mandates biennial emergency response exercises and establishes new coordination mechanisms between California's emergency management agencies. The Office of Emergency Services would convene key personnel across public safety, utilities, healthcare, and transportation sectors to evaluate preparedness plans through simulated catastrophic scenarios based on existing response frameworks for floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis.

The bill creates a State Lifelines Council, partnering the Seismic Safety Commission with the Strategic Growth Council and Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to coordinate post-disaster recovery planning. This council would develop unified performance standards for utility providers and identify necessary state investments to enable rapid recovery after major incidents. The legislation also directs the Office of Emergency Services to conduct annual disaster preparedness training in vulnerable regions identified through federal risk assessment tools, working with local Community Emergency Response Teams to test emergency notification systems and conduct community drills.

Implementation relies on federal preparedness grants to offset costs for state, local and tribal government participation in the exercises. The Office of Emergency Services must report exercise outcomes to legislative committees beginning February 2028 and every two years thereafter, documenting how the simulations enhance capabilities in areas such as operational coordination, public communications, and critical infrastructure stabilization.