El Niño bringing floods, mud slides, erosion, Garcetti warns LA residents

Mayor Eric Garcetti urged L.A. residents Friday to be prepared for a particularly wet and potentially damaging winter, with El Niño likely to bring heavy rain and flooding.

“The rain that we expect can lead to flooding, mud slides, coastal erosion,” Garcetti said at the city’s Emergency Operations Center. “We can see streets lost. We can see homes gone, bridges collapse, large waves, debris flows. And while we can never completely accurately predict the weather, it’s about a 95 percent certainty that we will (see) a huge impact from El Niño this season.”

Garcetti said the city has been actively preparing for an El Niño “that is being described as too big to fail.” He said a task force will be meeting regularly to ensure the city is ready to respond if damaging storms occur.

He also announced that the city has arranged a deal with four major cell phone service providers to ensure voice and data service will be available on any network if an emergency occurs.

“So now the city of Los Angeles is better prepared for El Niño, but I want to make sure that our fellow Angelenos are prepared as well,” the mayor said.

Garcetti urged residents to register at www.notifyLA.org so they can receive alerts via phone calls, emails or text messages when emergencies occur.

“Once you register, you will receive information via voice, text or email alerts, only if your geographic area is affected by an emergency,” he said. “You’re not going to get spam, we’re not signing you up for special city offers. This is really only for those emergencies when you are directly geographically affected.”

Information on preparing for storms is also available at www.elninoLA.com.

— City News Service