26 States Of Emergency For Fires, Storms, Mpox Come To An End, Some As Old As 2017

By Ria Roebuck Joseph | Center Square contributor, The Center Square California

February 1, 2023

(The Center Square) - Twenty-six open states of emergency came to an end Tuesday when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation declaring them ended.

The oldest emergency termination was for Butte, Sutter and Yuba Counties when it was noticed on Feb 7th, 2017, during an attempt to control dam levels, that several concrete slabs in the Oroville dam failed and were missing altogether. Water released through floodgates eroded and created a large hole below the chute. The area had experienced record-breaking rainfall and 200,000 residents downstream were evacuated as a precautionary measure after the slab failure. The state of emergency was declared on Feb. 12, 2017.

Among the 26 emergencies were three storm declarations in 2019, two earthquakes in 2019, a pipeline spill in Orange County in 2021, and Mpox, formerly known as monkey pox, in 2022. However, the vast majority of declarations were for fires for each of the years from 2017 through 2022.

The state of emergency for COVID-19 was not one that ended on Jan. 31. That declaration would come to an end on Feb. 28.

Of all the declared states of emergency, the early storms of 2019 impacted the largest number of Californians and affected residents of Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Shasta, Tehama, Trinity, Ventura, and Yolo Counties.

Ending the states of emergencies indicate that the resources and agencies made available to the counties to manage impacted areas are no longer required and “that the conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property declared in the State of Emergency proclamations….no longer exist.”

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