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6 <br /> <br /> <br />concern about the difficulty to use ZoneHaven. More shelters are also needed on the Coastside along <br />with accessible and affordable transportation to the sites. <br />Communications and Education Solutions: Ideas included more information in Spanish delivered by <br />trusted community organizations, well-publicized evacuation routes, promoting the Firewise USA <br />program to increase awareness and preparedness regarding wildfires, and sending multilingual <br />messages via the text alert systems for wildfire evacuation warnings. Suggestions related to emergency <br />preparedness training included education on how to stay safe from fire and smoke if you can't evacuate, <br />since farm and outdoor workers, especially on the Coastside, are often required to keep working even <br />during a wildfire situation. <br />Defensible Space: People said that creating and maintaining defensible spaces was difficult for seniors, <br />people with disabilities or those who cannot afford or don't know how to clear defensible space around <br />homes. Some organizations on the Coastside provide a home repair program that could be expanded to <br />provide some services in this regard. <br />Other Wildfire Solutions: More funding for volunteer fire brigades was recommended. To address the <br />lack of personnel to fight fires or to maintain defensible spaces in public lands/open spaces, people <br />suggested an internship towards firefighting career path working with prisoners, homeless residents, <br />and high school students. Ideas to address lack of water to fight wildfires included capturing stormwater <br />runoff, building more water reservoirs and establishing pre-existing agreements for private water <br />providers to be reimbursed. <br />Flooding <br />Policy Solutions: Policy related ideas include changing regulations to allow building higher, subsidies or <br />training on how to flood-proof your home that include County-sponsored contractor help, providing <br />low-cost loans to raise homes and post-disaster funding for repairs and appliances after a flood event to <br />help people get back on their feet. Other ideas are related with providing incentives for landlords or <br />lowering permitting fees to upgrade rental housing and farmworker housing, plus promoting community <br />drain clearing and flood-conscious architecture. <br />Infrastructure Solutions: Ideas included assuring good road conditions and securing effective rain <br />gutters prior to a disaster, completing drainage ditch maintenance, providing sidewalks for roads that <br />don't have them to assure pedestrian safety, and creating evacuation routes signage and signage <br />indicating whether it is safe to drive through flooded areas in communities prone to flooding. On the <br />Coastside, suggestions included to continue Butano Creek bank restoration, and creek dredging. <br />Health and Pandemic <br />Overall, community members wanted to see health, medical, and disability considerations addressed <br />throughout hazard mitigation and emergency planning and implementation. <br />Community Capacity: There was interest in increasing community-based capacity, for example training <br />residential block leaders to conduct wellness checks and act as emergency contacts for neighbors. <br />Community members noted that they developed their own strategies to respond rapidly and cope with <br />COVID-19 with neighbors and community organizations and they want government to learn from and <br />engage with these strategies.