Res21 16010 final - Laserfiche WebLink

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7 Medical and Disability Needs: The needs of residents with health and mental health conditions as well as disabilities were highlighted as needing special attention in emergency planning, shelters and cooling/ clean air centers and evacuation. Communications and Outreach: Community members wanted COVID-19 information, particularly about where to get tests and vaccinations, to be more readily available and distributed in a more visible way such as through SMC-Alert or through a one-stop-shop website and app including real time information during an emergency. Guidance on wearing masks, getting tested and getting vaccinated was seen as inadequate if community members could not afford or even find masks, or get testing and vaccination appointments. Community members wanted masks for those who couldn’t afford them and resources for getting vaccinated and tested to accompany these messages. Earthquake Earthquake Preparedness Solutions: Participants called out a need for earthquake safety training and basic preparedness information, especially for people living in apartment buildings. Participants suggested promoting the use of emergency kits by either distributing pre-made emergency kits or providing people with a list of items that should be included in an emergency kit. Another idea was to include a handbook of numbers to call for help in case of an earthquake or other disaster. Infrastructure Solutions: Other suggestions included teaching people how to retrofit their homes and the need to address big apartment complexes that are in bad shape and/or not up to current building code standards. Drought Water Conservation Solutions: At the household level, water conservation ideas to address shortages included encouraging drought-resistant landscaping and rain barrels in households, retrofitting to save water in residential areas. Infrastructure solutions at the county and city scale included increasing water storage capacity, underground water storage, groundwater recharge, updating wastewater treatment plants in order to clean water to potable standards, and allowing access to non-potable water for large users like golf courses. Nature-based solutions include habitat restoration and incentives for people to replace lawns. Policy Solutions: Policy considerations include the removal of restrictions for greywater use programs, water use policies for new construction in commercial and multifamily building, and cities setting targets to conserve water. Other ideas include low-impact development (LID) requirements for all new residential and commercial construction, requiring large land and commercial properties to have rainwater catchment and plumbing that allows for reuse of grey water for landscape purposes. Communications Solutions: Broadcast information on programs such as Lawn Be Gone and Rain Garden Rebate Options from the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA). Multiple Overlapping Hazards Many people described the challenges they faced in the summer of 2020 when extreme heat, smoke from wildfires, and the pandemic all happened at the same time with overlapping Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). This combination of events meant that people couldn’t take the usual measures to get relief from the individual hazards. For example, people couldn’t open their windows to get relief from the heat because then the harmful smoky air would get into their homes or run fans when the power