Emergency Preparedness

Twenty one months after fires devastated Los Angeles, we’re still not prepared for the next emergency. Now, extreme rain from El Niño begins.

The County and State have declared emergencies. The City of Los Angeles has not. Earlier this week, Nithya called on Mayor Bass to declare a State of Emergency immediately. 

Here’s our plan to be prepared for whatever hits the city, whether fire, earthquake, or extreme weather.

Our continued lack of preparation is inexcusable

If I’m the mayor, we will build emergency preparedness into everyday life. A major quake could disrupt water, power, and cell service, yet most Angelenos don't know where to go when those systems fail. Cities like Tokyo and Mexico City have built that knowledge into daily life. LA should follow their lead:

  • Designate neighborhood emergency hubs at schools, libraries, and other community spaces

  • Equip hubs with backup communications and power so they can operate when cell service and electricity are down.

  • Create neighborhood-level emergency plans for blocked roads, water outages, and evacuations

  • Ensure all households have access to emergency supplies

  • Hold regular public drills so residents practice where to go

We must be ready before disaster strikes

The 2025 fires exposed vulnerabilities that began long before the first evacuation order went out. Here’s what we’ll change so that the next fire will be different. 

  • Make sure brush clearance happens before fire season.

  • Expand early-detection technology to spot fires sooner.

  • Strengthen water infrastructure and emergency water supplies in high-risk areas.

  • Monitor recent fires to prevent rekindling.

  • Create and publish evacuation plans, ensuring bottlenecks are identified, people know where to go, and emergency responders are not impeded. 

Communications systems need to be reliable

During the Palisades Fire, damaged power and communications infrastructure left firefighters relying on overloaded radios. It took 38 minutes for evacuation orders to be sent to the public. And notifications failed non-English speakers and the disabled.

  • Audit radio coverage across hillside and canyon neighborhood and close dead zones

  • Equip frontline units with satellite-capable backup communications 

  • Work with carriers and regulators to close coverage gaps

  • Make alerts more targeted and actionable, with location-specific warnings, evacuation information, and instructions that change as conditions do.

  • Build multilingual and accessibility standards into every NotifyLA alert

  • Pair digital notifications with trusted community organizations and other ways to reach people without smartphones

It’s not just disasters…

We're falling behind on the emergencies Angelenos face every day.

LAFD data shows average response times to a medical emergency rose from 6:39 in 2019 to 7:44 in 2025. For someone in cardiac arrest, every extra minute cuts the odds of survival by as much as 8 percent.

While the slowdown is happening across the entire city, LA’s lowest-income communities saw response times increase by nearly twice as much as higher-income communities

We need to better use data to put emergency resources where the need is the greatest:

  • Expand specialized response units for lower-acuity calls, keeping ambulances and engines available for serious emergencies.

  • Track units and resources in real time so they can be deployed where they're needed most.

  • Pre-deploy resources ahead of predictable risks so they're in place before an emergency begins.

Los Angeles should have a mayor who does their job

You will hear directly from me, before, during and after an emergency. What we know. What we're doing. What you need to do to stay safe.

That's the job. Angelenos should not have to beg their mayor to do it.

Los Angeles deserves an emergency management system that is ready for the next disaster, that sends the right help fast, and that is honest and accountable before, during and after an emergency. This is about more than what went wrong in the Palisades or Boyle Heights. It’s about what must change to make sure Angelenos are never left this vulnerable again.