In a press conference held in the heart of Pacific Palisades an official announcement was made on Tuesday afternoon that phase two of the debris removal process on residential properties in the area was beginning.
Flanked by a fleet of backhoes, mini-excavators and other earth-moving equipment Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was joined by Los Angeles City Mayor Karen Bass together with state and federal leaders from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
“This is an amazing day to think that we are here just a few weeks after these fires were contained with the completion of the Household Hazardous Materials efforts for phase one and now to be able to begin phase two,” said Nancy Ward, Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.
“My family and friends lost homes in the fires of 2017 in Northern California, so seeing the devastation here is catastrophic. It's remarkable, though, to see the unity that can be brought from scenarios like this and seeing the community come together,” said Cameron Hamilton, acting Administrator for FEMA.
“We at FEMA are committed to ensuring that every survivor here knows that they have our full commitment. You have our focus, and you will not be forgotten. President Trump's laid out a very aggressive agenda to ensure that all the resources necessary to allow this community to recover quickly and effectively can be achieved,” Hamilton said.
“We want you to know that we stand with you. We grieve with you. We stand with you, and we're going to be there with you until everybody is able to return home. I am glad to stand here today to show you that when your government stands together, your government can work, every level of the government is here,” Bass told the large crowd of reporters.
“To move quickly, to move efficiently, to move safely, has been our key and this is the quickest debris removal process in state history … We thank the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, who have been relentless in their commitment to making sure that we are cleaning up our neighborhoods and that we are making them safe for people to come back home.,” Horvath said.
“As of today, we have more than 8000 forms which have been turned in and about 99% of them have opted into the Army Corps process, which means we can move swiftly in a coordinated fashion, thanks to the partnership of all of our residents who have opted into this process for the 1% those 131 individuals who have opted out, the county stands ready to issue permits,” she said, adding that more information is available at recovery.lacounty.gov and that forms need to be submitted by March 31, 2025.
Speaking to the Daily Press, Colonel Eric Swenson from the US Army Corps of Engineers explained how they were tackling identical problems after fighting the tragic wildfire on the island of Maui in Hawaii just five months before the Palisades Fire.
“We were right off the heels of that and we've learned a lot of lessons as a result. The same contractor we had in Hawaii is our contractor that we have here. We have what’s called the Advanced Contracting Initiative. So all of these contracts are pre-negotiated on five year agreements. So we already had a contract written. Think about it like having a lawyer on retainer. We have a contractor on retainer,” Swenson said.
“So when a crisis happens, if we get called, we call our contractor and they are responsive to us. So they were already here almost the same time we were starting to plan and do their own analysis, knowing that the work would come to them. Consequently, we were able to shave a lot of time off. And then the President provided us with additional resources, which allowed the EPA to shave probably more like 60 days off their timeline … So it's a perfect storm of resources coming here, which is a good thing.”
Regarding the imminent rain that’s forecast for the area, Swenson said, “A light rain is absolutely our friend. That is the Lord providing us with a little bit of dust mitigation. But too much rain is not our friend. So that's why we have these best management practices all over here, these green sleeves with wood chips in them, and that is to slow the water down, catch the water, filter the water before it has a chance to get into the storm drains.”
