Cal Fire urges preparation for this weekend’s storm

Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department is stepping up resources and staff ahead of this weekend’s storm.

Read: Storm #2 Moving Into SoCal

Fire stations are stocking up and setting out sandbags free of cost to the community.

“What people can do number one go to your local fire station and grab sandbags, fill sandbags if your property has had flooding before be proactive,” said Cal Fire Captain Fernando Herrera.

Cal Fire is assigning an additional chief officer to the Coachella Valley to command operations and bringing in a special utility vehicle to fill and deploy sandbags across the valley.

Herrera says they are also going to be staffing a water rescue team as well as a technical team that specializes in any type of rescue.

Officials are using social media to get the message out to residents to be ready and have a plan.

“We put out an alert at 10 this morning for the community of North Shore which was devasted by the storm that came through in December,” Herrera said.

Herrera says they learned a lot from the aftermath of that storm.

Cal Fire will be using new technology to help to assess flooding zones. For example, the web tool shows the geographic mapping of mountain communities on where burn scar could cause debris flow or flooding.

“They can tell based on that map if they’re in a zone that’s at risk, that will either be a voluntary or mandatory evacuation,” Herrera said.

It’s a tool officials say saves lives and something they’re hoping to expand to the Coachella Valley.

“Technology didn’t exist 10-15 years ago. We’re able to build such elaborate sites so that we can be so precise in not just the mapping but the information we get out,” Herrera said.

Click here to see those interactive map features and a full list of where you can find sandbags like these at a fire station near you.