 All right, we would like to thank everyone for being here this afternoon. As you can see behind myself here, there are many individuals representing many different agencies throughout the state and throughout the nation who are willing and ready to speak and are here to express really their concern for what has happened here recently. So as in the other press conferences, we will go ahead and allow each speaker to say what they're going to say, and after which we will go ahead and have a brief opportunity for some questions before we have a one-on-one breakout and we end the press conference. So let us please all hold questions until after each speaker has had their opportunity and that will help things to flow more smoothly. So now let's go ahead and start with the Ridgecrest Police Department Chief McAuliffe. There's no more room on this. Thank you all for coming. As you can see, there's a lot of people that care about this community by those that stand behind me, and you guys are here to obviously not see me. So we reported earlier that it is hard for the world to see how we are feeling and how we've felt over these past few days. I've had the opportunity to show the governor, Cal OES, and the dignitaries that stand behind me. Some of what we've been experiencing, because it is internal, not only internal personally for myself and our community, our buildings, and everything around us, it is hard to see from the outside. So I hope that they've taken that opportunity and they've been given that sample of what we've been going through for these past few days. So with that, I will turn it over. Our next speaker will be City of Ridgecrest Mayor Breeden. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome, Governor. Thank you for being here. He called me the morning right after the quake and he said, what can I do? How can I help? I'm here. And naturally I thought, okay, those are great political words. I will never hear or see from this man again. Wow, was I wrong? Here he is. He's offering help. He's giving us ideas and he said I'm going to bring a team up that will make this happen. And so with no further ado, you don't want to hear me. You want to hear the man. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker will be Cal OES Director Mark Gillarducci. All right, I'm going to say a few words so you can get to the governor. I'm the director of Governor Newsom's Office of Emergency Service. I want to talk a little bit about the state's response and support of the City of Ridgecrest and Kern County. Very shortly after the magnitude 6.4, we were working with the city and the county deploying a lot of mutual aid assets from throughout the Southern California area. And it really cannot say enough about all of the support from the various fire agencies and other law enforcement and public safety agencies that supported the call for mutual aid from urban search and rescue capabilities to fire strike teams to hazmat teams that we were able to bring in in support of the first quake. And then again when the 7.1 occurred, accelerating those resources and increasing the number of mutual aid assets but also supporting with state assets from the California Highway Patrol, the California National Guard, Cal Fire Department of Public Health to make sure that all of the different aspects that were needed to deal with the immediate aftermath and the public health issues and the search and rescue issues and the fire suppression issues were addressed. Understand the State Operations Center in Sacramento is at the highest level of activation and we've got thousands of other local and then state and federal partners. Very early on FEMA got engaged with us and the governor did proclaim a state of emergency almost immediately after the 6.4 and then ratified it again in the 7.1 ensuring that that opened the pathway for all assets but also made the request to the White House for direct federal assistance and FEMA has been with us every step of the way and we're very appreciative of that. We'll continue to be here for the long term now transitioning from response into recovery and beginning to do damage assessment throughout the area working with the city and the county and the base to look at what the damages look like and how best we can work to be able to address both individual needs and infrastructure damage public losses across the region. So with that I'm happy to now introduce our governor, Governor Gavin Newsom. Thank you all very much for all your coverage and your participation in the reality in the last 48 hours it's been extraordinary not only for all of us here in California but I imagine for people around the world wondering what's happening in the state it's been a remarkable many months in California. I just got off the phone five minutes ago quite literally five minutes ago with the president just reflecting on the fact six months ago we were battling a fire in Northern California the campfire in Butte County battling fires at the same time concurrently down in Southern California the Woolsey fire now earthquakes as a former mayor of San Francisco fourth generation California and in San Franciscan earthquakes are as familiar to me as they are I think down to everybody down here the flag of San Francisco is a Phoenix rising that came out of the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and the Phoenix rising symbolic because San Francisco rose from those assets and became stronger more resilient city as a consequence of people committing to each other committing to a sense of community committing to their city in the state in this nation collectively who we are as a people and I think that resiliency that same level of commitment is demonstrable when you walk around this community I've had the privilege of spending time the mayor with your district attorney your police chief many other leaders city administrator to city council members members the board of supervisors have had the chance to talk with people more resolved than ever to rebuild but rebuild with an enlightened sense of what this community can be moving forward and I think some of the most interesting conversations we had were in that spirit how can we be stronger how can we be better how could we be more self-reliant not just more resilient as a community and our expression was one of commitment not interest in helping support that cause as the director said we're now moving in the new phase but for me this phase extends beyond just the immediate term the next few days the next few weeks as all of you move on the cameras move on as we move from another natural disaster maybe man made disaster community here is going to I think rightfully expect that the state of California has their back that the federal government has their back there's no doubt in my mind after talking with the president he's committed the long haul the long run to help support the rebuilding efforts we are as a state as well and so I'm here in that spirit spirit of gratitude spirit of respect for the leadership assembled behind me to the first responders many of them that are getting their first hot meal many of them haven't seen their kids many of their kids who haven't seen their parents that are in shock quite literally in shock because they're scared to death to go back home and tell mom or dad get back home and make them feel safe to all of those folks out here across not only this city and this remarkable naval base by the way a naval base for those that are not familiar a naval base that's larger than any other land naval base anywhere in the Navy's portfolio a third of the land mass of the Navy exist just here in this community you want to talk about patriotic community you want to talk about a community completely tied on the 4th of July to the values and principles of patriotism and love of the flag come here on 9 11 when they do the memorial the remembrance and thousands of flags are lined up here I did this happen on 4th of July and happened right here with the community that really is connected to our forces also is a is a remarkable thing and just it's a point of spirit it's a point of pride that sort of extends to this community extends to our commitment to this community not just as a state but I hope as a nation as well so again thank you to all of the extraordinary work of the first responders thank you as well and closing to the community I just was out the mobile home park many of you but out to the mobile home park it's interesting I was up in a Napa earthquake some of the most significant devastation occurred there it's a socioeconomic issue as well for many that don't have the means or mechanisms to to go once their red tag they don't have a place to go they don't have many cases family members but that sense of community was alive and well there and it was wonderful to see and so again just know California is committed to rebuilding California is committed to this region and California is committed in closing to do more to raise consciousness and awareness around the fact that our beauty California's extraordinary beauty is defined in many respects by seismology and by these quakes there's a reason these mountain ranges are here there's a reason California is what it is and so the folks in Los Angeles that I know aren't sleeping as well over a two night period we all have an opportunity now to get more prepared to be more vigilant to look at our building codes look at our home hardening to look at that alert system and I'm happy to answer any questions about what the state will be doing and has been doing on a state overlay on an early warning system which we are fully committed to and is a lot farther along than some actually may believe we all I think have a unique role in responsibility there individually to be prepared for the next earthquake of magnitude even greater than 7.1 so thank you all for being here and we happily this is the moment we'll take any questions and any of us here including commissioner of CHP and general Baldwin of the National Guard are all here to answer your questions just commitment whatever you need it's the words I'm familiar with president made those commitments and for folks in Buick County made those commitments to folks down in Woolsey and he's fulfilled that commitment there's no question any of you you've all written and run these stories and agree on everything but one area where there's no politics where we've worked extraordinarily well together is on emergency response recovery and increasing that emergency preparedness and this is this is consistent with that relationship and I want to thank the president for his outreach but more importantly for FEMA we have our regional director of FEMA happens to interestingly live Bob in San Francisco and he represents this region we're getting to know each other well because of all these fires and now these earthquakes and FEMA has just been extraordinary and that's an extension of our federal administration job well done. What did you see on the tour and did you speak to any residents? Yeah we spoke to the residents but what we saw on the tour is exactly what the police chief said we saw what many people don't see and that's what resides inside the chief has made this point to you on with the course last few days I've watched it I've heard it it's made it privately in the cars we were touring around you don't notice the damage until you open that door we were forgive me for those at Sears they're happy to hear it you know you walk into that Sears and we were with the gentleman that runs it he says this was the damage on Thursday this is the damage on Friday and you walk into Sears you wonder if there's any damage at all right when you open those doors you see something very differently go to the mobile home park the same thing red tags are there for a reason you see a few bricks down but you don't see what's behind those doorways so folks were making that point not only first responders and your leaders here but also the community leaders was interesting just at the mobile home park they were very pleased that the water was on but they said slow down on getting the gas back on just because you know this is a challenging time for us and we're a little nervous about what's going on it's just that's the ebb and flow of this moment but most the intersections are back up not all of them most the roads Caltran our state transportation folks got those roads back up obviously our two investor owned utilities Edison and PG&E I think have done an admirable job over the course last 48 hours a little bit more work to do we were just down at the hospital thank you Jim and his team down there row at job that's always the toughest job and they're battling you know someone said boy Jim you walk on water and we quite literally were walking on water because it was flooding still in there and they got to clean up the water but that's that's the spirit everybody rowing in the right direction people haven't slept people doing their job and credible ways yeah I'm gonna allow someone to talk about that more prescriptive terms but I will say this look this is this is the interesting differentiation between these wildfires and what has occurred here is most folks let's be candid don't have earthquake insurance because they can't afford it or they just are unwilling to spend the money because the deductibilities are so high and so in many of these cases that is a huge out of pocket expense business interruption obviously a consequence of someone a mobile park imagine a $10,000 cost that's astronomical so multiple things are happening and they're happening as they should in a deliberative manner you start with local and county declarations of emergency the state provides that overlay the president I just talked about the federal declaration of emergency and then you move to the next phase of that declaration then allows individuals to get benefits along the lines of the individual you talk to so it's sequenced I have all the confidence the world the president will be forthcoming in immediate terms with the federal declaration and then we will move on to the subsequent declaration which will be done after a very detailed inventory of all the damage now quick point before I turn it over we were having a conversation in the back lessons learned around earthquakes in California it's deceiving earthquake damage you'll notice it at first and so it's incumbent upon this community to go through a very detailed assessment of that damage and we want to be here to help them with the paper work literally and figuratively and to make sure that there's a professionalism turns out how you assess that damage so that they are eligible for all the reimbursements but as it relates to the broader emergency declaration and individuals getting that support perhaps you can talk a little bit more about that so the governor's right when he talks about sequencing the initial effort is really to do a damage assessment and we will be starting tomorrow going out and working with with the city and the community to be able to get a better assessment on what we're looking at part of what we will do is is not only apply for federal assistance through FEMA but we'll also be applying for small business administration low interest loans these are disaster loans that are designed for just this purpose to help individuals who may need a step up to be able to address that so as the governor mentioned as it goes through that process we hope to have that damage assessment done here within about a week's period or so week and a half and then we'll be able to move forward with the applications for those assets Mark talk a little bit about the disaster assistance that was also something through our disaster assistance acts we're providing resources more broadly so there's a couple that at the state level there are there's a program called the California Disaster Assistance Act it is really the governor's public assistance for infrastructure loss and infrastructure damage his program to be able to support local governments that may have sustained damage this is for damage to critical infrastructure roads schools hospitals fire stations etc and and also to help offset the cost of the response by all of the public safety officials that are responded to the earthquakes and governor has already as a part of a proclaiming the state of emergency has invoked the California Disaster Assistance Act to make that funding available to the community that also is is sequenced with regards to us working with the city and the county and being able to identify costs and and move that forward but one last thing I will say is this is a whole of community responses that's not solely a government we also engage our partners in the private sector and we engage the philanthropic and faith based sectors for example the current county community foundation has been stood up and is accepting of funding to be able to help unmet needs or members that may not are individuals that may not be able to meet certain government-related program so we're going to work collectively with the city and county to ensure that the whole of community engages in the overarching response and that's two counties and not just this city we have not forgotten the smaller communities that reside in and around where we stand and that's critical as well that we not forget those unincorporated parts not being necessarily visible all the time a lot of people in California are going to be looking at the pictures on tv and they're thinking hey they've essentially survived a 6.4 to 7.1 what do you say to the people at this state about the dangers of complacency? well I mean you've got to be prepared but at the same time you know I've lived through three or four quakes in my life time and I was there I don't remember giving my address but 15 Rico Way and the Marina District in San Francisco walking out to watch the World Series literally walking my doorstep it was 50 something a p.m. in 1989 and that was a 6.9 quake my idea that that's indelible in my mind 7.1 I can't even imagine look we can't be complacent remind people this all the time my first one of my first meetings was governor I got sworn in I said we need to prepare an earthquake and this is not being precedent this is just being a historian it's a very predictor of the future is the past that's California but I just want folks to know I got a call I'm not making this up for someone in Mongolia a friend of mine says my gosh everything's you guys all right this you know felt the whole state had collapsed or something you know California is doing very well folks it's remarkably large diverse state and it has some of the toughest building codes in the world post 2008 no state is doing more to secure its infrastructure we just got to get in that old building stock and we got to prepare and part of that preparedness as well in terms of being vigilant is making sure that we get this early earthquake warning system up and running at a statewide level 70 percent of it's done we're putting the infrastructure in it's not going to be done in 476 cities 58 counties it's got to be done at a statewide level it's a partnership obviously with USGS and Caltech but also UC Berkeley and the state itself we're building out that infrastructure the final infrastructure is being put in place I think it'll be 1100 of these pre-positioned size monitors or however whatever the infrastructure nomenclature is because there's multiple types that are being put into place but know that we are committed to rolling that out shortly I don't want to over promise when but also it goes to where technology can also aid in terms of early warning and in this case not that interface that we've been talking about which is with the public but first with critical infrastructure automatic shutoffs on train systems and rail systems the ability with that early warning to recognize that we have to reconcile the legitimate concerns around you know a liso canyon I don't mean that is something everybody around liso canyons or panic around but large facilities to make sure they're that we trigger uh some uh well some early warning as you've seen other parts of the world that's another part of our effort to be vigilant sort of business to business and government to government and then roll it out for the rest of the public were you surprised compared to your thinking about 1989 I was down at Northridge 71 when we came into town they've been telling us you know the data wasn't as bad as we expected did you expect to see more or seven months yeah I did and I didn't I remember sitting there in the marina district I said the entire bridge had collapsed I was I was living in the city and I just assumed the bridge had collapsed I was there in the middle of it I was right there with those so iconic buildings had buckled I was walking right down the block so I had assumed the rest of the city looked like that I was amazed when I walked through the rest city that 99 percent of it was in pretty good shape so we're remarkably resilient even you know so we highlight the fire and everyone assumes everything's on fire that's devastating for the individual's impact and the community impacted but there's another story here so yes and no but I'll tell you you get a 71 in and around Los Angeles I see your hat that's that that's a consequence where we're not talking about some small injuries which is remarkable that there were no major injuries we're talking about a magnitude of a number of people have lost their lives and property damage in the billions not the tens of millions or low hundreds of millions so look uh we've got to be prepared this is a wake-up call not for this community it's reality for this community but it is a wake-up call for the rest of the state and for other parts of the nation that are not immune from this same kind of activity are you surprised there's not more damage from 7.1 points a year? yeah I mean after the 6.4 and then you impact that on top of 7.1 yeah no question I mean we flew in here and by the way we flew in in the Naval base there's a lot of damage out there I don't want to speak out of school on that but I don't think there's any more important economic activity that could be advanced than getting those folks back to work and getting that base back up I mean I think the mayor would just say 86 percent of the economic activity is directly or indirectly tied to that base so we got to get that moving but there is some damage that you may not have all had the privilege to see that is again the point that needs to be reinforced it's just not visible but when you start opening those doors you see a different picture is there someone who can address the damage on the base without giving away any secrets and is there anyone who can? I'm sure there is but I don't you know I don't want to speak for them but I want to keep his rank I'm not sure he wants to but maybe he was want to talk yeah forgive me for putting you in this spot thank you so Captain Paul Dale commanding officer at Naval Air weapons station China Lake so we had initial assessments we had moved from the recovery or we moved from the into the recovery and cleanup phase after the 6.4 now after the 7.1 last night we pretty much started over we're transitioning now just like was mentioned for the local area the community into that also recovery and cleanup phase I don't have any specifics for you because we continue to go through the damage initial damage assessments and we have a large number of structural engineers that are on the installation right now making assessments and providing that information up to higher headquarters for further further decisions and further assessments say again so we do have weapons magazines on the installation because we are a naval air weapons station so we have that weapons aspect of our mission and uh yes the weapons are secure first name is paul last name is Dale the a l.e. bring up the chief and now we're ready for you after the chief chief you talked about the people not being able to see the damage this is done the mental wear and tear on people who've gone through two bigger things can you put that into words uh isn't it on my face but uh into words uh i don't know what words would uh that i could use for that right now um i can give you a bunch of words that we've all gone through or um grief um shock and uh and then for me uh pride and uh what i've seen from here my people so it's uh it's been a vast uh range of emotions so and i think the whole community is going through that so i don't think i could pick one word and i imagine as a parent with children when the younger you are the more unnerved i imagine you may be by this experience so the issues of behavioral health are important and some of the assets that we are sending down uh are around the issues of brain health and being there to address some of those concerns as well as a person from san francisco who has experienced earthquakes do you have any philosophical words of comfort for our community yeah you're going to rebuild you're going to be a stronger and better community i don't think that i know that uh there that's an evidence everywhere you go that was an evidence when we landed the plane uh by the folks that were out there and you know all the local chp that were out there that came back uh over the fourth of july weekend they were gone and came back because they wanted to be there for their community that spirit is alive here deeply uh the folks i mean this is one of the most sophisticated communities in america you got more phd's here than probably you know students in stanford um you got folks that uh that feel a great sense of place going back decades in the 1940s when that that base was conceived and what it's represented to the world not just america in terms of its defense uh this is a special place so i have no trepidation about this community building stronger and in time that will shock you this is not 20 30 years i mean i think this is going to turn around you're going to be mesmerized by how quickly we're able to come together and how vibrant things will return what is your message to the immigrant community whether from this community or any other community that are affected by this disaster or any other disaster that might be afraid to come forward in chance for assistance well when it comes to emergency response we have no engagement as it relates to turning over information you provide your information or id no one within our diverse communities should be concerned about that being used against them i've seen this in the past we're up there on that we had an orville dam issue uh and we had some folks in shelters that weren't in shelters they were sleeping outside and there were empty shelter beds said what's going on that's because there were some mixed status families and they were scared to death to go in because they were asking for ids to make sure they were from the local community i'd express that was not to use that information against you it was just to make sure you were from the community impacted in no way shape or form should people fear being part of the larger community regardless of their status as it relates to emergency response money in an hour time if you don't say for us to rebuild we can get back to where we're born well that's being assessed and it's being a sense in detail and it's being assessed in a very very deliberative way not only prescriptively as it relates to what it takes to get reimbursements not just from the state but the federal government but also as it relates to individuals assessing their own damage for their own personal purposes beyond that in the immediate term we have a general Baldwin here from the National Guard and they have 200 personnel that are ready to engage as needed a CHP had 68 staff members that were out here and their position has more you know as you need more we're going to be there we have all kinds of other resources including a lot of federal resources for FEMA that are being positioned and staged if this continues so we're ready to resource in the immediate term in the longer term we were talking to some of your leaders the mayor and others about how we can look at existing state pots of money and look at the rebuilding with a little bit more position and strategic intent to focus on ways of magnifying those investments so that the community can be benefited in a more robust way than otherwise would be the damages are currently being assessed obviously the fires and those piece of property that are completely lost but your economic damage well in north of a hundred million dollars that was that's an old number you're going to get new numbers as long as that naval base is closed that's going to impact the community and economic spend profoundly so all that will be assessed all that will be considered as it relates to those insured those without insurance those with business loss insurance related not just to traditional earthquakes but other mechanisms to which they get reimbursed if you are a franchisee it owns a business there's a relationship with the franchisee that could help share those costs of burdens all this is forgive me all assessed on an individual and a segmental basis and all of that will amount to tens of tens of millions of dollars anyone in the public what they should be doing today is preparing for an earthquake fire or a dam break you know i i said this at nauseam prepare for the worst not because you want to experience the worst you should even expect it but i talk about this notion of 72 hours worst case where you're on your own for 72 hours where you're working with your cert teams and neighborhood emergency response teams and you actually participate maybe it's an opportunity to volunteer for your community emergency response team so you know what i'm going to spend that weekend learn CPR actually get to know my neighbors a little bit because in the most dire circumstance when you get you know closer to that 1906 level it's unlikely that first responders are going to be there in those first few hours they're going to do everything they can be but the magnitude of those quakes are such that you need to prepare on your own so it's more than just water for your family yourself it's taking care of your pets everyone forgets their pets we love our pets but they're often not prepared for them making sure that you know the communication goes down it didn't go down here but if it does go down and your daughters at school your son's a camp that you had some consideration that you can't just pick up your phone and all reconvene and you think about in a worst-case scenario where we can't talk we're going to go to this site because we predetermined those the kind of things putting together those emergency plans on an individual basis based on your own circumstances i think is something everybody should do that's the price of admission as a resident of california governor i have a question just to find it briefly about help to the immigrant community some federal help though doesn't have streets attached that people must be either a legal resident and no undocumented immigrants can apply for that federal would that be the case here if the federal money flows to california and help immigrants here must they be legal residents or yeah cannot be undocumented so that's certainly the case in certain categorical funds but what i'm talking about is just the emergency and recovery phase that people should feel secure going to shelter people shouldn't put themselves in harm's way people should know they have the right and access to the emergency room that they have those same opportunities everybody else without fear that's the most important thing as it relates to those subsequent phases of where people are eligible for reimbursements that's absolutely true and one would have to navigate that on a case-by-case basis the state does certain things but the federal government undoubtedly has different rules and regulations anybody's coming from the state would people need to be legal residents yeah and mark you could talk more prescriptively but that's when we move through this merge this the immediate emergency phase and recovery phase that's a different place so so i understand your question correctly you're talking about coming and getting state assistance so right now the state program that we're invoking is a public assistance program this is focused immediately on public infrastructure damage in other words damage to roads bridges and the cost of responding to the emergency the state doesn't have per se an individual assistance program so when i say whole of community what we do is we invoke the larger community to bring to the to the the state's response and recovery operation those programs that aren't necessarily governmental and when the governor speaks about the opportunity for all you know demographics to be able to come in and get assistance when you come into the state you you have opportunity to be able to access all of those programs we will work with the city and the counties that have been impacted throughout the region to open up what's called a local assistance center that local assistance center will have a variety of state and local programs not necessarily federal yet state and local programs which will include philanthropic faith base and other kinds of programs that every californian or individual that have been impacted by the disaster can take uh um to take an opportunity with regardless of their status regardless of the status last question are we good thank you all very much thank you thank you guys