Counties Urge State Action Ahead of Potentially Severe Winter 

With forecasts pointing to an unusually wet winter, CSAC and local government partners are urging the Newsom Administration to act now to help communities reduce flood risks before the first major storms arrive. 

In a letter sent Wednesday, CSAC led a coalition of counties, cities, flood-control agencies, water agencies and other organizations in requesting a statewide executive order to expedite critical maintenance and flood-prevention work ahead of the 2026-27 winter season.  

The statewide effort builds on early action by the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency and its member agencies, which first called for an executive order to expedite urgent flood-risk reduction work. The community of Pajaro knows the stakes firsthand: a levee breach during the 2023 storms flooded the community, damaging hundreds of homes and forcing residents to evacuate. 

The urgency is being driven by forecasts for a potentially severe winter. NOAA is predicting a 69% chance of a historic El Niño, while NOAA and European climate forecasters are projecting increasingly wet conditions across California. 

Years of wildfires, heavy rainfall and other extreme weather have contributed to excess vegetation, sediment and debris in waterways throughout the state — conditions that can increase flood risks when major storms arrive.  

The coalition is asking the Administration to give local agencies the tools to address those risks quickly. The requested executive order would expedite vegetation management, debris and sediment removal, bridge scour protection and other flood-protection projects while streamlining permitting and other regulatory requirements for urgent work.  

The request also calls on Cal OES and other state agencies to help identify local funding and resource gaps and provide available equipment, personnel, technical support and emergency-planning assistance.  

The proposal builds on Executive Order N-10-23, which expedited similar work following the severe storms of 2022-23 while maintaining environmental protections. The coalition is asking the Administration to extend that approach statewide and broaden it to address additional permitting challenges.  

The message from local agencies is straightforward: the best time to reduce flood risk is before the flooding begins. 

As the coalition wrote, early intervention is far less costly — and far less disruptive to California families — than emergency response and disaster recovery after a flood.