Resident urges committee to improve emergency PSAs after smoke, heat and flooding

During public comment, Diane Loracella said recent natural emergencies — wildfire smoke, heat and heavy rains that caused flooding three days earlier — showed gaps in the city’s public information and alerting. "I really feel there was a lack of enough information in, the form of links," she said, adding that she had signed up for the city's alert system but found little additional information on the website.

Loracella, who said she has a partial professional background in emergency management, asked the committee to meet with emergency management staff and the health department to develop more proactive materials and web links and suggested placing the discussion on the committee’s next agenda (the committee traditionally takes August off). The chair thanked her and confirmed staff would note her request for a future discussion item.