Interviews with California and national emergency response leaders who talk about what they've learned from the most challenging moments of their careers.
Episodes
Monday Feb 12, 2018
Monday Feb 12, 2018
The inferno unleashed on Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino Counties, as well as several other northern California counties, left behind the kind of devastation many have only read about in the history books. Thousands of structures and homes were destroyed, entire neighborhoods left in ruins, and of course the 44 lives lost. There is one neighborhood that symbolizes the destruction and a community’s resilience to bounce back — Coffey Park in Santa Rosa.
In this episode, we hear from four leaders who were instrumental in managing the efforts to find temporary homes for the thousands displaced, removing the massive amounts of rubble and debris, and cleaning the land to modern environmental standards so residents can rebuild. They are:
Cal OES Directory Mark Ghilarducci,
FEMA Region IX Administrator Bob Fenton,
US Army Corps of Engineers Field Office Commander in Sonoma County Col. Eric McFadden, and
FEMA National Qualifications System Director and Federal Lead for the Housing Task Force Ryan Buras.
We spoke with them on-location to get them reflect shortly after the day debris removal program in Coffey Park concluded. The also talk about the fire and resulting flood and mudslides in Santa Barbara. Here they are, in their own words.
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