While winter weather and rains come to California, we want to remind our community that ListosCalifornia.org has important information and resources on preparing for and staying safe during severe storms. We’ve linked to a few helpful topics below:
- What do During a Power Outage
- Know the Difference Between Evacuation Warnings and Orders
- How to Stay Safe on the Road
Emergency Alerts! It is important to sign up for alerts in your county so that you’ll be informed when local emergency situations arise. Also, be sure your contact information is current with your assigned regional center so that they can connect with you easily during an emergency.
For individuals and families impacted by the January 2025 wildfires, the following resources for local support and recovery efforts are available. If you or a loved one needs assistance, you also can contact your service coordinator or regional center. They are ready to provide guidance and connect you with local resources.
The Department’s Emergency Preparedness and Response team has prepared the document below with information and links to incident updates, resources, and support:
Get additional information on updates from the Department on Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter).
State
- CA.gov/LAfires The go-to website for Californians impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. Provides information on ways to sign up for FEMA and SBA assistance, help seeking unemployment assistance, filing insurance claims, and other wildfire related resources.
- listos.ca.gov California’s disaster preparedness hub.
- CalOES Shelter Information Emergency shelter listing.
- CalOES Public Service Announcement (January 13, 2025) Southern California Wildfire-Themed Scams
- fire.ca.gov Wildfire information and updates from CAL FIRE.
- CalHHS Emergency Resource Guide
- Guide to Disaster Assistance Services for Immigrant Californians | Spanish
Federal
- FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) are available daily to the public from 9 AM to 8 PM at the following locations:
540 West Woodbury Road
Altadena, CA 91001
UCLA Research Park
10850 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
- News Release (January 15, 2025) FEMA Transitional Sheltering Assistance Available for Los Angeles County Residents | Spanish
- Individual Assistance (IA) Overview for People in Non-Traditional Dwellings
County/Local
How You Can Help
We can all support our southern California communities by:
- Regional centers donations for individuals and families receiving services:
- Donate items from the Amazon Wishlist for impacted I/DD families; managed by the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities and The Colin Farrell Foundation.
- Sharing recovery and response resource information
- Avoiding travel to impacted areas
- Volunteer opportunities with California Volunteers
- Additional ways to donate with Philanthropy California
Emergency Preparedness planning is essential to minimizing the impacts of disasters on communities and individuals. The vendor and provider community are the professionals who provide direct services and supports to individuals they support; and therefore, are key partners in sharing the community knowledge, identifying potential gaps and needs of people with developmental disabilities. The office of emergency preparedness encourages vendors and providers to work with regional centers emergency coordinators to assist in enhancing our work in increasing individual preparedness efforts statewide.
- Emergency Go-Kits
- The Department has contracted with Supply Bank who will purchase go-kit items, assemble the go-kits and deliver go-kits to regional centers who will provide to individuals qualified to receive a go-kit as well as who attended the go-kit training session.
- Go-Kit training slides are now available in multiple languages:
- Portable Batteries
- The Department has contracted with California Foundation of Independent Living Centers (CFILC) and the Disability Disaster Access and Resources (DDAR) program to provide individuals with portable batteries to those requiring power for life-sustaining equipment. To learn more about DDAR please click here.
- Emergency Preparedness Materials
- The Department contracted with American Red Cross and developed emergency preparedness training materials preparing individuals and staff for wildfire evacuation. The training slides, training materials, resources, and tools can be found here:
Southern California Edison (SCE) Resources
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Resources
San Diego Gas & Electric Resources
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Resources
- The Department contracted and facilitated a collaborative workgroup to develop communication cards for the deaf + community to be utilize during emergency response. The goal of these communication cards is to assist with 2-way communications with shelter staff and first responders. Digital copies of these communication cards can be found here:
Preparing for a Disaster
Video is also available in the following languages
- Preparing for a Disaster (ASL)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Descriptive Audio)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Spanish)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Vietnamese)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Chinese)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Korean)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Russian)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Hmong)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Khmer)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Armenian)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Arabic)
- Preparing for a Disaster (Farsi)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “READY” Calendar
- Emergency Response Resources
- California Governors’ Office of Emergency Services Access and Functional Needs Library
- Residential Care Facility Evacuation Training Video
Last modified: March 25, 2025
