Sen. Dodd Introduces Disaster Prevention Bill

SACRAMENTO – Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, introduced legislation today to help prevent catastrophic destruction from natural disasters that too often strike California communities by leveraging existing funds to provide a new, continuous funding source for wildfire home-hardening earthquake retrofitting.

“In California, wildfires and earthquakes are an unfortunate fact of life,” said Sen. Dodd. “It makes sense to invest in measures we know will prevent the loss of life and property we have seen in recent years. My bill offers a way to leverage existing funds to make California a safer state.”

Wildfires across California over the past five years led to the creation of the state Wildfire Insurance Fund to stabilize the precarious financial condition of public utility companies often to blame for the infernos. The California Earthquake Authority, created for a similar purpose after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, was charged with administering the wildfire fund.

Senate Bill 440 authorizes the CEA to invest its funds in natural disaster mitigation efforts overseen by a joint-powers authority. Each year, up to $100 million would go toward hardening homes in wildfire prone communities, and up to $50 million would be invested in bracing older, multistory buildings that are known earthquake risks.

###

Senator Bill Dodd represents the 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. You can learn more about the district and Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd.