Gov. on Tuesday reopened the renovated State Operations Center at the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services in Mather and announced that the state will receive near-real-time radar satellite imagery of floods, wildfires and other disasters under an agreement with ICEYE, a satellite-imaging company, his office said.
The State Operations Center is the state's central coordinating hub during emergencies, staffed by Cal OES and partner agencies. According to the governor's office, the facility had not undergone a major renovation since it opened in 2000. The project increased operational seating from 54 to 64 positions, expanded second-floor workspace, created an ADA-accessible flat-floor operations space, upgraded the State Warning Center and replaced the aging technology wall.
The governor and Legislature also approved 73 permanent positions for a dedicated Incident Support Team and a deployable Incident Management Assistance Team, which the office said will reduce reliance on employees temporarily pulled from other duties to run the center and regional emergency operations centers.
“During an emergency, information has to move quickly and the people making decisions need a shared understanding of what is happening across the state,” said Cal OES Director .
The ICEYE imagery is radar-based, so it can be collected through clouds, smoke or darkness. The governor's office said it can help emergency managers see where flooding is occurring, estimate water depths and assess damage to homes, roads and critical infrastructure, and that it will be shared with state agencies and local emergency managers. The release did not say what the agreement costs.
The upgrades come ahead of what the office called a potentially historic El Niño. Federal forecasters put the chance of a very strong event this fall and winter at greater than 90% and the chance it reaches historic strength at 75%, according to the release. Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in September directing Cal OES to coordinate preparations for flooding, coastal flooding, erosion, mud and debris flows and atmospheric rivers.
The release also criticized President 's fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, which the governor's office said would cut FEMA by $1.3 billion and eliminate the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program, which supports emergency alerts and warnings, including in rural communities.
The office urged residents to sign up for local emergency alerts, find out whether they live in a flood-prone area or downslope of a recent burn scar, keep an evacuation plan and an emergency kit with medications and pet supplies, and never drive through floodwater.
State
Gavin Newsom
Governor · Democrat
Named 3 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
State
Caroline Thomas Jacobs
Director, Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)
Named once in this story.
Federal
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States · Republican
Named once in this story.
Portrait: Daniel Torok / The White House (public domain)
Sources & methodology
This report was written from the primary materials below. Links open at the original publisher.
Office of the Governor of CaliforniaSee something we should correct? Read our corrections policy.