California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County–more than two weeks after the December 2 terror attacks that took the lives of 14 people.
Brown’s declaration explains that the state of emergency declaration is a means to “help the community.”
The statement refers to resources accessed in the wake of the terror attacks, including “all law enforcement personnel, fire personnel, and emergency personnel” from San Bernardino County, and from “California Highway Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”
Brown emphasizes a requirement for “combined forces of all appropriate mutual aid” on the premise that “circumstances of this terrorist attack, by reason of its magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of any single local government.”
Brown’s executive order is as follows:
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. The California Department of Public Health shall assist the County Division of Environmental Health Services until the County is able to resume normal staffing levels.
2. The Office of Emergency Services shall provide local government assistance to San Bernardino County, as appropriate, under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act, California Government Code section 8680 et seq. and California Code of Regulations, Title 19, section 2900 et seq.
3. The provisions of Health and Safety Code sections 103065, 103525.5 and 103625, and the provisions of Penal Code section 14251, requiring the imposition of fees, are hereby suspended with regard to any permit for disposition of remains or copies of certificates of death records by any person who suffered a loss of a family member due to the terrorist attack. Copies of such records shall be provided to such persons without charge.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this proclamation be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this proclamation.
President Obama squeezed in a visit to the city on his way to his 16-day Hawaiian holiday.
Brown visited San Bernardino on his way to the UN climate change talks in Paris, France earlier this mont. He addressed reporters at a December 3 press conference, where he said his concern was “to make sure that everything that can be done and that going forward that the state of California provides resources.”
He went on to say that he would “spare nothing” in bringing terrorists to justice.
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