San Bernardino issues local emergency proclamation over Tropical Storm

On Sunday, August 20, the City of San Bernardino proclaimed a local emergency in connection with Tropical Storm Hilary. The City Municipal Code allows the City Manager, Charles McNeely, to assume additional authority when the City is affected or likely to be affected by a significant incident. The emergency action allows the City to rapidly respond to storm developments.

Hilary includes two types of dangerous conditions: heavy rains and high winds. Potential impacts include flooding, swift water and debris flows, downed trees, downed power lines, traffic signal outages, and blackouts.

Over the past 72 hours, the City has mobilized resources in advance of the unprecedented summer rain event in which the center of the storm was forecast to pass directly over the City.

The San Bernardino City Manager’s office, Public Works Department, Police Department, and Parks and Recreation, along with San Bernardino County Fire, the County Sheriff, and Southern California Edison have been in constant communications in preparation of Hilary and will continue to work closely together until the storm moves on and any after-effects are resolved.

Since Friday, the City distributed 160,000 sandbags to residents to prepare for the storm. The City used a record 150 tons of sand to fill the sandbags. Four local San Bernardino County Fire stations also distributed tens of thousands of sandbags and sand.

The City’s Emergency Operations Center has been activated and is monitoring storm progress and its impact on our city for the duration of the storm. Currently at “monitoring” status, the activation status will be elevated should it become necessary. 

The Public Works Department has placed warning signs at all flood-prone locations along with barricades for potential road closures as needed.   Pre-clearing of storm drains took place over the past few days in flood prone areas.

City crews are on duty throughout the duration of the storm to remove obstacles or hazards from roads, address downed trees, monitor streets for flooding, and close roads or add signage if necessary.

San Bernadino County Fire has requested an additional five four-wheel drive fire engines, County Fire hand crews, an OES STC type II helicopter, overhead loader and 2 swift water rescue teams.  They also have a Type III Incident Management team on standby.  

​The San Bernardino County Sheriff airship flew over washes and flood control areas on Saturday to warn individuals camping in those areas to move to higher ground. 

The City tree contractors are on standby for emergency tree issues.  Additional traffic signals/electrical contractors are also on-call.  

Residents are asked to call the Police non-emergency line at (909) 383-5311 with any storm related issues. For emergencies, including downed power lines, residents should call 9-1-1. Following the event, residents should resume using the Call Center at (909) 384-7272, the app GoSBCity, or through the City’s website.