This article reflects on the legacy of former LA Mayor Richard Riordan's approach to disaster response during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It highlights his emphasis on breaking through bureaucratic red tape to expedite recovery efforts and contrasts his methods with the current response to the recent wildfires.
Los Angeles city limit sign on the 5 Freeway. The 6.7-magnitude Northridge quake hit at 4:31 the morning of Jan. 17, 1994, a powerful jolt that flattened buildings, destroyed homes, damaged freeways, ignited fires and disrupted water and power. “It was like the devil was waking up … it was a horrifying feeling,” said one of the quake victims quoted in a Daily News story on Jan. 18.
Frustrated by his early encounter with the city’s emergency operations, Riordan pushed to create what became the Department of Emergency Management, and voters approved in 2002 a massive bond proposal resulting in the construction of the new high-tech Emergency Operations Center. But they agree that how leaders respond in getting the government and the bureaucracy to respond does matter, setting a tone and environment for recovery. And in L.A., the response to the Northridge quake set a modern template for leaders, they said.
Cutting red tape amid the Northridge quake devastation meant confronting difficult choices when it came to getting agencies to act swiftly. Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a similar tone, issuing multiple orders that promise to streamline the recovery process. At the state level, Newsom issued an executive order on Jan. 12 to streamline the rebuilding of homes and businesses destroyed — suspending permitting and review requirements under CEQA and the Coastal Act.
It’s a parallel that can serve Bass on the city side and supervisors on the county side of the recovery, with a politically aligned governor who himself has taken executive actions to “cut the red tape” on recovery and rebuild. “And this is a sudden change on steroids,” he noted, looking back at Northridge and other L.A. crises, such as the Bel Air fire in 1961 and the L.A. Riots in 1992.
Left to right, unidentified LAPD officer, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and LAPD Commander David Kalish survey the scene around the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, California, Tuesday, August 10, 1999, where five victims, three male children and two female adults, were shot. “They got a surprise attack. The 1961 Bel Air fire caused a total reassessment of how you fight a wildfire,” he said.
“Bring someone out of retirement. Someone who knows government, who can get stuff done. Have him on there for six months to move this agenda forward at warp speed,” he said.Experts agreed that even with the speed at which effective leaders can move the government, there’s a long rebuilding road ahead, much like after Northridge.
That visit will follow outgoing President Joe Biden’s executive orders enabling federal aid to flow in. But that may be easier said than done this time. Trump is a longtime critic of California leadership and has waged a very public war of words with Newsom., which just a few months before had brought extreme destruction in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas. The devastation also brought criticism from local officials and disaster relief experts over what they said was an inadequate government response.
NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE DISASTER RESPONSE RICHARD RIORDAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT WILDFIRES
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