What happened in this Energy story?

California is mobilizing for a winter of simultaneous floods, fires, and extreme storms as NOAA forecasts a historic-strength El Niño, even as Trump-era cuts have weakened the federal agencies tasked with disaster response.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**NOAA** forecasts a more than 90% chance this El Niño will be "very strong" and roughly 75% chance it will be "historic," with severe storms, landslides, and destructive high tides hitting California potentially all at once.

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**California Governor Gavin Newsom** declared a state of emergency on September 21 to mobilize winter preparations, as local agencies deploy sandbags in Long Beach, move roughly 690,000 cubic yards of sand in Orange County, and conduct door-to-door outreach in San Diego flood zones.

📎 SkimNews has covered California 22+ times · see the file →

California Braces for Historic El Niño Amid FEMA Cuts — SkimNews

By The Guardian Environment · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-10-09

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NOAA forecasts a more than 90% chance this El Niño will be "very strong" and roughly 75% chance it will be "historic," with severe storms, landslides, and destructive high tides hitting California potentially all at once.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on September 21 to mobilize winter preparations, as local agencies deploy sandbags in Long Beach, move roughly 690,000 cubic yards of sand in Orange County, and conduct door-to-door outreach in San Diego flood zones.
State climatologist Michael Anderson said El Niño will add roughly a foot of sea level rise in California on top of the 8 to 12 inches caused by climate change over the past century.
The Trump administration has gutted staffing and budgets at NOAA and FEMA — the federal agencies central to disaster response — since the start of its second term, reducing national capacity going into the high-risk winter.
LA County public works director Mark Pestrella said flood-control systems are optimized but only designed for a "100-year event" with a 1% annual chance of occurring, which El Niño could push higher.
Recent wildfire burn scars in Big Sur and Los Angeles neighborhoods devastated by the 2025 firestorm face elevated debris-flow risks, with officials saying watersheds typically need five years to heal enough to withstand strong storms.
The National Weather Service issued two September coastal flood advisories for the San Francisco Bay Area — a first in its records — as floodwater swallowed intersections and eroded beaches along the California coast.

Why it matters: California is heading into a forecast-historic winter of floods, fire, and storms with weakened federal backup: Trump-era cuts have stripped staffing and budgets at NOAA and FEMA, the two agencies at the center of US disaster response. Former Obama-era NOAA principal deputy administrator Monica Medina warned the country could 'flunk' this test of climate adaptation, with lives at stake if local systems are overwhelmed.