On Friday, March 10, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. – following the receipt of a letter from Governor Gavin Newsom – declared that an emergency exists in the state of California and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from severe winter storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides beginning on March 9, 2023, and continuing.

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts. Those efforts have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in 34 counties, including San Bernardino.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide, at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.

Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator, named Andrew F. Grant as the federal coordinating officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas.