Here at the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SFDEM) we’ve been planning for and talking about El Nino for a long time. We wanted to offer you a one-stop-shop of all things El Nino to help you feel more prepared and to assist you in sharing, educating, and empowering those around you with the same intel. We know this is a lot of information, but we hope that it answers some of your questions regarding what may come to be. Above all SFDEM encourages you to do five things:

With so much activity in San Francisco lately it's hard to believe the 4th of July is around the corner! As we've seen in the last few days the Bay Area is being greeted with quite the heat wave and with the 4th just this Saturday we wanted to share some preparedness and safety tips that will be sure to contribute to your wonderful weekend.

By: Daniella Cohen San Francisco is buzzing this morning as we gear up for a historic Pride weekend on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. What a day and weekend indeed to be in this great city!

Isn’t the New Year inspiring? Who doesn’t love a chance to start fresh and really focus on what you want to accomplish—with a whopping 365 days to do so. We have a hunch that preparedness may not be number one on most New Year’s resolutions lists, but in its most boiled down state, preparedness is easier than most think.  And by taking stock of your preparedness, you are doing something now, before an emergency, that will make a big difference after.

Last week a 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook northern Greece and Western Turkey. The quake caused 266 injuries--mostly resulting from people rushing out of buildings. So, we're going to get up on our soap box (or under it, should the earth move) and remind everyone what to do during an earthquake.

Every April 18th we commemorate the anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire with a combination of tradition and ceremony. This year, we added one more element to the activities: connection.

The tradition component is demonstrated when we gather at Lotta's Fountain at five in the morning with our fellow San Franciscans (some of us in 1906 period attire) to mark the moment when the earthquake struck.

April 18th marks the 108th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Although very few of us have a first-hand memory of what remains one of California’s most significant catastrophes, every April many of us think about the what ifs with regard to earthquakes.