The San Mateo County Coastal Region has been severely impacted by climate change and recent fire and storm events. On multiple occasions, and for extended durations, critical lifeline infrastructure such as cell phone telecommunications, digital connectivity, arterial roadways and transportation, have been compromised or lost. Other infrastructure, including emergency radio communications were also lost due to power outages and road failures. Which is why I’m happy to let you know about the following projects we’ve been working on your behalf.  

• When the storms hit, most of the coast and unincorporated areas went dark, some losing power and internet access for months. This was due to one, singular cable being cut by a downed tree, which revealed the need for cable redundancy to ensure that never happens again. Since then, I have been working with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Senator Becker and Assemblymember Berman and private commercial companies like Comcast and Verizon to lay additional cables through the Tom Lantos tunnel to provide backup access to the Coast. You can read more about the work here: Caltrans, Comcast agree to add internet cables through Devil’s Slide tunnels for redundancy
• On June 15th, I proposed a new Coastal Resilient Infrastructure Strategic Plan (CRISP) to the San Mateo County Emergency Services Council which was unanimously approved! The CRISP will analyze and evaluate coastal infrastructure and identify areas that should be targeted to strengthen coastal resiliency. The results of the analysis and evaluation will be used to support efforts with businesses, utility providers, and local, regional, state, and federal agencies to prioritize identified needs and to allow emergency management agencies to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to climate-related disasters, safeguard, and secure critical lifeline infrastructure to achieve long-term risk reduction.  Read more details about the upcoming plan here: San Mateo County Emergency Services Council Approves $200k for Supervisor Mueller’s Request to Fund the Coastside Resilient Infrastructure Strategic Plan (CRISP) – Coastside Buzz 
• To bolster local radio communications, especially when disaster strikes, I sponsored Measure K funds from San Mateo County’s half-cent sales tax, approved by the County Board of Supervisors, to go towards coastside community radio stations, KHMB (100.9 FM or AM 1710) and KPDO (89.3 FM), to enhance communications and emergency information during climate events, and improve station operations resiliency. 

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