Our Motivation
These past years have been so hard for many reasons. One of the reasons was the wildfires and heat waves going on while we were staying at home due to the pandemic. Climate hazards like these will be more intense and more frequent, and Belle Haven, East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City will be especially impacted.
This is why our team believes it’s important to learn how to protect ourselves and families –both today and into the future. Your involvement in “Our Communities, Our Bay” will help us better understand how climate hazards affect your community. It will also help us build tools to eventually help you reduce your risk to wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and flooding.
The impact of the pandemic and climate burdens for families highlights the importance of resources and support when a community goes through a tough time. If last year was tough for you, you are not alone. Many people in your community experienced hardships with the overlap of health and climate hazards:
Belle Haven resident:
“Like yesterday... the sky was all orange and stuff like that, you know, a lot of people scared, they talking about, “oh that's the end of the world” and all that stuff. But it wasn't that, you know, the real deal was with that the smoke was going up in the air instead of traveling. So it went up all the way to the sky and then covered up the sun and stuff like that. So I know about that stuff. I wasn't really, I wasn't really tripping on that. But then what I am tripping on, it's like, all the ashes and stuff still going on. Like all the ashes is still coming way around these parts, you know, we not even over there.”
East Palo Alto resident:
“I think that yes, [the wildfires are changing]... when I first moved to California, I didn’t hear anything about this or experience a single wildfire like this, but last year I did… lately it’s not raining as much, the grass is really dry, and that causes fires.”
Redwood City resident:
“It was a heat wave like a couple of days like last week. And it was like 103°. I was in my apartment and I had the window closed because I didn't want the heat wave getting in my apartment and I was in my bed and in my boxers and I was just sweating and drinking a lot of ice water. And I couldn't even sleep because it was so hot...and I wasn’t prepared... I didn’t even know it was going to be hot.”
North Fair Oaks resident:
“The smoke affected me... as I am asthmatic, it affected me. Just on Wednesday I was lousy with my chest. I was whistling and I... I felt bad. Yesterday it rained a little bit and the air was a little better. And today I woke up better.”
Climate hazards like these will be more intense and more frequent, and your community may be especially impacted, but we hope knowing that you are not alone and that we can work together can inspire us to build a safe, resilient Bay.