Orange County Fire Authority officials are looking to bolster search and rescue efforts through federal funding, gearing up for El Niño ahead of its expected impacts that could hit next month. 

The OC Fire Authority Board of Directors is expected to accept over $1.8 million from the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the Thursday board meeting to fund a special task force dedicated to search and rescue. 

This comes after Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Monday due to the strengthening conditions of a Super El Niño – one that experts are saying could be the strongest El Niño season to date – that could produce heavy rains and high surf in the region.

OC cities on the coast are currently preparing for high tide and surf that have already destroyed parts of Laguna Beach, San Clemente and Dana Point, with Seal Beach city officials preparing to construct a 14-foot sand berm and coordinating with emergency response crews.

On top of regular rainy season training, the fire authority is accepting a grant that will fund training efforts for a task force ahead of El Niño.

Sponsored by the OC Fire Authority, California Task Force 5 is a FEMA urban search and rescue task force based in Orange County. According to FEMA, they are trained to rescue people trapped in collapsed structures, floods and other disasters. 

The task force takes firefighters from OCFA, Anaheim and Orange Fire Departments to create a 70-person team that can be deployed when a disaster happens.  

California Task Force 5 is one of 28 urban search and rescue task forces located across the United States, according to FEMA. These task forces can be deployed by FEMA to assist in search and rescue operations or placed in an area in advance when a major disaster is threatening a community. 

The task force is one of eight FEMA task forces in California. 

“CA-TF5 has used past Cooperative Agreement funds and activation reimbursements to equip and train the task force members for various missions including but not limited to rescuing victims in collapsed structures, responding to natural disasters, and responding to attacks from weapons of mass destruction/ terrorist attacks,” a staff report reads. 

California Task Force 5 is slated to split a $56 million federal grant with the other 28 task forces. 

According to OCFA officials, the grant is fixed funding the task forces have been getting since the 90’s. The money trickles down from DHS to FEMA where it is then distributed evenly to each task force. 

“There’s really no lobbying or anything because we know we’re gonna get the sum of however much divided by 28. This kind of makes it easier for us. We know what to expect and we know what the budget is gonna be,” said California Task Force 5 Program Manager Mike Yeun in a Wednesday phone interview with Voice of OC. 

The grant funds play a key role in helping the task forces to operate, with the money being divided among administration, training, equipment, and storage and maintenance. 

California Task Force 5 is sent all over the country to help in natural disasters where search and rescue missions are needed. 

In 2024, the task force helped in providing assistance during Hurricane Helene – a category four hurricane that struck Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, killing over 250 people. 

As of now, the task force is pre-positioned to go to Hawaii, where locals have recently been battered with storms and flooding. Since El Nino is expected to make landfall in the OC region, the task force won’t be able to respond as its team would already be helping to provide aid in their respective departments.

“Normally, the jurisdiction that’s being affected usually doesn’t have the bandwidth to even organize as a task force because they’re already on the initial search and operation part of it,” Yeun said.

“What will happen is outside of the affected area where they don’t have a crisis in their own jurisdiction, where they can send a task force, that’s usually when task forces come in.”

Since a state of emergency would have to be declared on a federal level, there is currently no task force pre-positioned to help if Southern California is severely hit by El Nino storms. 

However, officials said that task forces from Northern California and Nevada would likely be pre-positioned to provide aid in search and rescue operations if a state of emergency was declared. 

Currently, OCFA is preparing their firefighters for the storms just like they would any rainy season.

Yeun said the department is getting ready to provide mutual aid to OC cities, preparing to be able to send fire engines, rescue personnel or helicopters to different towns if needed, especially to Dana Point and San Clemente who are a part of OCFA.  

“It’s no different than every other rainy season because you never know what’s gonna get impacted. We’re already gearing up our rainy season [operations]. So water rescues, we’re dusting off the cobwebs and doing our training,” he said. 

“I would say we’re just getting ready mentally and seeing what happens.”

Sara Leon is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. You can reach her at sleon7903@gmail.com.