SECTIONS 8550-8551 - California Statutes

GOVERNMENT CODE

SECTION 8550-8551

8550. The state has long recognized its responsibility to mitigate
the effects of natural, manmade, or war-caused emergencies which
result in conditions of disaster or in extreme peril to life,
property, and the resources of the state, and generally to protect
the health and safety and preserve the lives and property of the
people of the state. To ensure that preparations within the state
will be adequate to deal with such emergencies, it is hereby found
and declared to be necessary:
(a) To confer upon the Governor and upon the chief executives and
governing bodies of political subdivisions of this state the
emergency powers provided herein; and to provide for state assistance
in the organization and maintenance of the emergency programs of
such political subdivisions.
(b) To provide for a state agency to be known and referred to as
the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA), within the
office of the Governor, and to prescribe the powers and duties of the
secretary of that agency.
(c) To provide for the assignment of functions to state agencies
to be performed during an emergency and for the coordination and
direction of the emergency actions of such agencies.
(d) To provide for the rendering of mutual aid by the state
government and all its departments and agencies and by the political
subdivisions of this state in carrying out the purposes of this
chapter.
(e) To authorize the establishment of such organizations and the
taking of such actions as are necessary and proper to carry out the
provisions of this chapter.
It is further declared to be the purpose of this chapter and the
policy of this state that all emergency services functions of this
state be coordinated as far as possible with the comparable functions
of its political subdivisions, of the federal government including
its various departments and agencies, of other states, and of private
agencies of every type, to the end that the most effective use may
be made of all manpower, resources, and facilities for dealing with
any emergency that may occur.

8551. This chapter may be cited as the "California Emergency
Services Act."