Local brief
California reopens its rebuilt State Operations Center and signs on for radar satellites that see floods through clouds, ahead of a possibly record El Niño
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Cal OES on Oct. 6 opened the modernized State Operations Center in Mather and announced an agreement with satellite-imaging company ICEYE for near-real-time flood and wildfire imagery. Forecasters give El Niño a better than 90% chance of becoming a very strong event this fall and winter. Notice Nearby brief, not Legal Publication.
California's emergency command center got its first major renovation since it opened in 2000. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) reopened the State Operations Center in Mather, near Sacramento, and announced a new satellite agreement meant to show where disasters are hitting even when clouds, smoke or darkness hide the ground.
What changed at the center: the governor's office says the project raised operations seating from 54 to 64 positions, expanded second-floor workspace, created an ADA-accessible flat-floor operations room, upgraded the State Warning Center and replaced the old technology wall. The state has also approved 73 permanent positions for a dedicated Incident Support Team and a deployable Incident Management Assistance Team, so the center no longer leans as heavily on staff borrowed from other jobs.
The satellites: through an agreement with ICEYE, a company that images disaster damage from space, Cal OES will receive near-real-time imagery of floods, wildfires and other disasters. The state says the data can help show where flooding is happening, estimate water depths and flag likely damage to homes, roads and infrastructure, and that it will be shared with state agencies and local emergency managers during major storms.
Why now: the release says federal forecasters give El Niño a greater than 90% chance of becoming a very strong event this fall and winter and a 75% chance of reaching historic strength. For California that can mean repeated rounds of heavy rain, strong wind, mountain snow, flooding, landslides, debris flows, big surf and coastal flooding. Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in September directing Cal OES to prepare for those hazards.
The politics: the governor's office framed the announcement against the federal government, saying President Trump's fiscal 2027 budget proposes cutting FEMA by $1.3 billion and eliminating the Next Generation Warning System Grant Program. Those are the governor's office's characterizations. It also says California has sent 3,482 personnel and 271 pieces of equipment since June to help with wildfires, floods and earthquakes in 13 states and two countries.
What residents can do: the new center does not replace local alerts. Sign up for your county's emergency notifications at CalAlerts.org, find preparedness checklists at Listos California, and pack a go-bag before the first big storm rather than during it. The full release is on the governor's website.
Source: the public notice on this register NN-PUBDESK-20261006-CA-CALOES-01 · Office of Governor Gavin Newsom · Press release, Oct. 6, 2026.
This is a Notice Nearby local brief — an in-house explainer written from a government-posted notice on this register. It is not official minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication.