Students cross Topanga Canyon Blvd. early Friday morning, Feb. 24, 2023, as they make their way to Canoga Park Senior High School in a heavy rain storm. A report on adapting to climate change, including heavy rains and flooding, was released on April 2, 2024. Adapting to the sweeping effects of climate change will cost Los Angeles County and its 88 cities about $12.
• Preventing fatalities and damage to structures and the environment from more intense wildfires . The report emphasized creating buffer zones between homes and wildlands.The cost breaks down to about $780 million per year to protect communities in L.A. County from extreme heat, above-average rainfall or droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels and related public health threats, the report stated.
“A place like Los Angeles will get a lot hotter very quickly, producing some health effects,” Wiles said. He pointed out that in the summer of 2023 Phoenix had 640 heat-related deaths, he said. Kampalath said the county’s plan would include a framework to help decide where to apply coatings for cooler streets and where to open cooling centers during hot days. “We are open to a broad array of strategies for cooling,” she said.Capturing more rain for drinking water can be done by building bioswales which are landscape features made of grass, rocks or vegetation to absorb rainwater and send it into groundwater basins; and changing to more porous pavement, the report recommended.