Hurricane Hilary Brings State of Emergency to California
California is a very large state, so although we are headquartered here in Roseville, the most water we have gotten in the past month is a quarter inch at the absolute most. Compare this with the southern half of the state, which is having a bit of a crisis due to Hurricane Hilary. As such, a State of Emergency has been declared.
Details
You can read the Declaration on the relevant FMCSA webpage. It has fourteen sections, but the ones that apply to truckers are 12, 13, and 14.
Sections 12 and 13 both deal with hours-of-service exemptions for hauling fuels that provide relief in direct response to Hurricane Hilary, but section 14 is more complicated, so we have copied it verbatim here:
“In order to allow out-of-state contractors and other utilities driving their own vehicles to provide mutual aid assistance for the restoration of electrical power within the counties impacted by Hurricane Hilary, applicable provisions of the Vehicle Code including, but not limited to, Vehicle Code section 34620 requiring a motor carrier permit [licensing] and imposition of certain fees, are suspended for motor carriers providing such assistance. Also, the requirements for motor carriers and drivers in Vehicle Code sections 1808.l [pull-notice program that checks for driver’s license violations], 27900 [display name on vehicle], 27901 [size and color of display name on vehicle), 34505.5 [requirement to have been inspected within 90 days], and 34501.12 [requirement to set up home base in California) are suspended while providing mutual aid assistance for the emergency restoration of services.”
The gist of Section 14 is that out-of-state drivers are welcome to provide assistance, too, and will deal with fewer burdensome regulations while doing so.
Conclusion
The Declaration ends on September 18th or when the need for a State of Emergency has passed, whichever comes first.
What will be interesting to see is if an event such as this happens in 2042 and beyond, will California allow out-of-state drivers to operate diesel trucks within state borders? Since tropical storms on the west coast are exceedingly rare (records indicate the last one to hit California was in 1939), likely it will not be much of an issue.
As a small aside, Nevada has announced a separate State of Emergency in response to Hiliary, just in case.
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