Appreciating Our Brave First Responders

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARBAJAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to say thank you to the first responders on the central coast for whom it has been a busy and challenging few weeks.

Our hardworking emergency service workers in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties have shown incredible bravery, commitment, and resilience during multiple heavy storms that have torn through the central coast.

Up and down our region, local fire crews and emergency management departments worked quickly and diligently to remove downed trees and power lines that fell on apartment buildings, homes, cars, and roadways.

In San Luis Obispo, the fire department fielded over 400 emergency calls during the storm's peak and helped rescue someone stranded in their car amid rising floodwaters in Nipomo.

In Santa Barbara, law enforcement officials knocked on more than 500 doors to alert households of a flooding evacuation order, and in Ventura, a man was rescued without injury from the Ventura River by the Ventura City Fire Department.

I thank our brave law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other first responders who, in the face of danger, run toward it. I also thank our emergency dispatchers who fielded so many calls and everyone at the National Weather Service who helped keep the central coast updated on the storms.

Our entire region is grateful to have them watching over our back.

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