The state has long recognized its responsibility to mitigate the effects of natural, manmade, or war-caused emergencies that 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 office to be known and referred to as the Office of Emergency Services, within the office of the Governor, and to prescribe the powers and duties of the director of that office.

(c) To provide for the assignment of functions to state entities to be performed during an emergency and for the coordination and direction of the emergency actions of those entities.

(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.

(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 352, Sec. 111. (AB 1317) Effective September 26, 2013. Operative July 1, 2013, by Sec. 543 of Ch. 352.)