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This Week's Fire Weather
A genuinely quiet stretch: highs in the low-to-mid 70s, a southwest breeze, cool cloudy nights, and no fire weather watches or warnings in effect for the East Bay interior as of Sunday evening. Air quality is forecast in the Good range for our zone. A calm week like this is the right time to knock out prep work, which brings us to the rest of this issue.
Sources: NWS forecast for Orinda · Spare the Air 5-day forecast
The County Is Planning How Lamorinda Gets Out
Once a year the Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda councils meet in the same room, and this year's joint session on July 16 kept circling one question: when a lot of people need to leave at once, will the roads be ready? Three efforts are now pointed at that gap.
- A countywide evacuation study. The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is using a $1.49 million Caltrans grant to assess evacuation routes and compliance for all 19 cities and towns plus unincorporated areas, treating cross-town evacuation as one connected system.
- Smarter signals. CCTA's roughly $5 million Smart Signals project will upgrade 365 signals countywide, including 56 Lamorinda intersections. Connected signals can be re-timed as a system during an emergency. Per Lamorinda Weekly, the target is operational by fall 2027.
- A trail that doubles as emergency access. Moraga and Orinda won a $508,000 federal grant to plan a 10-to-12-foot-wide trail that can convert to emergency vehicle access during an evacuation.
All of it is real progress, and all of it is years out. Your own routes, alerts, and go-bag are still the part you control this week.
→ Our full breakdown of the tri-city meeting, and what to do while the infrastructure catches up
Source: Lamorinda Weekly: Tri-city meeting report (August 12, 2026) · CCTA press release
Two Wildfire Bills Moving in Sacramento
At the same meeting, the councils got a briefing on two wildfire bills, both introduced February 20 and still working through committee. Neither is law yet, and both could change, but each touches Lamorinda directly.
AB 2513 would expand state grant programs for regional fire-resilience work. The eligible activities read like a local wish list: roadside vegetation management, ignition prevention, defensible space compliance help, evacuation route improvements, and new Firewise USA communities, with local agencies and fire safe councils among the eligible grantees. AB 2517 would make the state's fire hazard severity zone maps more transparent: draft maps, data, and methodology published at least 180 days before they're final, a public comment period, and a five-year review cycle. Those maps quietly drive defensible space rules, ignition-resistant construction requirements, and what's disclosed when a home sells, so a predictable, public process matters here.
→ What each bill would actually do, in plain terms
Sources: AB 2513 bill text · AB 2517 bill text · Lamorinda Weekly
Community Bulletin
National Night Out filled Orinda Community Park (August 4). Orinda PD served hotdogs, kids repeatedly dunked Police Chief Anthony Rossi, and OPD and MOFD faced off in a relay race that involved a breach door and a team three-legged finish. Between the fun, the informational booths were the quiet win: CERT and Firewise volunteers were there answering questions. If you've been meaning to meet the people who organize your neighborhood's preparedness, events like this are the lowest-friction way in. Full recap → Curious what Firewise membership actually involves? Our Firewise explainer covers it.
Lafayette's Emergency Preparedness Commission has open seats. The commission advises the City Council on emergency readiness, and Lafayette is actively recruiting members. Meetings are open to the public even if you don't join. If you want a structural way to push local preparedness forward, this is it. How to apply →
Sources: Lamorinda Weekly (August 12, 2026) · Lafayette Weekly Roundup (August 14, 2026)
One Thing to Do This Week
Check your stored water. Thursday morning's magnitude 3.8 earthquake near San Leandro was a nudge, not a disaster. Treat it as a free drill. EBMUD's guideline is two gallons per person per day for seven days, which is about 30 gallons for a family of four, stored in clean food-grade containers, sealed, kept cool and dark, and rotated every six months. Some is genuinely better than none: even a few cases of bottled water in the garage changes your first 72 hours. The same logic applies to a fire evacuation, where your go-bag carries the portable version.
→ The 72-hour go-bag checklist, water included
Sources: EBMUD emergency water storage guidance via Lafayette Weekly Roundup · USGS event data
Where to Start if You're New Here
The best first step is the Home Fire Readiness Score, a 10-minute self-assessment that tells you where your home stands and what to prioritize. After that:
- The Big Three: roof, vents, and defensible space: the highest-priority moves for a Lamorinda home
- Gold Protocol: what to do each week from now through October
- Evacuation Routes for Lamorinda: know your second and third ways out before you need them
A Site Note and an Apology
One piece of housekeeping. Some readers who created a free account found they couldn't open our playbooks and protocols. That was a mistake on our end, and we're sorry for the frustration. It's fixed now, and everything you signed up to read is waiting for you. If you ever experience a problem accessing the site, please email us at help@lamorindaready.com and let us know. Thank you!
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Lamorinda Ready is a community education resource. This newsletter is for general educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, insurance, financial, construction, or emergency response advice. AB 2513 and AB 2517 are pending legislation as of August 16, 2026 and may change or fail to pass; project timelines for the CCTA evacuation study, Smart Signals, and the Moraga-Orinda trail are based on Lamorinda Weekly's August 12 report of the July 16 tri-city meeting and may shift. Always consult qualified professionals and official agencies (MOFD, your city, CCTA) before making decisions about your home or property. Content available through links in this newsletter is subject to the same limitations.
Header photo: winding road through the Orinda hills, by Andwhatsnext via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Lamorinda Ready
Practical resilience for Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda.
1480 Moraga Rd Ste C #188, Moraga, CA 94556