Lawsuit Planned Over Water Release from Seven Oaks Dam Near Highland; Critics Say Santa Ana River Fish Habitat Harmed – Press Enterprise

Lawsuit planned over water release from Seven Oaks Dam near Highland; critics say Santa Ana River fish habitat harmed – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS Lawsuit planned over water release from Seven Oaks Dam near Highland; critics say Santa Ana River fish habitat harmed

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https://www.pe.com/...armed/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/12/2019 7:54:26 AM] Lawsuit planned over water release from Seven Oaks Dam near Highland; critics say Santa Ana River fish habitat harmed – Press Enterprise

Slide gates are lifted below Seven Oaks Dam above Highland on Thursday, May 23, 2019 to allow water to flow into a sedimentation basin. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

By CITY NEWS SERVICE | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 7:46 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 7:47 pm

Two wildlife advocacy groups Wednesday announced their intent to sue the San Bernardino County Department of Public Works, as well as other regional and federal government agencies, for allegedly putting a fish species’ habitat at risk with the release of water from the Seven Oaks Dam, which the defendants say was necessary to reduce potential public safety hazards.

According to the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity, the outflows that started on May 11 and continued for several days resulted in high sediment levels that disrupted the spawning activity of Santa Ana sucker fish, which populate the Santa Ana River, coursing through Orange, Riverside S and San Bernardino counties.

CBD officials allege foraging grounds were overwhelmed with muck and debris, damaging the

sucker’s food supply and smothering fishes’ eggs.

The water remained turbid for three months after the dam release, officials said.

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“This irresponsible action pushed these iconic Southern California fish closer to extinction,” said Ileene Anderson, a scientist at the center. “These agencies must be held accountable for violating the law and ignoring warnings from federal wildlife officials. It’s sad and frustrating to see this happen when so much time and effort have been spent trying to save this wonderful species.”

Besides the San Bernardino County agency, the Riverside County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, the Orange County Public Works Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were named in the pending legal action.

Riverside County officials referred inquiries about the legal action to their counterparts in San Bernardino County. That county’s public affairs chief, David Wert, told City News Service the water releases were “essential for public safety.”

“The flow rate is part of the standard operating procedures for the dam developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called the `Water Control Plan,’ which has requirements for the water level behind the dam to be at (particular) elevations during certain periods of the year,” Wert said. “This year might have marked the first time in dam history that the water level behind the dam was that high in May. Nonetheless, there is vital safety inspection and maintenance work required on the dam that can’t be performed until the water level is below a certain level.”

Dan Silver with the Endangered Habitats League, which is partnering with the CBC in the upcoming lawsuit, said management of the dam “can successfully combine flood control with preserving wildlife values and the citizens’ natural heritage.” He said releases should not be done during the Santa Ana sucker fish’s spawning season.

The Seven Oaks Dam is near the headwater to the Santa Ana River, near Highland roughly eight miles northeast of Redlands. The mid-May controlled water dumps involved 700 cubic feet per second flows downstream, according to the CBD. The organization said the release would have been mitigated had it immediately followed a storm, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recommended that local authorities wait until a change in the weather, but the advice was ignored.

The sucker is on the federal Endangered Species List, and it has been a source of conflict for decades, with regional water agencies filing civil actions in an attempt to reduce regulations that prevent access to fresh water stocks in order to preserve fish spawning areas.

In 2015, the agencies petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing, but it was denied.

https://www.pe.com/...armed/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/12/2019 7:54:26 AM] Marquez’s request to withdraw guilty plea in San Bernardino terrorism case could be considered in January – San Bernardino Sun

NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Marquez’s request to withdraw guilty plea in San Bernardino terrorism case could be considered in January

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https://www.sbsun.com/...2/06/marquezs-request-to-withdraw-guilty-plea-in-san-bernardino-terrorism-case-could-be-considered-in-january/[12/12/2019 7:54:37 AM] Marquez’s request to withdraw guilty plea in San Bernardino terrorism case could be considered in January – San Bernardino Sun

In this Dec. 17, 2015, courtroom sketch, Enrique Marquez appears in federal court in Riverside, Calif. Marquez pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists by providing weapons to San Bernardino shooting gunman Syed Rizwan Farook but has since attempted to withdraw his plea. (AP file photo by Bill Robles)

By BRIAN ROKOS | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: December 6, 2019 at 1:23 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 11:10 pm

A long-delayed court ruling on whether to allow Enrique Marquez Jr. to withdraw his guilty plea to charges that he supplied the weapons used in the Dec. 2, 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack could come in early 2020.

The federal government’s response to the motion to withdraw the plea is due Dec. 23, according to court records. And Marquez’s reply, if any, is due Jan. 17.

Hearings have been set for Jan. 30 and 31 in Riverside’s U.S. District Court.

Marquez made his initial plea on Feb. 16, 2017 and filed the motion to withdraw in January. Since https://www.sbsun.com/...2/06/marquezs-request-to-withdraw-guilty-plea-in-san-bernardino-terrorism-case-could-be-considered-in-january/[12/12/2019 7:54:37 AM] Marquez’s request to withdraw guilty plea in San Bernardino terrorism case could be considered in January – San Bernardino Sun

then, attorneys on both sides have filed a raft of motions and documents, all under seal and therefore D

not public. By

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Marquez was a childhood friend and former neighbor of Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with wife Tashfeen Malik were accused of shooting 14 people to death and wounding 22 others during a holiday party and training session for San Bernardino County Division of Environmental Health employees at the Inland Regional Center.

Marquez and Farook planned attacks on Riverside City College and on 91 Freeway motorists that were never carried out, authorities said, with Marquez purchasing two rifles and explosives for Farook for those aborted attacks. Those weapons, authorities say, were eventually used in the Dec. 2 attack.

Prosecutors say Marquez broke federal law by lying on the purchase by form by saying the weapons

were for himself.

In February 2017, Marquez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to providing material support to terrorists and making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of the firearms.

Marquez, who was not accused of plotting with Farook on the Dec. 2 massacre, remains in custody.

Updates on other defendants with ties to the case:

• Farook’s brother, Syed Raheel Farook, is now scheduled to be sentenced on May 18. He signed a marriage license saying he had witnessed the ceremony of Mariya Chernykh, Rizwan Farook’s sister- in-law, and Marquez. The marriage was to help her obtain permanent U.S. residency. He has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.

• Chernykh faces a March 9 sentencing. She came to the U.S. from Russia in 2009 on a three-month visa and never left. She paid Marquez to marry her in Riverside County even while she was living with her boyfriend and their child in Ontario. She has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, perjury and two counts of making false statements.

• Tatiana Farook, Raheel Farook’s wife, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 10. She signed the marriage license as well, purporting to witness the ceremony. She has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.

• Rafia Farook, the mother of the Farooks, is waiting on a life insurance case to be resolved. She was the primary beneficiary of Rizwan Farook’s $280,000 in life insurance policies, which are being held by a court after being paid by Minnesota Life Insurance. The Justice Department wants the money, calling it “assets derived from a federal crime of terrorism.” A judge said he will rule on this issue after the cases of Marquez, Chernykh and Raheel and Tatiana Farook are finished.

https://www.sbsun.com/...2/06/marquezs-request-to-withdraw-guilty-plea-in-san-bernardino-terrorism-case-could-be-considered-in-january/[12/12/2019 7:54:37 AM] 12/11/2019 Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 | Daily Mail Online

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EXCLUSIVE: Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 of his co-workers – and she is STILL fighting the DOJ to get his $280,000 life insurance policy Rafia Farook, 66, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, is seen for the first time, days after the four-year anniversary of the massacre by her son Her son and her daughter-in-law Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and injured 22 at a Christmas party on December 2, 2015 before they were stopped by cops Rafia shared a home in Redlands, California, with her son, his ISIS-following wife, and their daughter - who is now with a foster family She has always insisted that she did not notice their increasing radicalization or know their plans, despite bombs being made in the home Rafia refused to discuss her mass-murderer son with DailyMailTV but said she was doing 'OK' four years on She is now battling the Justice Department to get Farook's $280,000 life insurance policy of which she was the primary beneficiary

for an unforgettable stay By RUTH STYLES IN CARSON, CALIFORNIA, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM PUBLISHED: 15:12 EST, 10 December 2019 | UPDATED: 08:10 EST, 11 December 2019 read more Learn More 574 102 shares View comments

Like Follow Daily Mail Daily Mail +99 Follow Follow NEW @DailyMail ARTICLESDaily Mail Top

Follow Follow @dailymailuk Daily MailShare https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776675/Mother-San-Bernardino-terrorist-seen-four-years-ISIS-loving-wife-massacred-14.html 1/48 12/11/2019 Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 | Daily Mail Online The mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook has been pictured by FEMAIL TODAY DailyMailTV just days after the four-year anniversary of the massacre by her son and her daughter-in-law at a Christmas party.

Rafia Farook, 66, shared a home in Redlands, California, with her son and his ISIS- following wife Tashfeen Malik, and their baby daughter.

But she told investigators that she had no idea he was plotting a terrorist attack – even though the couple built some of the small bombs later used in the December 2, 2015 massacre at the home.

The spree killed 14 and injured 22, almost all of them colleagues of Farook's at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health.

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Farook, 32, and Pakistan-born Malik, 28, were gunned down by cops as they attempted to flee the scene in a rented Ford Expedition SUV.

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DailyMailTV spotted Rafia Farook, 66, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, just days after the fourth anniversary of the massacre by her son

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Rafia Farook was seen arriving at a local mosque Friday in the rain accompanied by her other son Syed Raheel, 34, (far right) and her husband Syed Sr., 70

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Rafia is now battling the Justice Department over Farook's $280,000 life insurance policy of which she was the primary beneficiary +99

NEW Top Exclusive DailyMailTV photos show Rafia Farook arriving at a local mosque on Friday ARTICLES in the rain. Share https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776675/Mother-San-Bernardino-terrorist-seen-four-years-ISIS-loving-wife-massacred-14.html 4/48 12/11/2019 Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 | Daily Mail Online She, her other son Syed Raheel, 34, and her husband Syed Sr., 70, were there for afternoon prayers.

Approached by DailyMailTV, Rafia refused to discuss her mass murderer son but said she was doing 'OK' four years on.

Rafia, who now lives with Syed Raheel in Corona, California, has always insisted that she did not notice Farook and Malik's increasing radicalization or have any idea of their plans, and was caring for their baby daughter on the day of the atrocity.

The little girl, who was six months old when she was orphaned, was removed by Child Protective Services immediately after the shooting and is now understood to be living with a foster family.

Syed Raheel also refused to comment on the slaughter when spoken to by DailyMailTV but did say that the family is now trying to move on.

That would appear to be a forlorn hope with Syed Raheel, Tatiana and Rafia herself all facing court next year.

Rafia is battling the Justice Department over Farook's $280,000 life insurance policy of which she was the primary beneficiary.

Insurers Minnesota Life Insurance paid out shortly after the attack but the funds were held by court after the Justice Department attempted to have the cash seized as proceeds of crime.

Rafia is continuing to fight attempts by the federal government to retain the payout.

She says that because she did not know her son was going to commit an act of terror, there is no reason for the money not to be paid.

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Rafia's other son Syed Raheel and his Russian wife Tatiana will appear in court next year to be sentenced after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud

Brother of San Bernardino shooter arrested, marriage fraud f

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for an unforgettable stay

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Syed Raheel will be sentenced on May 18 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud in January 2017. Wife Tatiana was convicted of the same crime and is due to be sentenced on February 10

Meanwhile, Syed Raheel will be sentenced on May 18 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud in January 2017.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

Wife Tatiana was convicted of the same crime and is due to be sentenced on February 10. read more

The immigration convictions relate to a sham marriage arranged by Syed Raheel for his wife's sister Mariyah with terror accomplice Enrique Marquez Jr., 27.

+99 Marquez Jr. is currently serving 25 years in federal prison after admitting to NEW Top purchasing guns that were later used in the attack. ARTICLES

According to court papers seen by DailyMailTV, Marquez, an Islamic convert and Share Mariyah - who has two children with boyfriend Oscar Romero, 37 - entered into a https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776675/Mother-San-Bernardino-terrorist-seen-four-years-ISIS-loving-wife-massacred-14.html 10/48 12/11/2019 Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 | Daily Mail Online fake marriage in November 2014.

Syed Raheel and Tatiana later signed affidavits claiming to have been present at the wedding – despite no such event taking place.

Tatiana arrived in the U.S. in 2006 and was initially married to an older man, Peter Gigliotti, 50, of Portland, Oregon.

Although it is unclear how she met Navy veteran Syed Raheel, by 2011, she had divorced Gigliotti and in August that year, the pair married.

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ARTICLE NEW Two Aung San Suu Kyi sits ARTICLES Top terrorist sympathizers through graphic face prison after accounts of mass... Share https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776675/Mother-San-Bernardino-terrorist-seen-four-years-ISIS-loving-wife-massacred-14.html 11/48 12/11/2019 Mother of San Bernardino terrorist is seen four years after he and his ISIS-loving wife massacred 14 | Daily Mail Online Sister Mariyah, who lives in Ontario, California, began a relationship with Romero shortly after arriving on a three-month tourist visa in 2009.

When Mariyah's visa expired, she arranged with her sister and brother-in-law to marry Marquez Jr, who is a childhood friend of Farook's and lived in the same street.

Marquez Jr. admitted the sham relationship while being questioned by FBI agents after the 2015 shooting, telling them how his fake bride paid him $200 a month to keep up the charade.

He is currently attempting to overturn his guilty plea and will return to court in January.

Mariyah is due to be sentenced on March 9 after admitting one count of conspiracy, another of perjury and two counts of making false statements. She also faces a deportation hearing.

Rafia's case is due to be decided once sentencing on the immigration fraud cases is complete.

Farook practices at a shooting range two days before massacre

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http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_8545be9a-1c79-11ea-a82a-d74cf34ee6c6.html

TOP STORY Old re station will serve as a new oce for a local nonprot

By Jené Estrada Hi-Desert Star 14 hrs ago

The county's re station in Panorama Heights has been closed for more than a decade. Located just southeast of Copper Mountain College, the station is slated to become an oce building for Morongo Basin ARCH. Jené Estrada Hi-Desert Star

JOSHUA TREE — Panorama Heights community members gathered at the Joshua Tree Sportsman’s Club Tuesday night to discuss the future of former Fire Station 35. The building was given to the Family Assistance Program in April by San Bernardino County to be turned into a day-use homeless facility, but after dozens of community members expressed their outrage, the county revoked that lease. Now, the county has agreed to lease the building to Morongo Basin Aligning Resources, Challenging Homelessness (ARCH). www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_8545be9a-1c79-11ea-a82a-d74cf34ee6c6.html 1/4 12/12/2019 Old fire station will serve as a new office for a local nonprofit | News | hidesertstar.com Morongo Basin ARCH is a nonprot organization. It has two major services: food and sheltering. Volunteers with its food program drive around weekly in Twentynine Palms to pass out food to local homeless people. The nonprot also runs two sober living homes in Twentynine Palms — one for women only and the other for men.

ARCH also works with the Pathways Network Project. Pathways helps community members avoid looming evictions and pays move-in costs for people who are homeless or are at risk of being homeless.

ARCH provides temporary nancial assistance to overcome whatever barrier is keeping local families from living in permanent housing.

“People call us and say, ‘I’m going to get evicted,’” said President of Morongo Basin ARCH Astrid Johnson. “If it’s not too late, maybe we can do prevention.”

ARCH has been running this program since August and has already helped over 20 families, said case manager Elaine Musko. And while the nonprot has money to help more families for the next two years, it does not have a space to meet with potential clients.

Case managers have been meeting with families outside of restaurants, at parks and at the library, Musko said.

Morongo Basin ARCH asked the county if it could use the building as an administrative oce. The building, located on Sierra Avenue in the Panorama Heights area, covers about 2,760 square feet, including living quarters and a laundry room.

“They are going to set it up as an outreach oce,” said Wayne Hamilton, a homeless outreach coordinator for Morongo Unied School District. “What we propose to do is use that building to do intakes, computer and oce stuff.”

Hamilton said the building will be open for meetings by appointments only during business hours. Meetings will be between Musko and families in need that might qualify for nancial assistance. They will ll out paperwork to see if they qualify for funding.

“I know some people were opposed to the homeless shelter, so we refocused what we want to do and that’s what we approached it as,” Hamilton said. “It’s not going to house anyone or have a lot of trac. It’s just going to be an oce building.” www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_8545be9a-1c79-11ea-a82a-d74cf34ee6c6.html 2/4 12/12/2019 Old fire station will serve as a new office for a local nonprofit | News | hidesertstar.com The county has already tentatively approved the use of the building for ARCH and is writing up a lease agreement, he said.

The lease will be for ve years and Morongo Basin ARCH will pay the county one dollar a year.

Because of how big the building is, ARCH might allow other local programs to use it, Johnson said.

The Morongo Basin Community Emergency Response Team used to store its equipment in the old re station but had to move it after the county took over. ARCH’s lease would allow CERT to use the space again.

ARCH has also been receiving donations of linens and furniture for the people they help and Johnson said the old re station could be used to store these donations.

Members of the public who attended the meeting said they were happy about the change from a day-use homeless facility to an administrative building, but several people also expressed their concern that, down the line, the purpose of the building could change.

“What’s to stop you from saying in a year from now that your needs are different and now you’re going to make it a homeless shelter?” asked one Panorama Heights property owner.

Hamilton and Johnson said they would ask the county to include language in the lease specifying that the building could only be used as an oce building.

“When I tell you we’re going to use it as an oce, we’re going to use it as an oce,” Hamilton said. “If we don’t do what we tell you, call (3rd District Supervisor Dawn Rowe). I guarantee you we’ll be out in a month.”

Johnson encouraged anyone who was concerned to come to the Morongo Basin ARCH board meetings to get involved with the planning of the building and the program. Monthly meetings are held at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of the month at the Lutheran church at 6336 Hallee Road in Joshua Tree.

www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_8545be9a-1c79-11ea-a82a-d74cf34ee6c6.html 3/4 San Bernardino City Unified Superintendent Dale Marsden resigns, eyes ‘opportunities’ elsewhere – San Bernardino Sun

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LOCAL NEWS San Bernardino City Unified Superintendent Dale Marsden resigns, eyes ‘opportunities’ elsewhere

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https://www.sbsun.com/...es-elsewhere/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/11/2019 1:51:53 PM] San Bernardino City Unified Superintendent Dale Marsden resigns, eyes ‘opportunities’ elsewhere – San Bernardino Sun

San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent Dale Marsden, pictured here addressing the media after the 2017 North Park Elementary School shooting, announced his resignation Tuesday, Dec. 10. The veteran educator had been in the position since 2012. (File photo by John Valenzuela/The Sun/SCNG)

By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino Sun  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 9:49 am | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 1:42 pm

Dale Marsden has resigned as superintendent of San Bernardino City Unified School District after seven years in the post.

The veteran educator announced his departure at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Hired in 2012 to lead the county’s largest school district, Marsden wrote in a letter to staff members that he was resigning “to serve this region in another capacity.” S

“I have a couple of opportunities to pursue within the Inland Empire that excite me,” he wrote.

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San Bernardino school trustees are expected to hold a special board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 17, to discuss a transition timeline and next steps.

Marsden did not immediately return a call for comment.

“Serving SBCUSD has been in response to a clear call on my and my family’s lives,” he wrote in his letter to the board, adding that he and his wife have discussed his desire to transition for “quite some time.”

“It has been the most incredible opportunity I could ever imagine,” he added.

With Marsden as superintendent, San Bernardino City Unified, serving more than 50,000 students in 72 schools, saw a significant reduction of suspensions and citations, the launch of several career pathway programs at all grade levels and a substantial boost in high school graduation rates.

This past school year, 92% of high school seniors graduated, the district reported, surpassing county, state and national averages.

“Together,” Marsden wrote, “we have taken SBCUSD from one of the state’s poorer performing school districts to become one of the state’s higher performing school districts – all because of the incredible leadership and service of each of you – from the boardroom to the classroom, and everywhere in between.”

A Cal State San Bernardino alum, Marsden used his position to support students in other school districts who lost classmates too soon, to identify issues San Bernardino students face walking to school and to promote free medical care for residents.

In 2017, Marsden led the school district through the aftermath of the North Park Elementary School shooting, which claimed the lives of 53-year-old special education teacher Karen Elaine Smith and 8- year-old student Jonathan Alfredo Martinez. The district offered support, counseling and classes to all those affected by the shooting.

Marsden’s resignation comes about two months after RELATED ARTICLES hackers infected San Bernardino City Unified servers with

Assaults, batteries in Moreno Valley ransomware and about six weeks after Assistant schools skyrocketed in 2018 — and Superintendent of Human Resources Perry Wiseman was officials don’t know why charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. He has not yet answered the charges in Outstanding students will keep San Bernardino strong well into the future court.

Schools fail to identify thousands of Wiseman was placed on paid administrative leave upon his homeless children, state audit finds August arrest and was subsequently placed on unpaid

leave, a district spokeswoman said. Temecula Valley High racist graffiti targets black student Marsden’s departure follows a Colton Joint Unified School District announcement three weeks ago that longtime Redlands plane makes 11-mile journey to San Bernardino college by land superintendent Jerry Armendarez was leaving Jan. 1 for the same position in Santa Ana.

Colton school trustees have since named Frank Miranda as Armendarez’s successor.

“Through this transition and beyond,” Marsden wrote in his letter to the board, “my family and I remain committed to San Bernardino and will always be your loudest cheerleaders as the race toward excellence continues. Though my future work will be different work, I will do my best to continue to blaze a trail for not just SBCUSD, but for this entire region toward the success for which it is capable.”

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Brian Whitehead Brian Whitehead covers San Bernardino for The Sun. Bred in Grand Terrace, he graduated from Riverside Notre Dame High and Cal State Fullerton. For seven years, he covered high school and

https://www.sbsun.com/...es-elsewhere/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/11/2019 1:51:53 PM] SharkNinja to farm out 110 jobs, Chino warehouse operations to Ryder – Press Enterprise

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BUSINESS SharkNinja to farm out 110 jobs, Chino warehouse operations to Ryder Employees will have to apply for jobs with Ryder; others will get severance pay.

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https://www.pe.com/...-ryder/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[12/11/2019 3:25:36 PM] SharkNinja to farm out 110 jobs, Chino warehouse operations to Ryder – Press Enterprise

SharkNinja Operating, the company that makes popular vacuum cleaners and a variety of kitchen appliances, is turning over management of its Chino distribution center to Ryder Integrated Systems. Some 110 employees will have to apply for jobs with Ryder. Seen in this file photo is a SharkNinja upright vacuum cleaner. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

By JACK KATZANEK | [email protected] |  R PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 3:23 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 3:24 pm

SharkNinja Operating, maker of popular vacuum cleaners and a variety of kitchen appliances, is turning over management of its Chino distribution center to a third-party operator.

The transfer, which is expected to be completed Feb. 10, 2020, means 110 employees working at the Fern Avenue warehouse will have to apply for jobs with Ryder Integrated Systems, the new employer. In a letter to the state Employment Development Department, SharkNinja wrote that some current workers at the warehouse will not be rehired.

The letter also states SharkNinja expects “net staffing will not decrease at the facility,” and that ultimately there could be more workers than are there now.

The letter did not discuss any pay discrepancies between the two companies.

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Representatives of SharkNinja and Ryder did not respond to requests for comment. Companies that lay off employees are required to report such moves to the state at least 60 days before they take effect, a law that also applies if there are changes in ownership or management.

According to the letter, SharkNinja has offered severance packages to workers who are not hired by Ryder.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate broker, SharkNinja renewed the lease on the 779,052-square-foot distribution center near the intersection of Euclid and Pine avenues during the second quarter of the year.

Ryder, based in Miami, operates a variety of shipping and trucking operations in North America and Europe, with several in the Inland Empire.

The company is facing a civil suit alleging racial discrimination and harassment filed in September by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The suit concerns company practices at its warehouse in Moreno Valley.

The suit alleges black workers were referred to with racial slurs and epithets. One of the employees complained to a supervisor, but no corrective action was taken. Instead, the employee who made the complaint was fired shortly afterward.

Kimco Staffing Service, the Irvine-based firm that recruited workers for Ryder in Moreno Valley, was named as a co-defendant.

There’s no housing shortage in California, Chapman forecast suggests

See the list of Forever 21 stores closing in Southern California

Pomona pool supply maker to shutter, laying off 257 as it relocates out of state

U.S. gains a robust 266,000 jobs; unemployment falls to 3.5%

Free job fair slated for Wednesday, Dec. 11 in Ontario

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https://www.pe.com/...-ryder/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise[12/11/2019 3:25:36 PM] 12/12/2019 San Manuel Band Of Mission Indians To Make $100,000 Contribution To Alliance For Education - InlandEmpire.us

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Education San Manuel Band Of Mission Indians To Make $100,000 Contribution To Alliance For Education

By Press Release- December 12, 2019 TAGS: GRANT SAN BERNARDINO SAN MANUEL STEM

San Bernardino, CA – The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians continues to make big investments in education by providing resources to help support Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in San Bernardino County. San Manuel has made a $100,000 contribution to the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools’ Alliance For Education to fund the Cultivating Innovation in STEM Schools program for another year.

https://inlandempire.us/san-manuel-band-of-mission-indians-to-make-100000-contribution-to-alliance-for-education/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m… 1/11 12/12/2019 San Manuel Band Of Mission Indians To Make $100,000 Contribution To Alliance For Education - InlandEmpire.us

Previously, the San Manuel’s funding in its last round of support helped 12 elementary schools in creating STEM learning spaces. San Manuel has donated close to $1.6 million in partnership with County Schools to prepare youth for tomorrow’s careers

Cultivating Innovation in STEM Schools will continue to strengthen the regional STEM culture throughout the county. This contribution will provide funding for 16 elementary schools to create new STEM learning spaces to strengthen and enhance STEM learning at the K-6 grade levels and promote STEM career exploration.

For more information concerning the Alliance for Education, contact Administrator Carol Tsushima of the Alliance at (909) 386-2636.

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October 23, 2019

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October 12, 2019

County Superintendent Gives State Of Education Address In High Desert

https://inlandempire.us/san-manuel-band-of-mission-indians-to-make-100000-contribution-to-alliance-for-education/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m… 2/11 12/12/2019 Construction of major energy saving projects will begin at Fontana City Hall; parking will be limited | News | fontanaheraldnews.com

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/construction-of-major-energy-saving-projects-will-begin-at- fontana/article_9d5e5346-1b68-11ea-81c1-8b7a3c49872b.html Construction of major energy saving projects will begin at Fontana City Hall; parking will be limited

Dec 10, 2019 Updated 16 hrs ago

The City of Fontana is anticipating about $2 million in energy savings over a 15-year-period because of projects that are now being constructed at City Hall.

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/construction-of-major-energy-saving-projects-will-begin-at-fontana/article_9d5e5346-1b68-11ea-81c1-8b7a… 1/2 12/12/2019 Construction of major energy saving projects will begin at Fontana City Hall; parking will be limited | News | fontanaheraldnews.com Because of the construction, the number of parking stalls in the City Hall and Police Department lots will be limited for about six months.

Visitors are encouraged to park in the designated two-hour customer-only parking stalls on Nathan A. Simon Way. Additional parking stalls can be found along Seville Avenue/Civic Center Drive.

• The rst energy-saving project is a solar project, which consists of the installation of solar roof panels on both City Hall and East Annex roofs, as well as solar carports in the City Hall and Police Department parking lots. Phase 1 is now underway. Once complete, temporary fencing will be removed and allow for parking in the lot. Phase 2 will then commence with work lasting until May/June of 2020, depending on weather and unforeseen conditions.

• The second project is the installation of six Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations, and work will commence within the same timeline.

• The third project is the installation of a microgrid at both the City Hall and the Police Department parking lots. This work consists of installing battery storage, microgrid controllers, and two additional dual-directional car charging stations. This will allow for both energy saving and redundancy power to City Hall and the Police Department. This project is currently in the design phase and city sta is developing a work schedule.

For questions or additional information, call Public Works Project Coordinator Shawn Matejcek at (909) 350-7649 or at [email protected].

https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/construction-of-major-energy-saving-projects-will-begin-at-fontana/article_9d5e5346-1b68-11ea-81c1-8b7a… 2/2 12/11/2019 ICONIC RETAIL BUILDING IN TWENTYNINE PALMS TO BE TRANSFORMED | Z107.7 FM

ICONIC RETAIL BUILDING IN TWENTYNINE PALMS TO BE TRANSFORMED

DECEMBER 11, 2019 | Z107.7 NEWS | LEAVE A COMMENT

Starting this Saturday, December 14, the former Trinkets and Tomes building in the Smoketree area of Twentynine Palms will begin a remarkable transformation. The two-story retail space at 72051 Twentynine Palms Highway will be the future home of The Desert Beautication Project and retail space for a roadside treasures-type business offering desert-themed souvenirs and furniture.

Sarah Beck has purchased the former Trinkets and Tomes building on the highway in Twentynine Palms and plans to paint a bold, modern mural on the building. Google Maps photo

Sarah Beck, one of the most sought-after, high-end painting contractors and interior designers in the industry, has purchased the building and completed the permitting process for the extensive renovation of the iconic structure. The most visible change will be a striking wrap-around mural featuring modern bright colors with desert animals and landscape in an eye-catching motif by veteran muralist Tommy Wonder.

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z1077fm.com/iconic-retail-building-in-twentynine-palms-to-be-transformed/ 2/4 12/11/2019 ICONIC RETAIL BUILDING IN TWENTYNINE PALMS TO BE TRANSFORMED | Z107.7 FM

Tommy Wonder has been hired to paint this mural on the former Trinkets and Tomes building at 72051 29 Palms Highway in Twentynine Palms. Courtesy photo

Beck is a native to the Morongo Basin, having been brought up in a Wonder Valley homestead cabin, before moving to and raising her family in Yucca Valley. She currently operates her upscale painting and design business out of Culver City.

An enthusiastic Beck told Z107.7 News, “We are opening a business in the Desert Beautication Project which will nd eligible properties and improve and remodel them for the rental market.” She said she, along with her partners, will be locating and developing properties themselves—as well as assisting owners and investors in potential short-term rental properties—on design and amenities’ improvements.

In addition to the design services, Beck said she would be looking at putting a roadside treasures- type retail operation with desert-themed souvenirs, as well as furniture and interior accessories for the rental and local household market in the building.

www.houzz.com/pro/sannbeck/sarah-beck

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The storm downed hundreds of trees, closed roads and trails, and snapped power lines.

Almost two weeks later, the cool morning air was still humming with the buzz of chainsaws.

Work is ramping up now that all the snow has melted, said Frazier Haney, deputy director at the Conservancy.

Throughout the area, there are still broken trunks sticking up and splintered, piles of limbs and caution tape.

Oak Glen Preserve and Southern California Montane Botanic Garden about a week ago

Heavy snow damage, Oak Glen Preserve, Thanksgiving storm 2019

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Weakened by years of drought and insect infestations, and confused by a late fall, deciduous trees

that are usually barren by the first major snow had plenty of leaves to catch and hold the heavy piles of sticky flakes.

“It’s multiple rounds of stress on these trees,” Haney said. “To me, it just represents a world that’s out of sync. The trees don’t know when to lose their leaves and the early snow, the intersection of those two things made for a catastrophe.”

He estimates Oak Glen lost 30% of its black oaks and many of the sycamores as well.

But what about the apples?

The apple trees fared a little better, said Scott Riley, who owns and manages Riley’s Farm with his family. However, he said, “there were a lot of the apple trees that we lost a lot of branches on, too.”

On their property, he figures there a couple dozen trees down, including apple and poplar, along with several hundred branches.

“We’re probably going to be chipping until June,” he said.

Most of the damaged apple trees were older and larger, Jonathan Bastedo, president of the Oak Glen Apple Growers Association, wrote in an email.

Luckily most of Oak Glen’s apple trees are dwarf varieties.

“They are thinner and more flexible which allows them to bend over in the snow and then bounce back afterward,” he said.

The storm damage also made traffic worse as tourists were piling in to play in the snow.

“We had trees down in the road blocking lanes of traffic and people were parking their cars in the middle of the road and getting out to play in the road while repair trucks and residents tried to get past,” Bastedo wrote, though he was happy to have people come out and play in the snow.

He said the rest of the fall had perfect weather with no rain days.

“A good year like this means we will be planting more apple trees and be able to bounce back from a storm like this,” he said. “The snow also helped to thin out any dangerous branches that were weak and may have come down in the summer when the trees are stressed by drought conditions.”

Damage at the Preserve

https://www.sbsun.com/...s-in-damage/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/12/2019 8:11:06 AM] Oak Glen snowstorm’s tree ‘catastrophe’ causes millions of dollars in damage – San Bernardino Sun At the Conservancy’s Oak Glen Preserve, which sees about 600,000 visitors per year, conifers, such as pine trees, also fared better due to angular shapes that allow snow to slip off.

What attracts people is the views and the trees, RELATED LINKS “spectacular scenery, even if it is a little beat up right now,”

said Conservancy Executive Director David Myers. Small beetle now killing ‘epic’ oaks in San Bernardino mountains Haney called it “viscerally upsetting” to be in the forest with all the broken trees. “I think a lot of people feel that way.” Apples on the Ford family tree

Last year the nonprofit spent $100,000 to protect about 300 Battle over Oak Glen radio tower oaks from the goldspotted oak borer using chemical continues; broadcaster now considering alternative site treatments. A lot of the trees that have suffered storm

damage were trees the conservancy has invested in, Myers It’s no winter wonderland when visitors said, standing next to a treated 150-year-old oak brought trash Southern California’s mountains down by the snow in Oak Knoll Park. This San Bernardino Mountains Work at the preserve won’t stop with removing damaged community was swallowed by a lake branches and trees that have fallen over. The nonprofit will bring in arborists to trim the damaged trees in a way that fosters a healthy growth habit, giving them the best chance at healing and surviving.

They also plan to replant, possibly with relatively drought-resistant gray pines, to create a mixed pine- oak forest, which they hope will be more sustainable.

Officials estimate the work will cost at least $2 million over the next 10 years.

“As trees are resilient, so are we,” Myers said quietly. “We’ll do what it takes.”

How to help

Volunteers ages 8 and up can participate in trail and habitat cleanup from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 14, at the preserve, 39611 Oak Glen Road. Sign up on the Preserve’s Facebook page.

Those interested in donating money can contact the group at 909-797-8507, wildlandsconservancy.org or [email protected].

https://www.sbsun.com/...s-in-damage/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/12/2019 8:11:06 AM] This San Bernardino Mountains community was swallowed by a lake – San Bernardino Sun

This San BernardinoGET BREAKING Mountains NEWS IN YOUR community BROWSER. was… CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.     X

LOCAL NEWS This San Bernardino Mountains community was swallowed by a lake

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https://www.sbsun.com/...1/this-san-bernardino-mountains-community-was-swallowed-by-a-lake/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/11/2019 1:51:28 PM] This San Bernardino Mountains community was swallowed by a lake – San Bernardino Sun

George’s Store was the center of activity in Cedar Springs, and it was the only source of gasoline and supplies for many miles. (Photo from the collection of L.T. Gotchy, Allen Reid, archivist)

By MARK LANDIS | [email protected] | The Sun  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 11:42 am | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 11:43 am

Communities sprout up and sometimes wither away, but in 1972, the small community of Cedar Springs met its demise when it was swallowed up by a lake.

The San Bernardino Mountains community was located at the confluence of the west fork of the Mojave River, Sawpit Canyon, and Miller Canyon, about 4 miles northwest of Crestline. Today, the location is under the waters of Silverwood Lake, near the boat launch ramp.

Beginning in the 1860s, cattle ranchers discovered the abundant water supply and fertile soil in the Cedar Springs and Summit Valley areas. Several ranches were established in the remote area, and the largest and best known was Summit Valley Ranch, which later

became Las Flores Ranch.

In 1884, James Houghton, co-owner of the Summit Valley Ranch began advertising for colonists to settle the area and build a farming community. By the early 1910s, there were about 100 families farming the Cedar Springs area.

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The growth and development of the community was due in large part to the efforts of Dr. Carl Hewitt, and his wife Ella. Carl received his medical training from the Seventh-day Adventist medical school in Loma Linda, and Ella was a nursing graduate there. Carl’s poor health prevented him from completing his medical training, and it prompted the couple to relocate around 1916 to the mountains.

The Hewitts found the valley they would call home, while exploring on Carl’s Indian motorcycle. They homesteaded 160 acres in lower Sawpit Canyon. Their first commercial crop was potatoes, while later they planted strawberries and fruit trees.

Over the next several years, the Hewitts added to their farm, which would eventually total 1,100 acres. Carl became the leading advocate for Cedar Springs, as he tirelessly promoted projects to bring better roads and services.

Carl and Ella were always deeply interested in medicine, and for many years they provided the only medical services in the area. In

1919, they established a small clinic called the Cedar Springs Health Resort to care for tuberculosis patients.

Carl and Ella Hewitt on their Indian Motorcycle, circa 1915. When the Hewitts first arrived The Hewitts success encouraged more Seventh-day Adventist in Cedar Springs, there were no roads into the area, and the couple had to walk nearly 10 miles to get to their homestead. (Photo courtesy of Mark Landis) families to move to Cedar Springs, and by the early 1920s, the area was a thriving colony. The early settlers had to travel to San Bernardino or Victorville to get supplies, but by 1925, Cedar Springs had a store, a church, and a schoolhouse.

For many years, Carl Hewitt had dreamed of developing a large health resort with expansive facilities in Cedar Springs. In 1925, he convinced a group of prominent people from Loma Linda, Redlands, and Los Angeles, to form a corporation and invest in a large sanitarium in an area adjacent to his property. There were land transfers, and a great deal of preparation and planning, however the sanitarium was never built.

By the 1930s, Cedar Springs had become well-known for its strawberries, and in later years, the community began sponsoring an annual strawberry festival.

Roads into the area were slowly improved, but throughout its existence Cedar Springs remained isolated. The isolation became a desperate problem when residents were completely marooned by the Great Flood of 1938.

On May 7, 1938, the residents dispatched a messenger on horseback to San Bernardino, carrying a plea for help that read: “We the undersigned being marooned at Cedar Springs, and unable to get out due to washouts, etc., are in need of supplies.” Emergency supplies were brought in by pack train until the roads were repaired.

In the 1940s and ’50s, when Southern California communities were becoming larger, more urban, and more sophisticated, Cedar Springs retained its tight-knit, rural personality. Many of the residents attended the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the only church in town, and virtually all of the younger children attended the same elementary school. Everyone got supplies and gasoline from Callender’s Store (later George’s Store), and many of the children had been delivered by Dr. Hewitt.

In the mid-1950s, rumors of a large reservoir at Cedar Springs started when the state of California began a large-scale program to assess water requirements.

Rumors grew more prevalent, and in 1957 the state released a formal plan to bring water from the Feather River in Northern California to Southern California. The massive “California State Water Project” would transfer water south through a series of reservoirs, canals, tunnels, and pumping stations, and a large reservoir at Cedar Springs was an integral part of the project.

In 1961, the state began a program to buy up all the property in the Cedar Springs area to make way for the new reservoir and a recreation area around its shores. Some of the residents accepted the inevitability of the project and quietly accepted the state’s offer. Others, like Carl Hewitt, resisted and fought the loss to the end.

On April 4, 1962, the San Bernardino Sun published an article on Carl Hewitt titled “Lake May RELATED ARTICLES Move Out Last of Homesteaders.” The Sun reported; “Back in 1925, Hewitt laid out plans for a

Commuting from San Bernardino in the lake and a lakeside resort development similar to Lake Arrowhead’s. At that time he shelved the 1870s, and more tidbits from LA books idea because of the uncertainty of the natural water supply into the proposed lake.”

Being scammed was just the beginning It was ironic that Carl Hewitt and other residents of the Cedar Springs area had long advocated for Isaac Lord in the Inland Empire’s past for a reservoir to be constructed in the area, hoping that their community would become a thriving resort. Luminarias shine light on history at Yucaipa Adobe Silverwood Lake began filling on January 22, 1972, and the rising water slowly covered the last

How did that arrowhead get there on the remaining remnants of Cedar Springs. The roads in the area had to be reconfigured to side of the San Bernardino Mountains? accommodate the new shoreline.

This Inland Empire man misses The lake and recreation area were opened on May 26, 1972. Silverwood Lake has a surface immortality by just 140 million miles area of about 1,000 acres, and is surrounded by 2,400 acres for recreational use.

The dam at Silverwood Lake was named the Cedar Springs Dam as a final farewell to the tiny community that disappeared under its shores.

Mark Landis is a freelance writer. He can be reached at: [email protected].

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Tags: history, local history, San Bernardino Mountains, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories PE, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun

SPONSORED CONTENT Jennifer Lawrence Duplicate is an Egyptian Actress By The Primary Market

https://www.sbsun.com/...1/this-san-bernardino-mountains-community-was-swallowed-by-a-lake/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[12/11/2019 1:51:28 PM] Search for missing Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy continues with volunteers and helicopters – San Bernardino Sun

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Search for missing Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy continues with volunteers and helicopters

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https://www.sbsun.com/...d-helicopters/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[12/11/2019 1:51:42 PM] Search for missing Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy continues with volunteers and helicopters – San Bernardino Sun

Snow is seen on Mt. Baldy in this file photo. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 10:45 am | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 10:47 am

The search for an Irvine man who went missing during a hike on Mt. Baldy resumed Wednesday, with seven search and rescue volunteers taking to the mountain, aided by San Bernardino County sheriff’s helicopters.

Sreenivas “Sree” Mokkapati, 52, got separated from three other hikers during a trek from Bear Flats at 4,000 feet to the 10,000-foot Mt. Baldy summit on Sunday. He was reported missing the same day.

The volunteers on Wednesday were from San Bernardino, M San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. They will search for “any sign” of Mokkapati and his direction of https://www.sbsun.com/...d-helicopters/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[12/11/2019 1:51:42 PM] Search for missing Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy continues with volunteers and helicopters – San Bernardino Sun

travel, deputies said.

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READ MORE The $23 trillion elephant in the Mokkapati was last seen wearing a gray, puffy jacket and gray pants and prepared for a day hike. Snow on the mountain starts around the 7,000-foot level. The Bear Flats hike to the summit is steeper and more difficult than other routes, and less taken..

One sheriff’s helicopter will primarily be used to take rescue volunteers to specific points on the mountain. Daytime weather was forecast to be partly cloudy.

On Tuesday, there were two unrelated helicopter rescues of injured hikers on the mountain, both of them near the steep-sided Devil’s Backbone trail, north of the Baldy summit.

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“Deputies arrived and made contact with the suspect, who was still armed with the baseball bat and a deputy-involved shooting occurred. The suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene,” the release said without elaboration.

The condition of the victims, who were hospitalized with “significant injuries,” was unknown to the Sheriff’s Department, the release said.

The sheriff’s department asks any witnesses or others with information about the case to call Detective Simon Demuri at 909-387-3589 or give information anonymously to WeTip at 800-782-7463 or the website wetip.com.

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https://www.sbsun.com/2019/12/12/inmate-from-san-bernardino-county-accused-of-assaulting-2-prison-guards-knocking-one-out/[12/12/2019 7:54:03 AM] Inmate from San Bernardino County accused of assaulting 2 prison guards, knocking one out – San Bernardino Sun

One officer was knocked unconscious and a second had a broken hand. Both were treated and are recovering at home, officials said.

Authorities didn’t detail a motive for the attack.

Robinson previously served time for robbery and was paroled in 2016. He was sent to prison again last year from San Bernardino County to serve a four-year sentence for vehicle theft and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, the Corrections Department stated.

Deputy injured after staged fight at Rancho Cucamonga jail

https://www.sbsun.com/2019/12/12/inmate-from-san-bernardino-county-accused-of-assaulting-2-prison-guards-knocking-one-out/[12/12/2019 7:54:03 AM] Rialto man arrested on suspicion of downloading, distributing child pornography – Daily Bulletin

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Rialto man arrested on suspicion of downloading, distributing child pornography

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Miguel Hernandez, 19, of Rialto, was arrested on suspicion of possession of child pornography. (Photo courtesy of the Fontana Police Department)

https://www.dailybulletin.com/...m_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/12/2019 7:54:16 AM] Rialto man arrested on suspicion of downloading, distributing child pornography – Daily Bulletin

By ROBERT GUNDRAN | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 9:58 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 10:31 pm

A Rialto man was arrested Wednesday by the Fontana Police Department on suspicion of downloading and distributing child pornography.

The Fontana Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at the 100 block of North Pine Avenue in Rialto. While executing the warrant, police said investigators discovered that 19-year-old Miguel Hernandez had over 2,000 images and videos with graphic child pornography.

“Many of the child pornographic images and videos included prepubescent children engaged in sadomasochistic and bestiality situations,” Fontana police said in a press release.

Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of possession and distribution of child, possession of child M pornography in excess of 600 images and possession of child pornography that portrayed sexual sadism or sexual masochism.

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https://www.dailybulletin.com/...m_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[12/12/2019 7:54:16 AM] Memorial scheduled for Cal State San Bernardino student who was shot to death – San Bernardino Sun

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY Memorial scheduled for Cal State San Bernardino student who was shot to death

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https://www.sbsun.com/2019/12/11/memorial-scheduled-for-cal-state-san-bernardino-student-who-was-shot-to-death/[12/12/2019 7:53:17 AM] Memorial scheduled for Cal State San Bernardino student who was shot to death – San Bernardino Sun

S A memorial service will be held Dec. 16 for Abhishek Sudhesh Bhat, a 25-year-old graduate student from India who was slain on Thanksgiving Day. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

By BRIAN ROKOS | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: December 11, 2019 at 7:31 pm | UPDATED: December 11, 2019 at 7:32 pm

A public memorial service will be held Dec. 16 on the Cal State San Bernardino campus for Abhishek Sudhesh Bhat, a 25-year-old graduate student from India who was shot to death on Thanksgiving H

Day. By

The two-hour service is scheduled to begin at 4:20 p.m. in the Santos Manuel Student Union Events Center. Scheduled speakers include university President Tomás Morales and faculty, students, friends and family members. Free parking is available in Lot D. M

Bhat was shot at about 12:35 p.m. Nov. 28 at a motel where he worked part-time in the 100 block of South E Street, San Bernadino police said. Eric Devon Turner, 42, of San Bernardino, was arrested Nov. 30. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and being a felon or addict in possession of a

Bhat spoke to his father on the phone 15 minutes before he was shot, according to the Indian news website Scroll.in.

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Bhat, a resident of Mysuru, moved to California for his studies two years ago and had four months left to complete his degree, according to a GoFundMe page that is no longer active.

“He had decided to go abroad to study with the only aim and ambition to help and be there for his family. He worked hard day and night to fulfill this dream. He wanted to fund his younger brother Abhishreshta’s medical education fees apart from being financially available for everyone in his family,” the GoFundMe page said, according to the Indian news website thehindu.com.

Bhat was studying computer science and had a 3.778 grade-point average, a university news release

said. He was a teaching assistant for the College of Natural Sciences and was involved in the Indian Student Association and the larger Indian student community.

Man arrested on suspicion of intentionally hitting and killing pedestrian in Hemet

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https://www.sbsun.com/2019/12/11/memorial-scheduled-for-cal-state-san-bernardino-student-who-was-shot-to-death/[12/12/2019 7:53:17 AM] 12/12/2019 L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to open 50 high school sexual health and well-being centers - Los Angeles Times

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L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to open 50 high school sexual health and well-being centers

Sue Dunlap, left, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, talks with Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County public health director, as they tour the new sexual healthcare center at Esteban Torres High School in East L.A. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

By SONALI KOHLI STAFF WRITER

DEC. 12, 2019 5 AM

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/50-new-sexual-health-wellbeing-centers-in-l-a-high-schools 1/8 12/12/2019 L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to open 50 high school sexual health and well-being centers - Los Angeles Times A high school senior decided recently that she wants to become sexually active with her boyfriend. But she is not yet comfortable talking to her mom about birth control and would be unable to get to a doctor’s appointment on her own. Instead, she walked over to the new well-being center at school during a free period.

It was easy. Planned Parenthood runs a sexual healthcare clinic at Esteban Torres High School in East L.A. once a week. Other days educators are available for stress management and students’ other health concerns, including substance abuse.

The clinic is part of an initiative — funded by the L.A. County departments of public health and mental health and Planned Parenthood Los Angeles — to open 50 such centers in schools throughout the county in the next year.

The effort, which will cost at least $12 million in its first year, is designed to bring much-needed health and wellness care to underserved teenagers at a time when Los Angeles and other districts are struggling to meet the basic needs of their students to help free them to focus on learning.

The high school senior, who asked not to be named to protect her privacy, said that with the clinic’s counseling she decided to start the birth control pill. Without this help, she said, she may not have sought out any expertise.

“It being on campus — there was no excuse not to go,” she said.

The centers include reproductive health clinics where students can get birth control pills and condoms, tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, emergency contraception such as Plan B, and pregnancy testing and referrals — services far beyond what is typically offered by school nurses. Planned Parenthood is running five of the 34 sites that are open, offering more extensive birth control options including intrauterine devices and arm implants.

Because California law allows minors older than 12 to obtain confidential treatment and birth control, students can access the services at these clinics without parental consent.

SPONSORED CONTENT https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/50-new-sexual-health-wellbeing-centers-in-l-a-high-schools 2/8 12/12/2019 L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to open 50 high school sexual health and well-being centers - Los Angeles Times The Rising Cost of Housing is Straining Our Communities  By Wells Fargo We’ve committed $1 billion over the next 6 years to develop new housing affordability solutions.

Planned Parenthood hopes to eventually operate all of the clinics and has committed $5 million to the effort over the next five years, said Sue Dunlap, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. The county’s public health department is contributing about $10 million in the first year and has committed to keeping the centers open for five years.

At the Esteban Torres campus, home to five small pilot schools, students can visit the center and clinic that have taken over two rooms behind the main office.

On Fridays, students can see a Planned Parenthood nurse or physician assistant in a “modular clinic” with an exam table, thick makeshift walls and a white noise machine for privacy. Tuesdays through Thursdays, students can visit the well-being center next door, greeted by cute stuffed sloths, with a soft blanket on comfy chairs that are pushed together to resemble a sofa. Signs in the room promise a safe space and an explanation of what defines sexual consent: “Freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, specific.”

All of the centers are staffed at least 20 hours a week by health educators, who have master’s degrees in public health.

The goal is to provide a room to relax and decompress, and to “offer the students another set of caring adults to whom they can come with those strange life questions,” said Billie Dawn Greenblatt, a supervising health educator who oversees three high school sites. She said recent student questions have included: “How do I make a doctor’s appointment?” and “Will vaping hurt my lungs?”

One student asked this week if Greenblatt would help her formulate a plan to come out to her parents; others write anonymous questions on paper slips that she collects, with inquiries like, “Is there a cure for HIV?”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/50-new-sexual-health-wellbeing-centers-in-l-a-high-schools 3/8 12/12/2019 L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to open 50 high school sexual health and well-being centers - Los Angeles Times About 30% of L.A. County high school students surveyed reported feeling chronic sadness or hopelessness, according to the state Department of Education’s 2015-2017 California Healthy Kids Survey. For high school students who had recently missed school, 9% of freshmen and 14% of 11th- graders said they were absent because they “felt very sad, hopeless, anxious, stressed, or angry.”

Teenagers may be coping with alcohol, drug use and risky sexual behaviors, and there’s often an overlap between these behaviors and students’ sense that they do not have an adult on campus to talk to, said Barbara Ferrer, the head of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

About 1 in 5 L.A. County high school students surveyed had alcohol or cannabis in the last month, according to a 2017 survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually transmitted infection rates have been increasing nationally since 2013, and people ages 15 to 24 accounted for half of gonorrhea and almost a third of chlamydia cases in California last year, though they represent only 20% of the population, according to the California Department of Public Health.

“We have in L.A. County one of the highest rates of chlamydia amongst this age group,” Ferrer said. “These coping strategies impact academic performance as well as their social, emotional, and physical well-being.”

The plan is to open 16 more clinics around L.A. County in the next year to reach the total of 50. These centers are concentrated in communities with high poverty rates and low access to services. Each school community also had to be supportive of a center that would offer reproductive healthcare and long-term birth control on campus, Ferrer said.

The goal, after five years, will be to reduce absenteeism and see a decrease in positive STI tests at the clinics, Ferrer said. The department also wants to try to find a measure of well-being and may expand to look at substance abuse measures if schools show a demand for it.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/50-new-sexual-health-wellbeing-centers-in-l-a-high-schools 4/8 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times

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I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like

Rubble from a 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Mark Baker / Associated Press)

By RONG-GONG LIN II STAFF WRITER

DEC. 12, 2019 5 AM

I went to New Zealand on a long-planned vacation to see the setting for “The Lord of the Rings” movies and the mountain scenery.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 1/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times But as the earthquake reporter for the Los Angeles Times, I had another goal. I wanted to visit Christchurch, a seaside city on the South Island. For people in the seismic community, there are many lessons California can learn from Christchurch, and I wanted to see it for myself.

On Feb. 22, 2011, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake ruptured right under Christchurch. There have been bigger earthquakes since around the globe that have been more destructive. But Christchurch bears a distinct resemblance to California cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. We share similar building codes, architectural styles, proximity to major faults, and that familiar denial that comes with living in earthquake country.

So when the sightseeing ended, I spent another week in Christchurch.

I was immediately struck by how much Christchurch had been altered by the quake and how the idea of a “full recovery” was a fantasy. Some voiced optimism of Christchurch being reborn as a safer, and in some ways more vibrant, city; others voiced regret at a lost decade.

The whole story reminded me how, in California and elsewhere, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being too optimistic in the early days after a disaster, where we celebrate heroes and come together as a community and think we can rebuild quickly. That can set up a time of disillusionment and despair, when it becomes clear that rebuilding will be a task that will last a generation or more.

This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like

The overall lesson I learned: Be realistic about the challenges the rebuilding will face. It will be far more difficult than anything we might have experienced in our lifetime. And by doing whatever we can before disaster strikes, the easier it will be to recover as best we can.

SPONSORED CONTENT It's all about the kids By UNICEF USA https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 2/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times Just who is UNICEF helping, exactly? See their faces and learn the facts.

Here are five lessons I learned from my visit to Christchurch:

1. Recovery will be slower than anyone would like.

Consider the last true catastrophic California quake. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, estimated to be a magnitude 7.8, caused the collapse of many buildings across the city before sweeping fires destroyed nearly 500 city blocks, turning about 200,000 people — half of the city’s population — homeless. More than 3,000 people died. One study found that the 1906 earthquake stunted cities closest to the worst shaking for decades; they suffered from lower annual population growth continuing at least through 1970.

“People were deciding to not go to places that were hit as hard,” said study coauthor Katherine Eriksson, an assistant professor of economics at UC Davis.

The destruction played a role in halting San Francisco’s run as the undisputed king of the Pacific Coast, which came as Los Angeles gained in prominence.

San Francisco really didn’t fully regain its influence and might until the 1980s, said Ilan Noy, a professor specializing in the economics of disasters at Victoria University in New Zealand. “San Francisco fully recovers only when it develops this new engine of income, which is high-tech,” Noy said.

In Christchurch, progress for the recovery was hampered as officials overpromised and then underfunded rebuilding efforts. “They said everything would be done in five years,” Christchurch City Councilman Raf Manji told me this year before he left office. “They haven’t even started some of the projects — eight years later.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 3/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times 2. The mental scars can be widespread.

People don’t like to talk about post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety once the shaking begins. But it’s a major issue.

A year after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, The Times published a poll that showed startling levels of emotional damage from the earthquake.

Amy Cooney suered emotionally after losing her brother in the Christchurch earthquake. Treatment was essential to managing post-traumatic stress, and today, even when small things go wrong, she says she’s not bothered by it. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

More than half of those responding to the poll said they and their children continued to suffer from sleeplessness, jittery nerves, fearfulness or other emotional upset. Some said the smallest noises set their anxiety off. “I’m still very nervous and jumpy,” one L.A. resident said. “When my neighbor’s washing machine got off balance the other day, I thought we were having another earthquake.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 4/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times Normally, a substantial proportion of post-traumatic mental illness is resolved within one or two years, but that doesn’t always happen; a slow recovery can be particularly taxing for the population.

A study of victims of Hurricane Katrina found that rates of post-traumatic stress disorder rose from 15% to 21% between a period of about half a year to 1½ years after the hurricane; and serious mental illness rose from 11% to 14%.

When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors

In the New Orleans metropolitan area about half a year after Katrina hit, about 30% had PTSD; and nearly half had an anxiety mood disorder.

3. The warnings about dangerous buildings are not overblown.

For decades, seismic experts have said certain types of buildings are at high risk of collapse in a major quake. Christchurch proved them right. They include buildings made of brick or stone built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as more modern concrete buildings, including office towers built through the 1980s.

Just two concrete buildings catastrophically collapsed in the 2011 earthquake, killing 133 people, accounting for more than two-thirds of the death toll in the disaster.

Search your address: Is your L.A. apartment ready for the next earthquake?

Many brick and stone structures also collapsed, killing more than 40 others. Most were not inside collapsing buildings, but were killed by falling debris while they were outside or in vehicles.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 5/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times While some big cities like L.A. and San Francisco have pushed to retrofit or demolish brick buildings, a number of smaller California cities have not. Most California cities have not ordered potentially vulnerable concrete buildings to be strengthened, including San Francisco.

4. New Zealand’s recovery was helped by earthquake insurance. California is nowhere near as insured.

California and New Zealand both have tried to tackle seismic safety issues, but Kiwis are well ahead of the Golden State when it comes to insurance.

New Zealand is unusual for its remarkably high earthquake insurance rate. In California, most homeowners are required by their lenders to have only fire insurance. In New Zealand, however, the government created the New Zealand Earthquake Commission, which is a compulsory addendum to anyone with a standard residential fire insurance policy typically required by lenders, Noy said. More than 95% of residential properties have standard fire insurance, and, as a result, are also insured for earthquakes.

The system wasn’t perfect. There have been complaints about how the commission was ill- prepared to manage the massive influx in claims. And some people were under-insured. But the high insurance rate prevented many from losing it all.

If a major quake hit California, homeowners would be much more exposed. Only about 11% of California homeowners have quake insurance.

Small businesses were also helped by a temporary government program in the months after the earthquake.

The government propped up small businesses and their employees with an earthquake support subsidy — keeping paychecks of $320 a week flowing for between six and 14 weeks. About $122 million was spent on the subsidy.

5. Future California earthquakes can be worse than Christchurch’s. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 6/13 12/12/2019 I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like - Los Angeles Times Worst-case earthquakes hitting California’s oldest and largest cities can be far more destructive than what happened in Christchurch in 2011.

While both sit along major tectonic plate boundaries, California is far more populous than New Zealand, and has much more to lose in a big earthquake.

One nightmarish scenario, although not one especially likely to strike in our lifetime, is a magnitude 7 quake on the Puente Hills thrust fault directly underneath a broad swath of central Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. Such a quake could cause the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, killing 18,000 people and causing 268,000 injuries.

What would a powerful earthquake feel like where you live?

Likelier scenarios are still catastrophic. According to plausible scenarios studied by the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 7 earthquake on the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hayward fault could lead to 800 deaths and 18,000 injuries.

And a magnitude 7.8 on the San Andreas in Southern California would be a catastrophe, sending severe shaking across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern and Ventura counties, and causing 1,800 deaths and 50,000 injuries. Five steel-frame buildings across Southern California could collapse; and 50 additional brittle concrete buildings could partially or completely collapse.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/5-things-california-can-learn-from-new-zealands-big-earthquake 7/13 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

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This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like

Christ Church Cathedral in New Zealand remains severely damaged from a powerful 2011 earthquake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Christchurch, New Zealand, shattered by a 2011 earthquake, offers an urgent lesson for California.

By RONG-GONG LIN II

DEC. 12, 2019 5 AM

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — he high-rise towers that served as landmarks of this city are mostly gone. Blocks where historic brick buildings once stood are now vacant. At the city’s center, Christ Church Cathedral T remains in ruins. The workday bustle in one of New Zealand’s leading commercial centers, abandoned by many employers, has slowed. A once-steady stream of tourists dramatically slimmed.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 1/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times Eight years ago, a huge earthquake ruptured directly under Christchurch, killing 185 people. Full recovery remains elusive.

The city offers an urgent lesson to California, whose major cities — situated along seismic faults — face similar threats.

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A reminder of that came July 5, when the largest earthquake to hit California in two decades shook the Ridgecrest area. Had it been centered under Los Angeles, the destruction would have easily dwarfed what happened in Christchurch.

Since that magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit New Zealand on Feb. 22, 2011, the recovery has been painfully slow. The physical, economic and psychological aftershocks continue.

The skyline of Christchurch, New Zealand, before the 2011 earthquake. Ocials would later restrict some areas from future development. (Richard Simonds)

The quake redrew the geography of Christchurch. Downtown is now flatter and smaller, with 1,500 buildings in the Central Business District having been demolished. Some businesses left for the suburbs and never came back. Officials also bought and demolished 8,000 houses along rivers, the coast and in the hills and restricted those areas from future development.

In addition to commerce moving out of the city center, projects intended to restore Christchurch — a convention center, a recreation center, a sports stadium — have not been completed. Some are years away from becoming a reality.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 2/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times Earthquake-related psychological distress has been widespread, with post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression reported years after the shaking.

“We always used to say, ‘Recovery is getting back to normal life.’ The thing is, after an event like this, normal life has changed, and it’s never going to be the same again,” said James Thompson, a regional government emergency management official. “So you recover into a new normal, or a new way of living. And that change will stay with people forever.”

New Zealand and California have similar seismic safety standards, their skylines built in the 19th century with collapse-prone brick and in the 20th century with brittle concrete.

The magnitude 6.2 earthquake was so devastating to Christchurch because it ruptured on a fault directly underneath the city, placing the worst shaking in the worst possible location. (Casey Miller / Los Angeles Times )

Each also sits on the edge of a huge tectonic plate boundary. Neighborhoods are built on top of soft sediment that magnifies the shaking, and seismic regulations for older buildings in many areas are inadequate to resist collapse from intense shaking...... ADVERTISEMENT...... https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn. . . . . 3/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times Recovery from a huge quake in Southern California or the San Francisco Bay Area would be many times more challenging than in Christchurch, given the state’s huge population, housing shortage and sprawling infrastructure. The last brush in California with a truly devastating earthquake was the magnitude 7.8 event in 1906 that destroyed much of San Francisco, setting back the Bay Area for generations.

The state’s more recent quakes, while deadly, were far from worst-case scenarios.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in 1989 centered under the Santa Cruz Mountains, 60 miles from San Francisco, collapsed a section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the double- decker Interstate 880, along with structures in the South of Market and Marina districts; the death toll was 63 and the property damage was $10 billion.

Southern California’s magnitude 6.7 earthquake in 1994 delivered its worst shaking to relatively newer buildings in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. At least 57 people died and the earthquake caused $20 billion in damage and $49 billion in economic losses.

The U.S. Geological Survey has projected that a magnitude 7 earthquake on the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hayward fault could lead to 800 deaths and 18,000 injuries.

A hypothetical magnitude 7 earthquake along the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hayward fault would cause severe, violent or extreme shaking along large swaths of the East Bay, North Bay and Silicon Valley, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (Casey Miller / Los Angeles Times)

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 4/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times A magnitude 7.8 on the San Andreas fault in Southern California could be even more catastrophic, causing 1,800 deaths and 50,000 injuries.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault could bring widespread severe, violent and extreme shaking across wide swaths of Southern California, noted by the three reddest colors on this map. (Casey Miller / Los Angeles Times)

Part 1: A changed geography

Downtown Christchurch before the quake offered an architectural timeline of its history. There were some original ornate buildings from the 19th century, such as the cathedral, as well as commercial blocks built in the early 20th century with brick and stone. The modern skyline began to develop in the late 1960s, with a boom in taller concrete buildings through the 1980s.

Many of those unretrofitted brick and stone buildings could not withstand the shaking. More than 40 people were killed by falling debris. The vast majority had been outside of the collapsing structures, including pedestrians and those riding by in vehicles.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 5/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

The quake also ravaged the downtown’s concrete office buildings. Two collapsed — the six-story Canterbury Television building, killing 115 people; and the five-story Pyne Gould Corp. building, causing 18 deaths.

Christchurch’s closest port, Lyttelton — New Zealand’s third-largest — suffered massive devastation, incurring more than $320 million in damage so extensive that the rebuilding process was expected to take at least 12 to 15 years. A big blow to Christchurch was that Lyttelton’s damaged wharves no longer allowed large cruise ships to dock.

So many buildings came tumbling down that Christchurch’s city center was cordoned off to the public, some areas for more than two years.

The Pyne Gould Corp. building collapsed in the earthquake. (Hannah Johnston / Getty Images)

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 6/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

A memorial site commemorates the 18 people who died when the Pyne Gould Corp. building collapsed. (Deb Donnell / For The Times)

But even as the newly compact downtown gradually reopened, the rebuilding was slow, with many people staying away “just because there were so many aftershocks,” said resident Penny Smart.

Her shop, Mrs Higgins Oven Fresh Cookies, was demolished along with the rest of the historic Regent on Worcester Theatre building, built in 1930. She reopened elsewhere two years later, but the dramatic decline in foot traffic has meant that she’s doing about 60% of pre-quake business.

“It’s still a struggle: Literally, we’re making enough to stay open, and that’s about it,” Smart said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 7/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

Penny Smart’s cookie shop was demolished after the earthquake. She reopened two years later in a dierent building, but the business is struggling. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

One hairdresser who reopened downtown quickly found that some customers were unsettled that the salon floor was leaning at an angle.

“The chairs would roll,” said Tracy Hatton, who has a doctorate in disaster recovery and spoke with the hairdresser. “They called us the doughnut, because you had a completely dead [downtown] and you had all this activity ... out where there was space” in the suburbs.

As in California, development in Christchurch decades ago occurred along prized coastal land — with little thought about the stability of the ground below.

Southshore was always one of the city’s most picturesque neighborhoods, a thin peninsula of modest homes sandwiched between a sandy beach and the Pacific Ocean on one side and an estuary on the other.

‘After the earthquake, we all sort of thought — oh, five years and the central city will be back to normal. And it was oh, probably 10. And then 15. And then 20. And so it goes on.’

— KAREN SELWAY

The earthquake caused land there to act like quicksand, a process called liquefaction. In one spot, a gusher of water 4 feet high flowed from what had been a garden. Some home foundations were completely destroyed; land dropped a foot in elevation in places.

Unlike downtown, some parts of this neighborhood and many others across the city could not be rebuilt. They were just too badly liquefied, had sunk too much, or were now at too high a risk of

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 8/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times landslides and cliff collapse for there to be hope of developing without a prolonged, costly effort to stabilize the land.

The government made offers to buy more than 8,000 homes and demolished them, limiting redevelopment on three square miles of land.

Lynda Burdekin lost her home when it was irreparably damaged. She is determined to rebuild. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Lynda Burdekin, 68, had to say goodbye to one-third of her neighbors. About 170 homes, all closest to the estuary, were bulldozed.

Some of them went off to homes for seniors; others moved to where their families lived. The farewells were emotional. “They intended to stay their life out there,” she said.

Burdekin’s home was so damaged that it would need to be rebuilt with a stronger foundation, and situated higher to guard against rising sea levels.

With the quake having destroyed a wall separating homes from the estuary, Southshore is more at the mercy of the forces of nature than ever. City Hall has agreed to study how to protect the neighborhood from erosion and flooding for as long as possible.

Ann Brower, an environmental scientist, had long worried about the historic brick buildings that lined the streets of downtown Christchurch. She had personal experience: She lived through the Northridge earthquake of 1994 while she earned her undergraduate degree at Pomona College.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 9/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

Ann Brower survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the 2011 Christchurch quake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

For this reason, Brower had avoided going to downtown Christchurch after the city began having damaging earthquakes in the latter half of 2010. But on Feb. 22, 2011, she shrugged off the worry and planned a bus route into downtown. As her bus cruised through the city center, the great quake struck.

Huge chunks of unretrofitted brick buildings fell onto her bus, crushing it. All eight others on the bus, including the driver, were killed. The youngest was a 14-year-old boy heading home while enjoying a half-day off from school. Four pedestrians also died.

Brower’s worries about downtown Christchurch’s vulnerabilities were well-founded and helped explain how the city has changed in the last eight years.

Brower said she likes the new downtown, which is safer and less dense. She now goes to the new restaurants that are opening and is glad all those brick buildings are gone. The city recently opened a new sprawling government justice center as well as a library, renovated concert hall and indoor farmers market. Civic boosters hope the convention center’s opening and the return of large cruise ships to the city’s closest port next year and planned new hotels will entice visitors to stay longer; work on strengthening the Christ Church Cathedral is expected to begin next year.

“Life was never meant to stay the same,” Brower said. “Recovery — that’s where you’re going back to where you were. You never fully recover from an earthquake. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 10/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

A man retrieves his bike from the remains of a building in Christchurch in 2011. (Martin Hunter / Getty Images)

Part 2: Economic wounds

Karen Selway prided herself on planning for the future.

She started a market research company in Christchurch that at its peak employed the equivalent of 17 full-time employees. She bought a brick building downtown to house her offices, using the extra space to bring in tenants.

To her, the building was a nest egg.

When the quake hit, its walls suffered significant cracks. No one was hurt, but officials quickly ordered the remains demolished.

There was little time for Selway to retrieve her files or computer servers; she was busy preparing for the funeral of her sister, a clinical psychologist who died when the Canterbury Television building collapsed and caught fire.

“You grieve the loss of your building as well,” Selway said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 11/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

Karen Selway’s building, where she ran a market research company, was damaged in the quake and ordered demolished. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

The Christchurch rebuild is expected to cost $26 billion, according to an estimate by the Reserve Bank, making it New Zealand’s single biggest economic challenge.

“After the earthquake, we all sort of thought — oh, five years and the central city will be back to normal. And it was oh, probably 10. And then 15. And then 20. And so it goes on,” Selway said.

The economic blow for many was lessened by New Zealand’s high rate of earthquake insurance.

Unlike in California, where most homeowners are required by their lenders only to have fire insurance, there’s a compulsory earthquake insurance add-on in New Zealand for anyone with the standard residential fire policy, according to Ilan Noy, professor of economics at Victoria University in Wellington. More than 95% of residential properties are covered.

The insured value of Selway’s property was $830,000, but it would have cost $2 million to rebuild.

“I’ve just been to places, in terms of stress and stress levels mentally, that you just never would’ve imagined existed,” Selway said. “If we had known eight years ago what we were going to go through, I would’ve said I couldn’t do it.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 12/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times

Rubble from a church in Christchurch in 2011. (Hannah Johnston / Getty Images)

The rebuilt church. (Deb Donnell / For The Times)

The last few years have been economically challenging as demand for market research in a quake-ravaged city evaporated. Selway now has the equivalent of three full-time employees.

She still owns the land under her demolished building, and the city is interested in buying it to build the stadium. But the government has valued the land at a significantly lower price than what Selway’s experts have found.

Selway feels she’s lost nearly a decade of her life fighting with insurers and the government, and estimates her quake losses at about $660,000. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 13/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times Selway purchased a single-family home far from the city center as her new office. But emergency government rules allowing homes to be used as offices will expire in 2021, and the building’s use will revert to that of a residential home.

She’s bought a house next door and is converting it into a well-being center — as a tribute to her late sister, Susan.

Christchurch Catholic Cathedral after the earthquake. (David Wethey / Associated Press)

The church today. (Deb Donnell / For The Times)

Part 3: A mental earthquake https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 14/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times When the shaking started, Amy Cooney told her brother, Jaime Gilbert, to run.

They were working at a bar inside an old stone building. First the bottles crashed around them. As they emerged onto the sidewalk, giant blocks of limestone were crashing down.

Cooney, then 31, woke up to the taste of dust in her mouth, trapped.

She felt her hand touching her brother’s. Gilbert had been killed instantly.

Amy Cooney at home in Christchurch. After the 2011 quake, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Cooney had always considered herself a strong person, a rock to the people in her life. Not only was she a mother to three children, she had long been a mother figure to her 22-year-old brother: She bought him his first car, gave him his first job, bought him his first cellphone, and was there for the birth of his first child.

In the months after his death, she thought she was fine. To others, she seemed edgy and angry. She’d have nightmares about her family trapped in rubble; in the day, she’d endure panic attacks and painful flashbacks. She drank to dilute her feeling of powerlessness.

Her physical injuries — nerve damage to an arm, fractured cheekbones, head lacerations — healed. But “the emotional injuries were far greater than I could’ve even conceived,” she said.

Addressing the mental and emotional toll of a devastating earthquake has proven difficult and elusive for Christchurch.

Rates of depression and anxiety disorders went up among those who’d been closer to the shaking. So did the total number of mental disorders. A health survey between 2014 and 2017 found that 23% of the Canterbury region suffered from a mood or anxiety disorder, higher than https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 15/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times the national rate of 19%. Experts said the emotional scars ranged from loss of sleep and mild forms of anxiety to acute psychiatric problems.

“Our mental health services came under an enormous amount of pressure in the immediate aftermath,” said Dr. Alastair Humphrey, medical officer of health for the Canterbury region.

Some patients with histories of mental health problems relapsed into depression or even psychosis, needing hospital treatment. New patients came seeking treatment for lost sleep and general anxiety. The regional health board has said the long-term effects for children were “particularly worrying.”

Experts say that immediately after an earthquake, after a community celebrates rescues and heroes, the public can enter a phase of unrealistic hope in which everyone thinks everything can return to normal quickly.

Then there’s a long phase downward, accompanied by stress, exhaustion and fatigue.

Amy Cooney at home with her family. “The emotional injuries were far greater than I could’ve even conceived,” she said. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

For Cooney, it took time to understand how badly the earthquake had shattered her psyche.

The sight of rubble or the smell of dust sometimes triggered anxiety.

Six months after the quake, her husband — normally content to allow Cooney to be herself — spoke up. And that led her to a doctor and a diagnosis of PTSD.

In 2½ years of treatment led by a team of physiotherapists, Cooney said, one of the hardest parts was overcoming her own prejudices against the idea of having a mental health problem.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 16/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times “I didn’t want it to go on my [work history], when you fill out the form, ‘Have you ever been injured in a way that you may not be able to fulfill your duties?’ I didn’t want to say yes.”

She has a fourth child now. She has a new managerial job.

And nowadays, even when simple things go wrong, she’s not bothered by it. “I’m like, man, I had a whole building fall down on me. I’m all right,” she said. “I’m being cheeky, but it’s kind of true.”

One of the toughest decisions survivors faced in the months after the earthquake was whether to stay.

Kendyll Mitchell and her children, Jett and Dita. They were trapped in the wreckage of a building. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Kendyll Mitchell was one who left.

Just moments before the deadly earthquake hit, Mitchell, then 27, had taken her 3-year-old son, Jett, and 10-month-old daughter, Dita, to the top floor of a six-story concrete office building in Christchurch. She was there for a counseling session for Jett, who had become terrified at the constant earthquakes that occurred in the months before the big one. He wasn’t sleeping; he couldn’t go to preschool; he didn’t want to leave his mother.

As they sat in the waiting room, it began to shake. Mitchell grabbed Jett with her left arm and Dita’s stroller with her right hand.

The floors and walls started to move apart from each other. The floor started to fall, and she remembered feeling sucked downward.

Oh, my God, we’re all going to die, she thought, before she blacked out. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 17/21 12/12/2019 This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like - Los Angeles Times The Canterbury Television building, which housed a counseling agency, a TV station, a clinic and a language school, collapsed within 10 to 20 seconds, according to a government report. All the floors dropped, virtually straight down, pancaking.

When she woke up 10 minutes later, Mitchell was lying on her right side, trapped in a crawl space about 3 feet high. Miraculously, her children seemed fine: Dita was still in her stroller — a piece of concrete had grazed her temple and a pane of glass the size of notebook paper rested flat on her chest. But she wasn’t crying; Jett had comforted her.

Mitchell could see daylight. Then she saw smoke coming from the stairwell.

OK, we’ve survived the fall and now we’re going to perish in a fire.

Within minutes, a construction worker who had climbed onto the rubble to search for survivors found Mitchell and pulled her and her children out.

Mitchell suffered a fractured pelvis, a broken tailbone, a gash on her leg and a head injury.

When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors

The family left Christchurch for a town 100 miles to the southwest, Timaru, where they had relatives.

They decided to make the move permanent.

The recovery wasn’t easy. Mitchell said she had to deal with her newfound anxiety; she was fearful of leaving her children when she dropped them off at day care; she was fearful of her partner going back to work. She trained herself to not allow worry to become debilitating.

A turning point for Mitchell came when a friend told her that she could think of the building collapse in two ways: “This can be what has happened to you. Or it could be the rest of your life.”

In other words: “You can choose to move on, or you can choose to continue down this road.” At that point, she decided: “I’m not going to let this control the rest of my life.”

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Please enter your email address https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/aftershocks-christchurch-new-zealand-earthquake-what-california-can-learn 18/21 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

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When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors

Murray and Kelly James look at their destroyed house in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011. (Mark Baker / Associated Press)

By RONG-GONG LIN II STAFF WRITER

DEC. 12, 2019 5 AM

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — When a big earthquake strikes, the public’s attention immediately goes to the physically injured, the dead, or to collapsed buildings. But something else also starts: the toll on mental health. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 1/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times Traumatic stress rises in the aftermath of a disaster, researchers say. One study examining survivors of 10 disasters found that one- third of them suffered a post-disaster diagnosis — with post-traumatic stress disorder being the most prevalent (20%), followed by major depression (16%) and alcohol use disorder (9%).

Worsening mental health has been documented in a number of recent disasters, including the aftermath of the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake in 1994 and the magnitude 6.2 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011.

This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like

Deteriorating mental health can sometimes be obscured by the phases of a disaster. Immediately after a disaster, researchers have documented that there can be a community emotional high as people enter into a heroic rescue mode, followed by a honeymoon period where a community bonds and there is unrealistic hope that everything can return to normal quickly. But then there can be a long phase downward, and it can be accompanied by stress, exhaustion and fatigue.

“The disillusionment phase is a stark contrast to the honeymoon phase,” the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says. “As optimism turns to discouragement and stress continues to take a toll, negative reactions, such as physical exhaustion or substance use, may begin to surface.”

Experts say it’s important that officials recognize the looming public mental health crisis before a disaster strikes. After the Feb. 22, 2011, Christchurch earthquake, some say mental health services fell short and people suffered. Others say they got good care, and in subsequent years, public health officials embarked on an innovative public mental health campaign called “All Right?” that sought to improve the community’s mental health — a tactic that came back to prominence after shootings at mosques this year led to the deaths of 51 people, New Zealand’s worst mass killing in its modern history.

Here are lessons officials in New Zealand learned:

Understanding the emotional trauma from the quake can take time.

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, there was a widespread worsening of mental health, experts say, with the worst effects found closest to the strongest shaking. Children showed greater signs of post-traumatic stress. Even medical students reported their own mental health deteriorating.

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More brain-calming drugs — a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines that includes Xanax and Valium — were dispensed after the earthquake. Researchers found increasing rates of mood and anxiety disorders in the two years after the earthquake. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 2/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

After the 2011 Christchurch quake. (Martin Hunter / Getty Images)

A 2016 review of studies of 76,000 victims of earthquakes calculated that roughly 1 in 4 survivors experienced PTSD — making earthquakes more likely to cause PTSD than floods or strokes.

“This was mainly because earthquakes were often much more devastating and destructive, and often happened unexpectedly without warning,” the authors wrote.

When aftershocks won’t quit, cake — and kindness — helps.

Part of what made the Christchurch earthquake difficult to recover from psychologically was the unusual length of the aftershock sequence.

“Imagine you had a terrible earthquake, and in every 30 minutes, or hour, or two hours or five hours, you get a little shake that reminds you of how terrible that first shake was,” said Sara McBride, a top public information officer for the emergency response effort in New Zealand. “It happens all day and night … there’s no respite … and you don’t know if the next shake is going to be worse than the last.”

Even officials were prone to distress. One solution? “Constantly feed people cake,” McBride said, who brought out slices after aftershocks turned her subordinates quiet, pale and upset. “Little small moments of compassion and comfort, like really good cake, make a surprising difference.”

A public mental health approach is essential.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 3/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times Experts say health officials worldwide should pay attention to Christchurch’s mental health issues as a warning for what could come if a disaster strikes their region.

“They should absolutely be concerned,” said Dr. Ben Beaglehole, a psychiatrist who co-wrote many studies on Christchurch’s mental health issues following the quakes.

For all its problems, Christchurch’s mental health issues were partly alleviated, Beaglehole said, by the region’s concerted campaign to improve mental health, and its near-universal rate of earthquake insurance among homeowners.

“If you can do things in the post-disaster environment to make people feel secure and safe enough, with a sense of purpose and belonging, and a future pathway, then I think the adverse effects are going to be minimal,” Beaglehole said. “But if people continue to feel scared and unsafe and uncertain, that’s when people are going to struggle.”

Officials realized the focus on rebuilding the city must be about healthy people, not healthy buildings. A survey found that more than 75% of those surveyed said their home was damaged, and nearly 2 out of 3 grieved for the “lost Christchurch.” Among people who described what they felt when their efforts to hold things together failed, men talked about becoming angry; women described despair, depression and anxiety.

“We will never, ever manage to actually deal with the fallout from a large-scale event one consultation at a time. No system in the world could possibly provide that,” said Evon Currie, general manager of community and population health for the Canterbury District Health Board.

So public health officials conjured a public outreach campaign known as All Right? — emphasizing that it was OK, and actually quite acceptable, to be concerned about one’s mental health, and to move people out of thinking about issues beyond their control to a new mind-set where they are empowered.

Officials credit this public health approach with helping the community deal with the stresses of the quake. A poll of greater Christchurch residents found that the percentage of respondents saying their quality of life was good rose from 73% in 2013 to 81% by 2018.

I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like

A majority of studies found negative mental health effects resulting from the Christchurch earthquakes, Beaglehole said. One study of hundreds of Christchurch-born adults found a greater rate of mental health disorder among those who endured the quake than those who had moved away before the shaking began.

Earthquake survivors who suffered the most showed clear increases in mental health risk, that study showed.

In addition, Beaglehole said, those already receiving specialist mental health services before the big earthquake saw the severity of their mental health worsen considerably for a number of years.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 4/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

John Snook and his wife, Linley, visit the room where their son, Eddy, died. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Disasters can trigger an acute mental health crisis.

Some people believe the earthquake triggered a spell of mental illness.

Eddy Snook took a deep interest in quakes when the Christchurch earthquake sequence began in the months before the deadliest tremor occurred.

It was a natural fit for him. He was an electrical engineer and loved to figure out how things worked. He drove out to the Canterbury Plains on the weekend and plotted fault lines.

But soon, life became difficult. Sam, his childhood best friend, died from cystic fibrosis. Then the February quake hit, and he was shaken. The quake seemed to coincide with major changes in mood and outlook, according to his father, John.

Snook demanded answers about whether the building he worked in was safe.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 5/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 6/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

Eddy Snook. (Family photo)

“He became quite obsessed with it,” his father said. “It became almost a bit too consuming for him.”

He soon quit his job and headed to London. But problems worsened; he stopped eating, and his friends called his parents to fetch him. He received medical help, but in hindsight it wasn’t working.

In 2014, he took his life.

“There are still tears every day,” his father said.

His father said Snook didn’t have the right medical help. “We didn’t anticipate what was going to happen…. I think the help that he had wasn’t really appropriate for his needs.” The medical attention he received didn’t address his problems, was confusing and not really caring, his father thought.

It takes work to stay mentally in check.

Christchurch’s 2011 earthquake forever changed Laylita “Bonnie” Singh’s life.

When the shaking started, something hard smashed into her skull as the unretrofitted brick building she worked in as a tattoo artist apprentice and receptionist came tumbling down.

The blow broke two of her neck vertebrae and six in the middle of her back — compression fractures “from being slammed on the head,” she said. She probably fractured her skull.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 7/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times

Laylita “Bonnie” Singh survived the 2011 quake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Her co-worker and friend didn’t make it.

Unlike Singh, who was trying to grab her phone, Matti McEachen, 25, a fellow tattoo apprentice, had raced to the exit and got to the doorway and then disappeared as the walls began to fall.

Singh was able to crawl out of the rubble, digging herself out. She had to learn how to walk over again; she suffered from survivor’s guilt. The pain persisted; the fatigue constant; the back and neck pain, excruciating.

In spite of all that, Singh held on to a dream of becoming her own tattoo artist.

She now co-owns the area’s only female-owned tattoo shop, Maid of Ink, in Christchurch’s neighboring port community of Lyttelton, after becoming a master tattoo artist under the tutelage of her former female colleagues and then starting a business with them. Her tattoo skills have blossomed — she can draw life-like portraits on calves using a technique called stippling; a single tattoo of angel-like wings on a back can be made of millions of dots.

“It was my driving force in getting well and carrying on,” Singh said.

She has been able to buy a home and raise her daughter as a single mom after she and her husband divorced. She says she makes enough to get by — sometimes business is “very OK,” other times, slim.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-12/how-the-next-big-earthquake-will-worsen-mental-health 8/14 12/12/2019 When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors - Los Angeles Times But the earthquake’s imprint lasts.

She hoped she’d recover significantly from her head injury in a year. Then a couple of years. Then four years. While she’s gotten much better, there are persisting effects. Sometimes, the back pain is so bad she can’t work.

“I get so tired. I get fatigued. It’s constant,” she says. She’ll have to watch herself. “Oh, if I do that and exert myself, I’ve got a week that I’ve got to pay for that,” she said.

“I just don’t think anyone understands how head injuries affect you until they’ve had one. Because it’s so invisible,” Singh said. Having a head injury felt like living in a fog, where “nothing was clear. Everything was exhausting.”

It takes work to stay mentally in check.

Meditation helps, as does yoga. Regular exercise is a must when she can do it; it’s so important to do the things that make her feel good. She dances, she sings. Writing three things she’s grateful for every day.

“Anything that uplifts you is the key,” she says. “I’m not saying I don’t get depressed — I do. It’s something that comes with trauma. … It affects you for life. So I imagine I’m going to have to do this for the rest of my life…. But I know the tools. As long as I’ve got my tools, I’m OK.”

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Rong-Gong Lin II

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Rong-Gong Lin II is a metro reporter, specializing in covering statewide earthquake safety issues. The Bay Area native is a graduate of UC Berkeley and started at the Los Angeles Times in 2004.