"...California's emergency preparedness strategy is weakened by a lack of leadership. Researchers for years have highlighted California's vulnerabilities to a catastrophic earthquake. No imagination is needed to see in those forecasts the destruction that would result. And models are in place today to reduce threats and vulnerabilities, promote prevention and mitigation, and harness the capabilities and resources of public servants and the private sector to respond when called. No innovation is required to deploy those models in California. If California only relies on current practices to respond to its threats and vulnerabilities, the emergency management system will continue to fall just short of preventing the damage of recurrent flooding and fires that dominate the headlines. And in the event of a catastrophic incident - the earthquake that is projected within the lifetimes of most of the Californians living here today - too many of us will not survive". (Little Hoover, Safeguarding....State, 2007, 63)