County Board of Supervisors to extend local emergency, ask for state and federal aid.

In a special meeting at 8:30am Feb. 22, the County Board of Supervisors is set to extend the local emergency in two nearly identical resolutions, one of which is Big Sur-focused and asks Gov. Jerry Brown to extend a state of emergency in the county. 

The move is largely a clerical requirement, as state of emergency's expire and must continue to be extended if problems persists.  

Among other things, a state of emergency allows contracts to be granted without board approval, and repair work would continue to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

If Brown agrees to extend a state of emergency in the county, it will also allow the county to become eligible for state funds under the California Disaster Assistance Act. 

That same resolution asks that the state continue expediting "access to federal resources and any other appropriate federal disaster relief programs."

Roads in Big Sur have been hit hardest by this winter's onslaught of atmospheric rivers, and Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur is closed indefinitely as the ground below it shifting, causing the bridge's support beams to crack and become unstable. 

Presently and into the future, businesses and residences south of Sycamore Canyon have effectively become an island, with the only access to the outside world coming by way of helicopters. 

County spokeswoman Maia Carroll says the county is making "extraordinary efforts" to come up with solutions for how to help those trapped on the island until roads on the south—which have closed due to slides—open back up.