California Governor Jerry Brown, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other state and local leaders met at City Hall to exchange ideas for responding to natural disasters that officials say are linked to climate change and global warming.
The meeting comes just weeks after Brown declared a statewide drought emergency and set a goal to reduce water use by 20 percent. President Obama is flying to Fresno Friday to meet with state leaders about the ongoing drought in the state.
Along with improving coordinated responses to natural disasters, the task force also hopes to tackle additional issues like natural resource management and energy conservation.
Thursday was the task force's second meeting. Those in attendance discussed their struggles with increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions such as droughts, wildfires, blizzards, super storms and floods.
Garcetti said the task force's approach is not about "abstract goals" or statistics and global trends, but about coming up with concrete solutions.
Weather disasters in 2012 cost the country more than $110 billion, according to David Agnew, Obama's director of intergovernmental affairs.
There are more than 24 leaders who are part of President Obama's Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.
City News Service contributed to this report.
