Wildfires, Inauguration, and Emergency Preparedness

Author: Leora Cockrell

Leora (she/they) is a strategist and organizer passionate about ecology, land return, cooperatives, and faith-based justice. They live in the Bay Area and hold degrees in agriculture and social change.

Leora Sarah Cockrell’s essay, “Wildfires, Inauguration, and Emergency Preparedness,” reflects on what it means to prepare for disaster in a world already shaped by crisis. Drawing on personal experience and political insight, Leora weaves together themes of climate change, ritual, and community care—grounding emergency preparedness in her own culture as a diasporic Jew as well as honoring the long histories of Black and Indigenous survival, land stewardship, and collective resilience. This piece invites readers to both think through the practical steps of preparing for emergencies with their communities and emphasizes the importance of relational and culturally rooted approaches to safety and solidarity.

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