Story, Photos & Video by Don Backman
On Tuesday, May 30th, a team from the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management, part of the Oregon Department of Human Services unveiled the Assembly and Evacuation Center kit contents and plans for its use when needed here in Tillamook County. “This is the culmination of a lot of planning for a long time to facilitate the evacuation of vulnerable people,” Ed Flick, Director of the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management told the group in his opening address at the Port of Tillamook Bay conference room. The attendees, a group made up of representatives of various city and county agencies, leaders of emergency volunteer groups, Tillamook County Emergency Manager Randy Thorpe, and Tillamook County Commissioner Mary Faith Bell, had assembled for the unveiling of the state’s first evacuee assembly point.
“This is the first of the kits being pre-deployed on the coast.” Chad Knowles, Operations Section Chief from the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management reported to the group. Tillamook Airport was selected for the assembly and evacuation center because the airport is likely to do better after a major Cascadia earthquake and tsunami than Astoria Airport. The plan is to use small helicopters to bring those who need evacuation to this point where they can then be transferred to larger helicopters and flown out to other areas away from the coast.
“By being ready for Cascadia, we can be ready for anything,” Flick explained. “Each kit has enough tents and supplies for 80 survivors and up to 20 emergency staff for 14 days immediately following an event.”
The kits are for transfer points, although they can also be used in other emergencies. By pre-placing them, the supplies will be on-site when an event occurs. Since they are not intended to shelter people long term, it means that residents still need to plan for sheltering in place, possibly for a long time. Residents and their communities need to prepare.
The group was briefed on the contents of the containers and the plans and then visited the containers. The containers aren’t 100% ready as they still need a few items such as medical supplies. The State also plans to relocate a satellite communications system to the area. The two containers are located next to the Near Space Corporations building on the port. Near Space is a partner with the County in the project.
Director Flick gave a shout-out to Tillamook County Emergency Manager Randy Thorpe for being instrumental in this kit being located in Tillamook.
The next step is a one-day workshop. The culmination is a two-day deployment drill which is tentatively scheduled for the end of summer.
The best thing locals can do is to prepare themselves and their communities. There are many resources available. The Bay City Emergency Volunteers have a website at WWW.BCEVOR.ORG, Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay has a website at WWW.EVCNB.ORG, and South Tillamook County Emergency Volunteer Corps has another at www. https://southtillamookcountyevc.org/.
Many communities have an emergency group so you can ask for contact information at your city hall or local fire and rescue agency. If there isn’t a volunteer group in your community, any of the groups will help you start one up.
