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Director's Message
This marks the final week of National Preparedness Month, and we're appreciative of all the efforts by our state, local and federal partners emphasizing best practices for preparing for emergencies and disasters. While this observance serves as an annual reminder to reduce our individual and collective risk, the past two years in Oregon have taught us that the time to act is now. Oregonians can no longer be complacent about preparing for future disasters; we need to feel empowered to take actions to help keep ourselves, our families and our communities safe. Every person should learn about the hazards where they work, live or go to school. If it rains where you live, you are susceptible to flooding. If there is vegetation near where you live, you are susceptible to wildfires. If your home is in an Oregon zip code, you are susceptible to earthquakes.
As Preparedness Month draws to a close, join me in taking steps to build a culture of preparedness in Oregon, acknowledge those who have been impacted by emergencies and disasters, and to honor with action. Sign up with OR-Alert to receive emergency notifications in their area. Develop or update an emergency plan and talk about it with their loved ones and neighbors. Every community needs to understand the severity a disaster may have on the region – neighbors may be on their own for weeks before help arrives. It’s on all of us to assemble emergency kits with at least two weeks’ worth of food, water and supplies.
Here at OEM, we understand that the words preparedness and readiness can sound overwhelming, especially during a time of such uncertainty. The good news is, many Oregonians may be more prepared than they think. Next month’s Great Oregon ShakeOut on Oct. 21 offers the perfect opportunity to find out. I encourage all Oregonians to register and put their readiness skills to the test so that collectively, we can be better prepared when the next disaster strikes.
Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other.
Andrew Phelps, Director, Oregon Office of Emergency Management
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CISA National Cybersecurity Summit
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides a forum for meaningful conversation about cybersecurity and collaboration toward collective action. Click the button below to learn more and register for the 4th annual National Cybersecurity Summit, which will be held virtually as a series of webinars every Wednesday in October beginning October 6 and ending October 27:
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Oct 6: The Pieces of the Vulnerability Management Ecosystem
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Oct 13: Collaborating for the Collective Defense
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Oct 20: Team Awesome: The Cyber Workforce
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Oct 27: The Cyber/Physical Convergence
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Involving the GIS Community in Emergency Management
Geographic information systems, or GIS, is a computer system that analyzes and displays geographically referenced information, using data that is attached to a unique location. Given that a key component to responding to events includes the ability to pull from authoritative data, OEM is building a community of stakeholders into the “Preparedness Framework Implementation Team,” or PrepFIT, for the state. PrepFIT includes GIS practitioners from across the emergency management community to advance the use of GIS for emergency management. This community of emergency management GIS stakeholders will share ideas, thoughts and concepts and work on joint initiatives to help the state through all four phases of emergency management: preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. OEM has created a new hub site that explains what Prep-FIT is, describes what it does and includes resources for emergency management GIS practitioners to use for reference. We encourage our emergency management partners to explore this website to learn about initiatives moving forward; click the link below to learn more.
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PIO Training Resources
To keep emergency and disaster operations running smoothly, public information officers play an important role in sharing timely and accurate official information with communities to help save lives and protect property. Free online training for PIOs and crisis communications is available through FEMA, the CDC and other sources.
FEMA’s new E/L0105 Public Information Basics course is replacing the Basic PIO and JIC/JIS (G290-291) course. The updated FEMA PIO course covers much of the material from the previous course with new information, including strategic communications planning and a new unit on public alerts and warnings.
IS-29.A: Public Information Officer Awareness (IS0029) is designed to familiarize participants with the concepts underlying the PIO role. This course can provide a basic understanding of the PIO function for those new to the position. Additionally, it can provide those in executive level roles the necessary knowledge of PIO roles and responsibilities during an emergency.
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Earthquake and Tsunami Impacts for Oregon Coastal Communities
Last summer, DOGAMI published a report evaluating the effects of a large earthquake and tsunami on the Cascadia Subduction Zone for five Oregon coastal communities -- Gearhart, Rockaway Beach, Lincoln City, Newport and Port Orford. The report's purpose was to better understand the degree of potential destruction for building losses, debris generated, fatalities and injuries, and estimated numbers of displaced populations. Since its release, summary documents have been developed for each of those five cities to distill the report down to the most important pieces of information. OEM has combined these five summaries into one pdf; to obtain a copy, email OEM’s Geologic Program Coordinator Althea Rizzo by clicking the link below. Reports on three additional counties have also since been released:
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COVID-19 Update
The Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup has recommended a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months after the primary vaccination series for people 65 and older, people living in a long-term care facility and people 50-64 with underlying medical conditions. The workgroup also recommended that people ages 18-64 with underlying medical conditions and who are at higher risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission due to occupational or institutional setting receive a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine after six months. The workgroup implored the FDA and CDC to quickly find solutions to sustain the protection of the most vulnerable individuals who have received a Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Because unvaccinated individuals remain at much higher risk of COVID-19 than vaccinated individuals, the workgroup also reiterated that its members strongly support vaccination against COVID-19 for everyone 12 years of age and older.
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Federal share of disaster funds obligated to be spent in Oregon
2020 Flooding: $2,010,130
2020 Wildfire: $232,037,397
COVID-19: $331,169,779
2021 Ice Storm: $457,183
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