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Director's Message
Last week, an atmospheric river hit our region, causing landslides in Lincoln and Clatsop counties and flooding and evacuations in Tillamook County. Responders and emergency managers in these impacted regions -- alongside partners including the U.S. Coast Guard and ODOT -- worked together to alleviate impacts by closing roadways, working with public utility crews and helping folks get to safety. The emergency management response system worked exactly as it should, with Oregonians heeding advisories, watches, and warnings and limiting their travel.
Like all emergencies, last week’s rain event was a public information emergency. It’s our job to make sure people have the information they need to make decisions on how best to protect themselves and their families while providing support to our partners. It’s early in the storm season, and we could see flooding impacts throughout the fall and winter. It’s imperative that we urge our communities to remain vigilant and understand the impacts of winter weather. If they haven’t already, now is the time for Oregonians to sign up for OR-alert.gov to receive emergency alerts in their area and stock up on extra food, water and supplies. A little effort on the front end can help ensure we all make it through whatever bad day may lie ahead.
Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
Andrew Phelps, Director, Oregon Office of Emergency Management
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FEMA shares Holiday Safety Social Media Toolkit
The holidays are nearly upon us, and FEMA has released a Holiday Safety Social Media Toolkit containing safety and preparedness information and resources to use and share on social media channels. Tools include messages, graphics and animations focused on holiday safety, including gift giving, travel, cooking, fire, online shopping and more.
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GIS Day
This Wednesday, Nov. 17, is GIS Day, providing a forum for users of geographic information systems technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our daily lives. GIS is a framework for gathering, analyzing and visualizing geographic data to help users make better decisions. Here at OEM, we use GIS to help inform our stakeholders and the public of current incidents and events, track response and recovery, and help build a more informed community. Our GIS program is currently working on multiple projects, which focus on various aspects of emergency management, including:
- Coordination of response and recovery projects.
- Damage assessment.
- Integrating disaster data and projects into story maps.
- Growing an emergency management GIS community through the Preparedness Framework Implementation Team.
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NWS implements Hazard Simplification
To ensure communities are aware of and prepared for the variety of weather- and water-based hazards, the National Weather Service has adopted the Hazard Simplification format for floods including watches, warnings and advisories. The new bulleted format features subheadings to offer information about what, where, when and other details of flood events. Additionally, the definitions for Flash Flood Watches and Flood Watches have changed nationally. Most flood events will fall into the Flood Watch category, including the most common types of flash flooding. Flash Flood Watches will only be used for known, specific hazards such as burn scar debris flows, dam or levee failures, or lahars. All Flood Advisories will fall into one category.
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Nat'l Interoperability Field Operations Guide update
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released version 2.0 of the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide, a compilation of communication references recommended by public safety practitioners across the country to support incident communications. The NIGOG includes a listing of land mobile radio frequencies that are often used in disasters or other incidents where radio interoperability is required. The NIFOG is updated on a regular basis; the current version includes references on Information Technology, Emergency Wireless Carrier Services, Interference Management, Encryption and Cybersecurity.
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Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program announces pause on accepting new applications
The Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program (OERAP), which helps eligible low-income households with their past due rent, is pausing accepting new applications for a minimum of six weeks beginning Dec. 1. Oregon renters applying for assistance must complete their OERAP application by that date. Oregon landlords whose tenants owe back rent may qualify for the Landlord Guarantee Program. |
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OSFM launches initiatives to reduce community risk
The Office of Oregon State Fire Marshal has launched two new initiatives to modernize statewide response and reduce community risk. Response Ready Oregon supports local fire service agencies through regionally based coordinators whose role is to assist with local and regional mutual aid plans, conflagrations, mobilizations, long-range planning, and liaise with partner agencies. Fire Adapted Oregon is a holistic community risk reduction initiative that will begin by focusing on wildfires. A Fire Risk Reduction Specialist will assist with the development, administration and maintenance of community risk reduction strategies; and assist in and support ongoing tactics and plans to reduce the occurrence and impact of fire in communities within the assigned region.
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Job opportunities at OEM
The Oregon Office of Emergency Management is currently hiring a Mitigation Support Specialist, Program Analyst 3 LD position to assist local jurisdictions apply for, receive and execute grants designed to reduce vulnerabilities and hazards associated with disasters. Interested applicants can join a Zoom call to discuss the Mitigation Support Specialist scope and areas of responsibility at 3 p.m. on Nov. 17 (meeting ID 834 5871 2328, passcode 809245). This position joins an ongoing recruitment for three Mitigation Representative (PA2) positions: Upcoming informational Zoom calls will take place at 1 p.m. on Dec. 9 and 1 p.m. on Jan. 11, 2022 (meeting ID 852 2632 3131, passcode 878839). Learn more and apply for all positions at Workday.
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COVID Update
President Biden issued a memorandum on Nov. 9 extending 100% federal cost share for COVID-19 Public Assistance Category B and National Guard Title 32 costs from Jan. 20, 2020, through April 1, 2022. View the memo in full at whitehouse.gov. Additionally, effective Oct. 18, 2021, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) renewed the determination that a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide; these extensions go out 90 days. Learn more at phe.gov.
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Federal Share of Disaster Funds Obligated to be Spent in Oregon
2020 Flooding: $2,295,278
2020 Wildfire: $256,124,222
COVID-19: $365,021,939
2021 Ice Storm: $1,383,771
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