Readiness Report: Governor Kotek Appoints New OEM Director

The Oregon Department of Emergency Management would like to express our deepest condolences for the devastating losses experienced by the city of Lahaina and the people of Hawaii. Wildfires on the islands have taken lives, destroyed property and livelihoods, displaced residents, and demolished irreplaceable cultural and historical assets. The scale of destruction is unprecedented and watching the disaster unfold from an emergency management perspective was heart-wrenching. After-action reviews will reveal lessons learned and new procedures will be adapted, but these actions will never make up for all that was lost in the tragedy. Our hearts are with Hawaii in this difficult time.

OEM will welcome Erin McMahon as its new permanent Director on Sept. 5.  Incoming Director McMahon brings 24 years of experience with the U.S. Army and National Guard, advising state and national leaders on emerging incidents and active disasters. She also brings compassion, persistence and moral courage to the position. Her demonstrated ability to lead through change made her stand out in a competitive selection process. She arrives with a mandate from Governor Kotek to continue to lead change by developing the department's full independence as an agency; finding new ways of working, collaborating and leading through crisis; and helping the state better serve all Oregonians as emergencies become more frequent and destructive. 

The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is holding an HSIN User Group session on school safety from 9 a.m. to noon on Aug. 24. The session will feature the Department of Education Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center. Attendees will learn how to build preparedness capacity (including prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery efforts) for schools, school districts and community partners at the local, state and federal levels. The discussion will cover why it’s critical for all schools and school districts to plan ahead for emergencies. Click here to join the meeting via Teams.

Floods are the most common natural disaster in the U.S. FEMA Region 2’s National Preparedness Division is collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a webinar on how to become better prepared for a flood. Taking place from 10-11:30 a.m. on Aug. 24, the webinar is designed for all audiences. Click here to register.

National non-profit All Clear Foundation is hosting a free Mental Health Curriculum Train the Trainer Workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 25 at the College of Emergency Services in Clackamas. In-person and virtual options are available. Created for responders by responders, this program supports the overall health and well-being of emergency responders and their families and is designed to bolster resiliency, erode stigma and decrease stress injury, including burnout, compassion fatigue, anxiety, depression and suicidality. All emergency responders are invited. Every attendee becomes certified to reteach content within their community and will have continued access to the curriculum, supporting materials and updates. Click here to register.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) National 911 Program will host a State of 911 webinar from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 29. The webinar will focus on telecommunicator mental health and wellness. This webinar will share data regarding the presence of stress and mental health conditions in the 911 industry. Participants will learn about evidence-based interventions that have been shown to bolster resilience and reduce suffering for telecommunicators, including quiet rooms, light therapy, the use of therapy dogs within PSAPs, and other means of reducing stress and mitigating impacts to telecommunicators’ overall health. Click here to learn more and register.

The Individual and Community Preparedness Teams from FEMA HQ and Region 2 are hosting a webinar on Organizations Preparing for Emergency Needs (OPEN) training to help keep organizations OPEN before, during and after disasters. OPEN training provides a variety of organizations (community and faith-based organizations, local businesses, other non-profit, non-governmental, or charitable organizations) with the tools they need to prepare for disasters and sustain operations to provide critical services to those disproportionately impacted by an incident. This webinar is for members of these organizations and local emergency managers to get better acquainted with the training and its resources. The webinar will take place from 7-9 a.m. on Aug. 30. Click here to register.

The second 2023 Community of Practice webinar for Alerts and Warnings Communications will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 30. Presented by FEMA and the National Weather Service, the webinar continues the peer-to-peer learning, social science insights and technical discussions initiated through When Minutes Matter Technical Assistance deliveries. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) will share details about its recent proposed rulemaking related to WEAs and provide a demonstration of the proposed WEA database and interface to evaluate real-time WEA distribution and performance. There will also be updates from the National Weather Service and the status of NWSChat2.0 rollout as well as the latest news from the FEMA IPAWS team. Click here to learn more and register.

The Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Resilience and Emergency Management has a limited number of air scrubbers available to filter contaminated air during poor air quality days. OmniAire Industrial Air Scrubbers are available to non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, local emergency managers, local public health, tribal nations and public education leaders. The air scrubbers are available at no cost to publicly available spaces and will be delivered directly to organizations. These air scrubbers are a great resource to protect the health of all people during poor air quality days, but especially for anyone vulnerable to poor air quality, such as older adults, young children, or people with chronic conditions. Learn more by emailing Ivonne Mora Hernandez at ODHS OREM.

OEM has received an order of CERT Basic Training participant manuals. Any CERT program in need of manuals for an upcoming academy that was unable to place an order with FEMA earlier this month can contact Kayla Thompson at kayla.thompson@oem.oregon.gov.

The Regional Water Providers Consortium has created a Water Emergency Preparedness - How-to Video + Related Resources Toolkit with links to how to videos, video ads, print pieces, web pages and other resources in multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Japanese, Karen, Khmer/Cambodian, Korean, Lao, Nepali, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. These resources will help community members prepare for emergencies by learning how to store, access and treat water. Please share the videos and print pieces on social media and websites, in newsletters and with community partners. Click here to access the toolkit.

Oregon’s EIS Cyber Security Services has launched a new webpage full of resources aimed at combating the proliferation of ransomware. Additionally, CSS will be publishing awareness fliers with actionable information to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover in the event of an attack. The first two Issues, Introduction and Identify are available on the site. A webinar will be conducted at the end of the campaign to provide a discussion and answer session for interested parties. Click here to learn more.

Emergency managers and individuals with access and functional needs (AFN) continue to face challenges associated with developing integrated, accessible evacuation plans. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Office of Access and Functional Needs has published a newly developed guide, Integrated Evacuation Planning for Jurisdictions and Individuals with Access and Functional Needs. The guide is designed to empower local jurisdictions and individuals with access and functional needs with information to develop comprehensive, inclusive emergency evacuation plans that benefit the whole community. Cal OES developed the guide in partnership with community stakeholders, local jurisdictions, community-based organizations and subject matter experts. The guide is available in English here and will be available in additional languages through the AFN Library soon.

The OEM Exercise Program has published a revised Emergency Management Exercise & Actual Occurrence Report (EMER). Beyond an updated form, OEM is offering a guidance document that addresses the purpose, scope and submission process, as well as a breakdown of how the Exercise Program will receive, review and synthesize the data collected from these reports. While much of this process is intended to address Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) requirements, the information collected from these reports will also be processed to provide statewide lessons learned to the Continuous Improvement Program. OEM is offering a digital option for submitting an EMER, which can be found on the Exercise Program website, under Exercise Reporting.

The Oregon Building Codes Division is partnering with counties on a grant program to help owners of homes and businesses rebuild after the 2020 and 2021 Oregon wildfires. People who own a home – including a manufactured home – or business that was damaged or destroyed by the 2020 or 2021 wildfires can receive money for using more fire-resistant methods and materials when they rebuild. Those who have already rebuilt also qualify. The grant program was due to expire June 30; however, the Oregon Legislature extended the program and expanded it to include 2021 wildfire survivors. To date, the program has dispersed more than $3.3 million to help more than 800 wildfire survivors build back more fire-resistant homes and businesses. Click here to learn more and apply.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has extended the date for project proposals for its pilot program to fully fund small water resources projects for economically disadvantaged communities. The new deadline is Oct. 20. Click here to see the Federal Register Notice, a fact sheet on the program requirements, a template letter of intent and information on how to apply.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service has announced the open application period for the second round of the new Community Wildfire Defense Grants (CWDG) program. The CWDG program is intended to help at-risk local communities and tribes plan for and reduce the risk of wildfire. The program prioritizes communities that have a high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low income, or have been impacted by a severe disaster that affects their risk of wildfire. Several applicant webinars were held in August and are now available on-demand. These webinars provide an overview of the CWDG program, a summary of changes since last year, who is eligible to apply, how to complete the application and use the portal, grants and agreements, national tools, and the grant timeline. Click here to access the webinar recordings, notices of funding opportunities, eligibility information, and instructions on how to apply. Applications for FY2023 CWDG funding are due by Oct. 31.

Mathematica has launched a new data dashboard that highlights how heat waves have impacted health care use and spending and magnified inequity across the country, focusing on Medicaid beneficiaries. ClimaWATCH (Climate and Weather Analytics, Trends, and Community Health) synthesizes and visualizes multiple data sources to make it easy for government officials, public health agencies, health care providers, and others to explore relationships between heat-related exposure, vulnerability, and illness at the county, state and national levels over time. Click here to learn more.

Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 and Omicron EG.5 are the two predominant COVID-19 variants across Oregon and the U.S. These variants are two of many evolutions of previous Omicron strains and are not expected to behave differently than other circulating variants. OHA’s message to Oregonians remains the same. Individuals should stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccines, especially those at higher risk for severe disease and those who live with someone at higher risk, and receive the new, updated vaccine beginning next month as recommended. Well-fitting masks worn in indoor crowded settings also offer protection to the person wearing the mask as well as those they live with. The new, updated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be available in September and will target the Omicron XBB strain; because EG.5 is an offspring of XBB, the new vaccine should provide decent protection against severe disease from EG.5. To monitor the activity of COVID-19 strains in Oregon, follow OHA’s variant dashboard.

Kevin Jeffries

Grants Coordinator
Preparedness Section
Office 503-378-3661
Cell 971-719-0740
kevin.jeffries@oem.oregon.gov

Kevin joined OEM full-time in October 2020 after having helped the agency as a PIO during the Umatilla floods, COVID-19 response and wildfires earlier that year while on loan from DCBS. As the Grants Coordinator, he's responsible for managing the Homeland Security Grant Program, which consists of the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI); the State-Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP); and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). A true outdoors and family man, Kevin is just days away from achieving his life-long goal of becoming a private pilot.

Kayla Thompson

Community Preparedness Coordinator
Preparedness Section
Office 503-934-3287
Cell 503-983-5633
kayla.thompson@oem.oregon.gov

Kayla has been with OEM since May 2023. As the Community Preparedness Coordinator, she manages preparedness programs and initiatives such as Be 2 Weeks Ready and the Youth Preparedness Council. She serves as the state Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordinator and promotes preparedness through community outreach at events across the state. As an avid world traveler, Kayla loves airports.

Last month, state and local partners gathered at the Port of Tillamook Bay to learn about how Evacuation Assembly Points (EAPs) can operate as a mass care shelter to protect vulnerable populations awaiting critical transportation outside of a disaster-stricken area. The Oregon Department of Human Services’ Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (ODHS OREM) coordinated an educational workshop with the American Red Cross on how emergency sheltering is organized and functions as a local effort with assistance from state partners.