It's October. Are you ready?

I’m writing this message from my first Oregon Emergency Management Association conference, where I’ve been fortunate to meet so many of you in person this week. Relationship building is fundamental to the work we do, and I appreciated seeing firsthand how supportive and connected you all are. Personally, I’m using this opportunity to learn how OEM can be a better partner to provide more meaningful assistance across the state in times of crisis. I’ve been fortunate to receive a great deal of feedback and I thank those of you who have taken the time to share your thoughts and ideas.

As a former military leader, my first opportunity to engage in civil support was as an environmental attorney in Hawaii. I was charged with negotiating cultural access protocols for native Hawaiians seeking access to their native land that had been taken over by the military and used as training ranges. This work shaped my understanding of our federal responsibility to directly coordinate with impacted local personnel prior to making changes to an area focused solely on federal needs.

In 2008, I found myself on the streets of Baton Rouge providing direct, hands-on assistance to the state of Louisiana which, still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, was responding to yet another disaster. Following that flood and for the next 15 years, my team and I provided disaster assistance in response to every natural disaster and emergency that hit this country. My experience in these areas helped me better understand the power of the local population, the capacity of its community, the impact that federal assistance can provide and the urgency with which it needs to be delivered. It further helped me see the benefits that prevention and preparedness programs can have at the local level. My partnerships with DHS and FEMA were critical to ensuring we provided much-needed assistance at the request of those sitting, quite literally, in the eye of the storm.

During these first 90 days, Deputy Director Patence Winningham and I are seeking and assessing the input of federal, tribal, state and local partners. We are looking at the agency along six lines of effort: Business plans and procedures, data systems management, grant planning and distribution, internal and external communications, personnel management, and training and leadership. Next, with the council of our staff and partners, we will adjust what’s needed to make Oregon’s emergency management enterprise better coordinated. These next few weeks will be challenging, as we plan to do all of this while continuing to support our primary mission. I ask for your grace, patience and communication as we develop the appropriate controls and refine our communications. My door is always open, and I appreciate your feedback throughout this process.

Thank you for ALL you do,

Erin McMahon

Each year, October is designated as Fire Prevention Month in Oregon, with four weeks dedicated to learning about fire safety. This year's theme for Fire Prevention Month is "Cooking Safety Starts with You. Pay Attention to Fire Prevention." The importance of cooking fire safety for all Oregonians should be top of mind. It's the number one cause of home fires in the state and causes on average $5.4 million in losses to homeowners annually. OSFM has offered social media graphics, messages and other resources on its Fire Prevention Month website. 

The Statewide Interoperability Program, in collaboration with Umatilla County Emergency Management and CISA, is hosting the Oregon Statewide Interoperable Communications Functional Exercise Oct. 18-19 at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. Registration has been extended to Oct. 6. This exercise presents an opportunity to assess and enhance your proficiency in operating technical communications equipment and practice implementing plans and procedures in response to a major multi-agency incident. Click here to register. Also on Oct. 18, a special PIO training and exercise opportunity will be offered with a focus on alerts and warnings and interactions with members of the ICT Branch. PIOs interested in attending should contact swic.or@das.oregon.gov. 

Oct. 9 is Indigenous Peoples' Day, a time to celebrate the traditions and cultures of Indigenous communities. Here at OEM, we honor the contributions of Oregon's nine federally recognized tribes as an essential part of our emergency management team. In 2021, Oregon passed House Bill 2526 officially recognizing the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples' Day. The day offers formal acknowledgment of the significant contributions made by Oregon’s tribes to the culture of this state. The same bill declared Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas as historically inaccurate and unworthy of celebration due to his voyage opening the door to “heinous crimes against humanity.” Oregon became the 11th state to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Click here to learn more about Oregon's tribes.

The Oregon Board of Forestry and Oregon Department of Forestry are responsible for developing and implementing policies and strategies that promote forest health and resilience to preserve those benefits for future generations. The board and department are in the process of updating their shared strategic plan that will guide ODF’s policy and operational work for the next several years. ODF has partnered with Oregon Kitchen Table—a program of Portland State University—to hear from as many Oregonians as possible to ensure the plan covers what matters most to people when it comes to the forests. A survey is available through Oct. 9.

The Natural Hazards Center, in partnership with FEMA, is hosting the next Making Mitigation Work Webinar Series from 9-10 a.m. on Oct. 10. The topic will be The Lessons of Catastrophe: Structural Challenges and New Disaster Perspectives. Catastrophe engineer and author Michel Bruneau will share lessons from his recent book and examines how future successes and failures in dealing with societal threats—be they pandemics, climate change, overpopulation or other events—can be predicted by observing how we currently cope with and react to disasters. This webinar is eligible for one contact hour of emergency management training within the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) certification program.

The Pharmacy Supply Chain Preparedness Summit will take place from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Oct. 10 on Zoom and in-person in Des Moines, Washington. This is an opportunity for professionals and stakeholders in the pharmaceutical, emergency management and supply chain industries to come together and discuss strategies and pathways to address emergency situations where access to medications, drug supplies and healthcare is impacted due to a natural or man-made disaster situation. This is open to anyone with a role or stake in post disaster medication and medical goods distribution, and particularly for people with disabilities or medical needs. Register at Pharmacy Supply Chain Preparedness Summit.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) are providing toolkits, resources and recommended actions to reduce potential cyber threats, along with best practices to reduce risks from those threats and increase digital and online safety. Each week in October, CISA will hold a webinar spotlighting key behaviors people should take to protect themselves. Register now for any of the following webinars:

• The Importance of Multifactor Authentication: 11-11:30 a.m. on Oct. 10
• How to Recognize and Report Phishing: 11-11:30 a.m. on Oct. 17
• Keeping Software Up to Date: 9-9:30 a.m. on Oct. 24

The Earthquake Country Alliance and FEMA Regions 9 and 10 are hosting a ShakeOut webinar from 2-3 p.m. on Oct. 12. The webinar will include simple tips on how to plan a drill; stories from panelists about what they learned from personal earthquake experiences; how West Coast participants can receive a ShakeAlert on ShakeOut day; alternative guidance to Drop, Cover and Hold On (and other accessibility adaptations); and other ways to improve earthquake safety. Click here to register. 

The Great Oregon ShakeOut is a self-led earthquake drill taking place at 10:19 a.m. on Oct. 19. Nearly half a million Oregonians have already pledged to Drop, Cover and Hold On for at least 60 seconds that day as if a major earthquake was occurring. Knowing what to do when the earth starts shaking helps people reduce their risk and better protect themselves to prepare for earthquakes. Most emergency management experts and official preparedness organizations agree that Drop, Cover and Hold On is the appropriate action to reduce the chance of injury from falling objects and flying debris during earthquakes. When people practice these simple steps, it becomes a routine that allows instincts to kick in when shaking starts. Register for the Great Oregon ShakeOut today and view the Readiness Resource section below for shareable images.

An annular solar eclipse will be visible from 9:15-9:24 a.m. on Oct. 14 within a certain path that stretches throughout four regions of Oregon: Parts of the Coast and the Willamette Valley, a tiny bit of Central Oregon and much of Southern Oregon. An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon moves between the Earth and the sun but doesn't cover the sun entirely. Instead, it leaves a glowing ring around the edges, which looks like a "ring of fire" in the sky. This happens because the moon appears a little smaller than the sun. People in the path of totality will see the ring of fire for a full 4 minutes. There are at least 17 planned eclipse events statewide, mostly in the southern half of the state, with an estimated attendance of up to 60,000 visitors. Learn more at Travel Oregon.

The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is offering multiple virtual Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Train-the-Trainer Courses through the end of the year. View a guide outlining how to complete the application, then click here to start the application process.

Corvallis CERT is hosting a skills check from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Oct. 14 and 15 from 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Corvallis Fire Training Center located at NE Waterworks St. This skills check is an opportunity for those who completed the online University of Utah course to complete their certification. There is space for 4 more participants; contact Corvallis CERT Training Coordinator Jayne Riesselman at jriesselman@me.com.

OEM has also launched a CERT webpage featuring information on CERT and contact information for Oregon’s CERT teams.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Portland is adjusting its partner email briefings to improve the meteorologist-to-meteorologist and event-to-event consistency. NWS is seeking feedback by Oct. 20 on the following proposed changes to the email briefings. Major changes include:

• The partner email briefings will be focusing on impacts/risk of the forecast.
• For specific forecast details that are not able to put in the text, NWS will share forecast graphics for you to view. 
• The weather risk matrix will be standardized with set locations that will never change and always be shown on the matrix. If there are no weather risks/impacts expected for a location, it will remain on the matrix and be colored green for “no risk”.
• The format of the details section below the matrix will be standardized so that you will always see the boxes that show the weather hazard that are colored by the weather risk.

The State Preparedness and Incident Response Equipment (SPIRE) Grant, which provides equipment to local governments and other recipients for emergency preparedness for the state, is open for application through 5 p.m. on Oct. 31. The fund for the current grant will contain approximately $3 million but will be adjusted as equipment is purchased from previous grant periods. Visit OEM’s website to find guidance and applicant instructions, an equipment list, a Zoom call information schedule and the application. The website also features a map of current equipment, as well as equipment awarded but not yet arrived. Also of note: Annual reporting forms and instructions for those who currently have SPIRE equipment is due Oct. 15. Email oem.spire@oem.oregon.gov with any questions.

FEMA and CISA have announced the opening of the application process for $18.2 million available through the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program (TCGP) to help tribal governments address cybersecurity risks and threats. With the release of a Notice of Funding Opportunity, applicants have until Jan. 10, 2024, to apply for a grant, which can be used to fund new or existing cybersecurity programs. The cyber grant program is a program established by the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to help address the unique challenges tribal governments face when defending against cyber threats. For more information and resources on the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program, visit FEMA's Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program.

OEM has launched an improved Preparedness Calendar that displays upcoming training courses, exercise opportunities and more. The OEM Preparedness Section is currently drafting the process for receipt, review and uploading of opportunities. Please let the team know if you have an upcoming training or exercise you would like shared by emailing your opportunities to oem.training@oem.oregon.gov or oem.exercise@oem.oregon.gov.

The Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice at the University of Oregon (UO Smoke Center) wants to connect with communities and tribes across Oregon to identify ways to improve wildfire and prescribed fire smoke readiness through an After-Action Review guided discussion with your community. Depending on your needs and interests, the center can provide FREE support services, such as in-person meeting facilitation and note-taking. It finds it most useful when participants convene, which also allows community leaders to participate and reflect on their experiences more fully. Last year, the center supported Oakridge Air for its experience with the 2022 Cedar Creek Fire. If your community has been affected by wildfire smoke this year and you're interested in learning more about how the center can help support you, please contact UO Smoke Center Manager Jess Downey.

The Continuing Resolution passed by Congress gave FEMA access to enough funding to lift its Immediate Needs Funding (INF). The resolution included $16 billion in supplemental funding for FEMA and provided access to an additional $20 billion for the duration of the Continuing Resolution. Lifting INF allows FEMA to begin processing obligations on the over 2,400 projects that were paused. This provides vital funding for projects that will mitigate damage from future disasters. Delayed projects will be processed as quickly as possible in the order they were paused. FEMA estimates that all delayed projects will be funded within the next several weeks. OEM is still collecting pre-applications for BRIC and FMA 2023 and awaiting the official notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) to be released. Reach out to oem.hazardmitigation@oem.oregon.gov with any questions.

The Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW)'s Ready to Recover podcast series looks at how recovery works after a damaging earthquake and what people may experience when they seek to finance repairs and get back on their feet. These discussions consider common challenges and options—including what can be done to prepare before disaster strikes. The podcast series is produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. Listen here.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published its 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA). The HTA provides the public and homeland security partners with in-depth information on the most direct, pressing threats to the nation over the next year. The 38-page report is organized into four sections: public safety and security, border and immigration security, critical infrastructure security and economic security. Read the press release for more information.

People can now order more free at-home COVID-19 tests from the federal government. Each household can order four tests at COVIDtests.gov, and the tests will arrive via U.S. Postal Service. These tests are in addition to any free tests previously ordered from the federal government. If you still have unused at-home COVID-19 tests, whether you bought them at a store or ordered them from the government, check the expiration dates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extended the expiration dates on many COVID-19 tests beyond what is printed on the box. Check this FDA webpage and search for your test’s brand and lot number to see if the FDA extended the expiration date. If your tests have expired, throw them away with the regular trash.

OEM has updated its Emergency Pocket Plan, a booklet that lets you create an emergency plan for you and your household. The new version includes emergency prepardness steps, resources, and space to include information for up to six people and four pets. The new version is now available in English and Spanish. County and tribal emergency managers can place an order directly with their regional or tribal coordinator. Community members should contact their county or tribal emergency management office for a copy, or view and download the new publication on OEM's MediaHub.

Tawni Conner

Grant Accountant
Finance & Compliance Division
Office 503-378-3230
Cell 971-345-7696
Tawni.Conner@oem.oregon.gov

Tawni has been with OEM for nearly a year and a half. As a Grant Accountant, she receives public assistance (PA) requests for reimbursement from PA Program staff, and tracks and assigns those requests to other PA accountants. She is responsible for reconciling PA accounts monthly and making any necessary corrections when discrepancies are found. She also tracks PA state management costs and requests federal funds weekly from FEMA for all grant programs. She is fascinated by helicopters and loves to fly. She dreams of becoming a pilot one day.

On Sept. 29, OEM Tribal Liaison Vanessa Jackson and Regional Coordinator GT Auch attended the Coquille Tribe’s annual Heros of Health and Safety Fair. The family-focused event was open to tribal members and their families, Kilkich residents and families, Headstart families and tribal staff. Each booth was asked to have an interactive component with an educational focus. GT created a game where youth had to choose nine items they would bring with them in case of emergency and nine items they would leave at home. Upon completion, the kids were able to take a turn shooting felt balls at the dart board and pick a prize. The fair had great turnout and the kids were eager to participate in the preparedness activity! Coquille Emergency Manager Lon Matheny also gave GT and Vanessa a tour of the tribal facilities.