8
S moke S ignals
october 1, 2014
Emergency Management holds fi rst meeting
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
“We’re getting ready,” said Alton
Butler, Tribal Building Inspector,
on his way in to the fi rst meeting
of the Tribe’s Emergency Manage-
ment Advisory Council held in the
Education Department conference
room on Wednesday, Sept. 17. “It
could happen anytime.”
The meeting was held in conjunc-
tion with September being National
Preparedness Month.
Leaders of almost every Tribal
department attended. Representa-
tives from West Valley Hospital in
Dallas; from Tacron, a local vendor
that specializes in managing emer-
gencies; from the local Nazarene
Church; and from Yamhill County
and the state participated.
To more than 20 people in at-
tendance, Tribal Emergency Op-
erations Coordinator Jamie Baxter
said, “Our biggest catastrophic
threat in the Grand Ronde area,
and western Oregon, for that mat-
ter, is the Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake fault that runs
from British Columbia, along the
Oregon coastline, to northern Cali-
fornia.”
In response, 19 stakeholders
– from legislators to engineers to
state department heads – created
the 2013 Oregon Resilience Plan.
Based on information collected by
the Oregon Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries, the plan
estimates a 37-percent chance of a
9 to 9.5 magnitude earthquake in
the next 50 years.
Photo by Ron Karten
Tribal Emergency Operations Coordinator Jamie Baxter talks about
emergency management to a group of Tribal department heads and
potential partners in the case of a catastrophic event in the area during a
meeting held Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Hundreds of aftershocks occur
following a subduction zone earth-
quake. Scientists predict most
bridges and overpasses from Brit-
ish Columbia to northern Califor-
nia would come down. Interstate 5
would be impassible for months.
An older Oregon report estimated
that an 8.5 Cascadia Subduction
Zone earthquake would cause
12,700 injuries, 5,000 to 10,000
deaths, 17,300 displaced house-
holds and $12 billion in economic
loss. Some consider these estimates
as too conservative.
“There are a lot of fault lines
in the area,” Baxter said, “and
Land & Culture Department
Oral History Project
In honor of our Tribal Veterans, the Tribe would like to memorialize their
stories for our future generations.
Who:
All Tribal Veterans and their families
What: We would like to record your story for inclusion in the Tribe’s
cultural and historical collections.
Where: We have dedicated a room at Chachalu for recording oral
histories. It is set up for both audio only and video recordings.
Additionally we have mobile audio equipment for those who
wish to participate but are unable to travel to Chachalu.
How:
Contact Reina Nelson at 503-879-2226 to schedule a time to
record your history.
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Land and Culture Department
Chachalu: Tribal Museum and Cultural Center
8720 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
Phone: 503-879-2226
Fax: 503-879-2126
E-mail: landandculture@grandronde.org
some are still unknown. There
will be people we don’t know are
in trouble.”
In addition, there may be 2,000
people in Spirit Mountain Casino and
many more children at area schools
when an earthquake occurs.
In rural communities like Grand
Ronde, help might not come for
weeks or months.
“Survival will depend on pre-
paredness,” said Baxter. “You
can’t go back after the event. Cata-
strophic events do happen. We can
and will be impacted; we just don’t
know when. Life is never the same
after you are in a catastrophe.”
Part of the preparation has got
to be in everyone having emer-
gency kits. “The basics are very
important: food, water, toiletry and
information,” she said.
As an example, Baxter said, most
people are not injured from a build-
ing falling, but from items falling
from shelves or people sliding into
things.
The emergency preparedness
meeting and the ones to follow de-
scribe the steps it takes to create
community, resilience and the kind
of personal relationships that will
keep the preparation and emer-
gency processes working through
communications made smoother
by familiarity with emergency co-
workers.
Tribal Reservations have a con-
fusing mix of people and lands.
“It is hard to write declarations
so people in the community are
treated the same. The Tribal per-
spective, though, is to help all,”
Baxter said.
Federal aid, though it seems
remote from actual preparedness,
is an important component. Reim-
bursement will only go to Tribal
members and although documen-
tation is diffi cult, reimbursement
counts on it. Child care is a reim-
bursable expense, for instance. The
Tribe pays 25 percent of the cost of
personnel involved in the work, but
volunteerism, for which the Tribe
does not pay, can be included in
that 25 percent to bring down the
actual cost to the Tribe.
“I’d like to see the Tribe and Wil-
lamina schools planning together,”
Baxter said. “And I want to know
how I can help all of you.”
“What can we do to help?” asked
Penny Edwards, co-chair of Emer-
gency Management at West Valley
Hospital. She said of the hospital’s
part, “We have 10 emergency beds
and a good transferring process. We
have a dedicated decontamination
team and two trailers for mobile
responses.”
Melinda Seibert, the other co-
chair at West Valley, added that
its emergency team is training with
ham radios.
“I’m not impressed with what is
between the covers of three-ring
binders,” said Erik Rapp, Oregon
Emergency Management planner.
“I’d like to see training and out-
reach on a continual basis.”
“As Jan (Looking Wolf Reibach)
would say, ‘We’re all one people’ in
an emergency,” Baxter said.
Through more meetings, the
Tribe is coordinating training and
exercises, creating the kind of
“muscle memory” that will make
“stop, drop and hold on to the table
closest to you” automatic.
A check around the room found
that not everybody understood
their roles in an emergency. Mak-
ing sure everybody knows their
role is one of the purposes of the
on-going series of meetings and
trainings, Baxter added. n
West Valley district
seeking Fire Explorers
The West Valley Fire District, which covers Grand Ronde,
Willamina and Sheridan, is seeking youths for its Fire Explorer
Program.
Young men and women age 14 to 20 will become familiar with
career opportunities in the fi re service through classroom instruc-
tion, hands-on training and volunteer work.
The program encourages and promotes accountability, safety,
communication, teamwork, fi tness and leadership.
Participants must attend weekly drills from 9 to 11:30 a.m.
Saturdays, adhere to dress and conduct codes, perform weekly
physical fi tness and training specifi c to fi refi ghting skills, and
demonstrate a willingness to make improvements and show self-
motivation.
For more information, contact Fire Explorer Post 908 adviser
Seth Bellarts at 503-437-2046. n