2020 Clackamas Wildland Fires: Difference between revisions

==== Clackamas Emergency Management ====

Clackamas County activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on September 8, in response to the complex wildfire conflagration. The Operations Section within the EOC-ICS Structure established a Shelter Branch, responsible for coordinating the immediate shelter needs of evacuees . During the Clackamas Town Center (CTC) operation, the Shelter Branch was staffed by two Branch Managers, and supported by the Operations Section Chief. Partner agencies supported the EOC by providing two additional staff to supplement and support sheltering. The EOC deployed Clackamas County CERT teams to the CTC evacuation site as well, with the mission to assist evacuees in receiving resources and information. The Milwaukie CERT Team provided approximately 200 hours of service to the CTC evacuation site, and were active at other sites as well.

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The depth of Portland NET’s bench of volunteers is key to its operational capacity. Not only does having a large pool of volunteers to draw from mean that NET can fill hundreds of volunteer shifts in a deployment (including overnight shifts), but also provides the deployment with a diversity of relevant expertise. For example, volunteer knowledge of disaster psychology, public outreach, administration, and command center setup and management all played critical roles in this response.

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==== Clackamas Town Center ====

At all hours, CTC security routinely patrolled the areas designated to evacuees and trespassed persons stealing supplies or presenting behavior that risked re-traumatizing evacuees. CTC Security Director Tim Harrold trains the security team in compassionate and trauma-informed approaches. This training proved important to the success of the deployment when security officers engaged with evacuees and with non- evacuees on site experiencing homelessness.

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==== Salvation Army Cascade Division ====