2021 Summer Heatwaves

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SUMMARY HERE

This after action report (AAR) focuses on the response of Portland’s Neighborhood Emergency Team (“NET”)volunteers and community organizations in the Portland Community Organizations Active in Disaster network (“PDX COAD”). The primary audience for this AAR includes NET volunteers, NET Team Leaders, PBEM Program Managers, and COAD member organizations.

AAR Definitions and Acronyms

In addition to the usual complement of government acronyms, we present a few important distinctions between cooling facilities:

• Cooling Center: A type of Disaster Resource Center with air conditioning, cooling resources, water, food, and support services. These locations operate during the hottest part of the day only.
• Cooling Shelter: A type of Disaster Resource Center with air conditioning, cooling resources, water, food, and support services. These locations are similar to Cooling Centers, but operate for 24-hours. This resource is particularly important when overnight temperatures do not allow people to cool down enough.
• Cooling Space: An air-conditioned space open to the public with water often available. These spaces are open during the hottest part of the day only and do not operate for 24 hours. Community partners, such as houses of worship, may operate Cooling Spaces. Multnomah County libraries also served as cooling spaces.
• Cooling Resources: Items like water, cooling towels, electrolytes, misters and fans, and supports such as transportation to Cooling Shelters and Centers to help someone get cool or stay cool.

Other key terms used in this AA include:

• CBOs: Community Based Organizations; usually mentioned in the context of the COAD.
• COAD (or PDX COAD): Community Organizations Active in Disaster. A network of community and faith based organizations that address disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
• IAP: Incident Action Plan. A documented response strategy to an emergency incident.
• JOHS: Joint Office of Homeless Services, the lead local government agency for addressing homelessness.
• JVIC: A network of CBOs separate from the COAD, but mobilized during the COVID response.
• NET: Portland Neighborhood Emergency Teams.
• NWS: National Weather Service.
• PBEM: Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
• SUV: Spontaneous unaffiliated volunteer; often used when describing emergent volunteers from the general public.

Background and Timeline

Assets and Capabilities

Portland Neighborhood Emergency Teams (Portland NET)

Portland NET is the largest volunteer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program by membership in the Portland Metro Area, with 2,105 active volunteers and over 29,000 volunteer hours contributed in 2020. The Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) manages NET, with selected PBEM staff assigned to oversee NET deployments. PBEM and NET aim to serve the community with a trauma informed perspective and lead responses with equity and inclusion first.

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 provide the deployment with a diversity of relevant expertise. For example, volunteer skill and knowledge of disaster psychology, public outreach, administration, and mental health crisis de-escalation all played critical roles in inclement weather response. For example, in one cooling center deployment, the specific help of Spanish-speaking volunteers with de-escalation training was needed.

Portland Communities Active in Disaster (PDX COAD)

PDX COAD is a relatively new and growing PBEM program. The COAD constitutes a PBEM-faciliated network of local community and faith based organizations (CBOs). The PBEM COAD Coordinator provides disaster preparation information and supports CBOs in disaster response roles and operations. At the time of the June heatwave, the COAD consisted of around 60 organizations.

The COAD Coordinator relayed important heat illness prevention information to the CBOs to pass on to their constituencies. Several CBOs also volunteered to take a response role by opening their own neighborhood-local cooling centers.

June Heat Dome in Portland (OERS 2021-1650)

From June 25 to 29, a heat dome parked itself over the Portland metropolitan area and obliterated temperature records all over the Pacific Northwest. Portland experienced three consecutive days of abnormally high heat reaching 108, 112, and 116 degrees. Dr. Vivek Shandas with Portland State University recorded a sidewalk surface temperature at SE Woodstock and 92nd Avenue that hit 180 degrees, high enough for third degree burns at direct skin contact.