2021 Summer Heatwaves

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SUMMARY HERE

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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.

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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 AAR 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.

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Incidents

Summer 2021 volunteer responses included three major heat events: *******

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.

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June 2021 Heat Dome in Portland (OERS 2021-1650)

Hot times in Lents: Dr. Vivek Shandas gets a read of the sidewalk.

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.

As of December 1, 2021, the County Medical Examiner confirmed 73 heat related deaths in Multnomah County from the June heatwave. Previously, between 2010 and June 2021, Multnomah County ever recorded only two heat illness (hyperthermia) deaths. Combining the 73 with deaths elsewhere in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia, the heat dome led to the deaths of approximately 500 people. Most of the persons who died were older, white, and socially isolated or lived alone and without central air conditioning. Their deaths were preventable.

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June heatwave dates and temperatures.

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Emergency managers in the region mobilized for heatwave preparations only three days before June 25. Since more preparation lead time can improve response capacity, it is worth noting factors that possibly contributed to curtailed lead time in June:

• Regional response inexperience with temperature extremes at this level. For example, at the time, PBEM did not have Operational Guidelines in place for an event like the June heat dome.
  

  Daily maximum temperatures in Portland, 1938 - 2021. The three isolated points above the fray represent June 26 - 28, 2021. Click to enlarge.
• Conservative weather forecasts leading up to the heat event. A June 21 NWS weather briefing indicated a high confidence forecast of temperatures above 90° starting June 25 with a 50% chance of temperatures hitting 100° that weekend. Concerning, but not highly alarming. Email traffic at PBEM confirms professionals in the region took the prospective heat seriously and worked to plan for it; but until June 22, some doubts remained Portland would reach temperatures over 100° that weekend. Solid indications from NWS that temperatures would exceed 100° on Sunday and Monday in addition to Friday and Saturday do not appear in email traffic until the morning of June 23. Even on the days that followed, the forecasted hottest day and temperatures changed.
• A community safety net already stretched and frayed by COVID-19. The pandemic has led to increased social isolation (a factor in heat illness deaths) and houselessness.
• A possible boil water notice looming over much of the west coast. Regional emergency managers were planning for a prospective interruption of the supply of sodium hypochlorite. Utilities use sodium hypochlorite to disinfect drinking water and wastewater. An equipment failure at a chlorine manufacturer in Longview resulted in a shortage of the disinfectant impacting the entire west coast. From June 14 to 28, utilities and emergency managers braced for the possibility of running out. That did not happen. But the implications of a short chlorine supply were serious: it could mean asking Portlanders to curtail water use and possibly a regional boil water notice. This incident held the attention and resources of emergency managers right up to the June heatwave.

In other words, the June heat dome was a growing emergency inside matryoshka dolls of emergencies.

PBEM moved the ECC into partial activation on June 23. That day, the COAD Coordinator began mobilizing community outreach efforts via PDX COAD on June 23, sending warnings and instructions to partner CBOs and calling some of them individually to check in. In a meeting the next day, Multnomah County decided to open two cooling centers beginning on Friday, June 25: the Oregon Convention Center and Sunrise Center (and later added the Arbor Lodge Shelter). A bulletin to NETs that day put them on standby for volunteering, but online shift signups were not available for sending to NETs until 11:00 the next day (June 24). Multnomah County Emergency Management took responsibility for the online signups, but posted eight hour shifts instead of the four hour shifts customarily offered to volunteers. The short notice combined with the long shifts later factored into low volunteer availability. On June 25, Portland’s Chief Administrator’s Office requested help from City employees to fill shift gaps.

Throughout the heatwave, staffing needs at cooling centers changed as the City and County expanded cooling center operating hours. The shift additions, though essential, necessitated repeated requests to volunteers for staffing many times in the midst of the emergency.

On June 24, Multnomah County requested assistance from the City reaching out to residents at apartment buildings by phone; Maybelle Center for Community made a similar request the same day to the COAD Coordinator. NET Coordinators posted an electronic signup to recruit phone welfare check volunteers late the following evening.

Portland NET and COAD responded throughout the heatwave, and through the demobilization of cooling centers on July 2.

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Volunteer Recruitment: June Communications Timeline

The volunteer signup service used by PBEM and Multnomah County time stamps every volunteer signup. This data can be placed on a timeline with the date/time PBEM sends volunteer recruitment communications (email or social media post). The table below indicates when, to who, and how government contacts released volunteer recruitment and COAD messaging. The magenta numbers in the left table column correspond to the graph on the right margin. The comparison makes the most sense side by side; so, for those interested in this data, we recommend clicking and opening the graph in a separate window and scanning down the table to note which messages were most effective recruiting volunteers.

Is this information useful? Probable answer is: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But it is interesting! If nothing else, the graph demonstrates the importance of the first flush of communications for recruitments, since that is the communication which will garner the most volunteers.

Line graph demonstrating date/time volunteers signed up for shifts. The numbers in magenta correspond to the magenta numbers in the table to the left, indicating when PBEM or Multnomah County sent a recruitment communication (email or social media post).

Tweet from Multnomah County on June 29, 2021 acknowledging Portland NETs (this was not a recruitment message).

TIME		EVENT
June 23, 2021: Wednesday
1005		Stand-by notification emailed to NET volunteers and applicants; 3,934 recipients. In the same email, NET Coordinator also canceled all planned training events for the next week.
1525		COAD notification email; ≈ 65 community based organizations.
1600		COAD notification email to the JVIC network; ≈ 120 community based organizations.
June 24, 2021: Thursday
1	1055	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,065 recipients.
	1100	NET deployment request via Everbridge; 962 confirmed recipients (mostly via SMS).
1530		COAD notification update email; ≈ 65 community based organizations.
June 25, 2021: Friday
2	0805	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,065 recipients.
1820		COAD notification update email; ≈ 65 community based organizations.
3	1855	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,065 recipients (County added shifts to cooling shelters).
	1900	NET deployment request via Everbridge; 594 confirmed recipients (mostly via SMS).
June 26, 2021: Saturday
0900		First volunteer shift begins for the incident (at JOHS Logistics).
4	1400	Request for volunteers goes out to the general public on Multnomah County’s Twitter account; 47.5k followers and 111 retweets. Retweeted by Mayor Wheeler. Multnomah County sends a second recruitment tweet about 15 minutes later.
	1410	NET request sent via email with signups and also to NET applicants and the JVIC network; 5,400 recipients. At this point, County has encouraged recruitment from the general public.
1510		COAD notification update email; ≈ 65 community based organizations.
June 27, 2021: Sunday
0915		COAD notification update email; ≈ 65 community based organizations.
5	1530	Specific request for NET volunteers with de-escalation training and Spanish speaking skills to serve at Alder Commons; 206 recipients.
	1540	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,065 recipients (County added shifts to cooling shelters).
June 28, 2021: Monday
6	0845	Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury retweets volunteer recruitment message; 7,819 followers and 75 retweets. Retweeted by Mayor Wheeler.
7	1645	Multnomah County retweets recruitment message with an emphasis on overnight shifts; 47.5k followers and 56 retweets. Retweeted by Mayor Wheeler.
	1655	NET request sent to volunteers and applicants via email with signups; 3,934 recipients.
8	2045	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,062 recipients (County added shifts to cooling shelters).
June 29, 2021: Tuesday
9	1635	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,061 recipients.
June 30, 2021: Wednesday
10	0910	Bulletin to 3,320 applicant volunteers to boost the call for help on de-mobilization.
July 01, 2021: Thursday
11	0930	Bulletin to 2,061 NET volunteers to boost request for demobilization help at OCC.
July 02, 2021: Friday
1630		Last volunteer shift ends for the incident (at JOHS Logistics).

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Locations of NET volunteering sites during the June 2021 heatwave. Click to enlarge.

June 2021 Heat Dome NET Response

The deployment period ran from 06/25 until 07/02, with volunteers needed primarily to staff cooling centers. The response required 718 shifts spread over 5,639 volunteer hours (of which 74% were filled).  Of that number, 81 NETs volunteered for 121 shifts and contributed 920 hours. NETs volunteered at Arbor Lodge, Alder Commons, and the Oregon Convention Center. Additionally, they assisted at the JOHS Logistics Center. Misting stations were not yet included in the response strategy.

Volunteer Shifts Summary

Note that participation data reflects shift registrations and not actual sign-in sheets; sign-in data was incomplete and illegible:

Total shifts posted	718
Total shifts filled/unfilled	532 (74%) filled/186 (26%) unfilled
Total posted shift hours	5,639
Total shift hours filled/unfilled	4,186 (74%) filled/1,454 (26%) unfilled

The following three tables "slice" the volunteer registration data in several different ways:

Volunteer Affiliation	Volunteers	Shifts n (%)	Hours n (%)
City of Portland employee	20	22 (3%)	167 (3%)
Multnomah County employee	153	282 (39%)	2,353 (42%)
Portland NET	81	121 (17%)	921 (16%)
General Public/SUV	58	72 (10%)	593 (11%)
Other	25	35 (5%)	152 (3%)
Not filled		186 (26%)	1,454 (26%)

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Volunteer Assignment	Shifts available (% of total)/ Shifts filled (% of available)	Hours available/ Hours filled (% of available)
Cooling Shelter: Arbor Lodge	177 (25%) 151 filled (85%)	1,441 1,234 (86%)
Cooling Shelter: Oregon Convention Center	468 (65%) 316 filled (68%)	3,739 2,533 (68%)
Cooling Shelter: Sunrise Center	10 (1%) 9 filled (90%)	40 36 (90%)
Cooling Space: Alder Commons	8 (1%) 6 filled (75%)	43 31 (72%)
JOHS Logistics Center	24 (3%) 20 filled (83%)	76 64 (84%)
Welfare Check Phone Calls	31 (4%) 30 filled (97%)	300 288 (96%)

Headcounts for the three cooling locations NET volunteers assisted at through the June heatwave event. Click to enlarge.

Meals served to guests at cooling locations throughout the June 2021 heatwave event. Click to enlarge.

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Volunteer Position	Shifts available (% of total)/ Shifts filled (% of available)	Hours available/ Hours filled (% of available)	Individual NET volunteers	Shifts Filled	Shift hours filled
	All Volunteers		NET Volunteer Only
Cooling Center General Staff	454 (63%) 361 filled (80%)	3,833 3,034 (79%)	43	58	485
PIC (Person in Charge)	128 (18%) 69 filled (54%)	1,094 580 (53%)	2	6	53
Demobilization Staff	44 (6%) 17 filled (39%)	176 68 (39%)	9	10	40
JOHS Logs Volunteer	24 (3%) 20 filled (83%)	76 64 (84%)	16	17	54
Call Volunteer	31 (4%) 30 (97%)	300 288 (96%)	22	30	288
Medical Reserve Corps	24 (3%) 23 (96%)	108 104 (96%)
Medical Reserve Corps Backup	13 (2%) 12 (92%)	52 48 (92%)

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Late/Overnight shifts: 180 (25%) of available June shifts were late night or overnight shifts. 136 of these shifts (76%) were filled. In hours, late/overnight shifts constituted a total of 1,586 available hours and volunteers signed up to cover 1,200 (76%) of those hours. According to preliminary County data, the Cooling Shelters served around 1,400 overnight guests over the course the June heat event.

June 2021 Volunteer Response Outcomes

The map above next page indicates the locations of NET volunteer service, as well as guest headcounts.

The COAD Coordinator sent four safety alert messages to member CBOs from Wednesday to Sunday with heat safety messaging, social media graphics, print and post flyers, resources in eight languages, and action items for CBOs to respond to. The COAD Coordinator also facilitated supply drops (consisting of water, cooling towels, and other items) to mutual aid groups and six low-income residential buildings.

NET volunteers phoned 211 vulnerable contacts with heat safety tips, cooling center information, and connections to rides to cooling centers. Some of these contacts were provided by Multnomah County, but COAD partners provided most of the information.

July 2021 Heatwave in Portland (OERS 2021-1996)

Though Multnomah County and the City of Portland deployed volunteers for the July 29 - 31 heatwave, the severity of the weather event did not reach extremes seen in the prior or following months. Initial notifications from NWS about oncoming high temperatures arrived July 23. Subsequent NWS forecasts did not improve the outlook, with forecast temperatures over 100° for July 29.

Multnomah County’s EOC and the City of Portland ECC entered Enhanced Operations in response on July 27. Concurrently, PBEM’s COAD Coordinator disseminated heat information to the COAD network of organizations. Later that evening, PBEM’s Director confirmed City of Portland plans to open three cooling spaces, with operating hours from 12:00 to 21:00, at the Portland Building, Matt Dishman Community Center, and Charles Jordan Community Center.

By July 28, JOHS had prepared 2,000 cooling kits including electrolytes, misting bottles, refillable water bottles, and cooling towels for distribution. PBEM sent recruitment messages to NETs via Everbridge and email around 13:45, followed by recruitment requests to City employees around 15:30.

Temperatures during the July 2021 heatwave period.

July 2021 Volunteer Response Outcomes

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August Heatwave in Portland (OERS 2021-2089)

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a weather briefing on Thursday, August 5 forecasting a heat wave due in the Portland Metro area on August 10, the following Tuesday. Concerns for air quality, owing to forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, accompanied extreme heat projections. The NWS predicted Heat Risk for the Multnomah County area at “yellow” through August 9, and increase to mostly “orange” (with small areas of “yellow” and “red”) on August 10. NWS forecast all “red” for August 11 and 12. By Monday, NWS indicated there would be little overnight cooling during the heatwave.

August heatwave dates and temperatures.

In response, the PBEM NET Coordinators immediately placed NET volunteers on standby to volunteer at misting stations and cooling shelters and began drafting Form 204s (position descriptions) for the volunteer positions. NET Coordinators established electronic volunteer signup pages by August 7 and forwarded to NETs for serving in JOHS Logistics, phone welfare checks, three misting stations, and four cooling centers (the Portland Building, St. Johns, Arbor Lodge, and the Charles Jordan Community Center). Multnomah County staffed one other without assistance from Portland: Sunrise Church, staffed and operated by a contractor. The County also later opened the Kellogg School as a cooling center later in the incident and NET volunteers helped there.

On August 6, the COAD Coordinator informed partner organizations and scheduled informational presentations to help them prepare and respond. PBEM moved into Enhanced Operations on that same day and hosted daily bureau emergency operations coordination calls starting August 9. The City of Portland and Multnomah County formed a Unified Command and activated a combined emergency operations center (EOC) on August 9.

Unified Command decided in their first incident action plan (IAP) to send out volunteer staffing requests to City and County staff, and to have cooling centers open by August 11. Incident commanders placed community outreach, Portland NET, and the COAD under Operations branch.

Volunteer Recruitment: July Communications Timeline

Line graph plotting when the most volunteers signed up through the heat event.

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TIME		EVENT
August 5, 2021: Thursday
1715		Stand-by notification emailed to NET volunteers; 2,050 recipients.
1900		JOHS requests NET volunteers for their Logistics section.
August 6, 2021: Friday
1605		COAD notification email; ≈ 90 community based organizations.
August 7, 2021: Saturday
1	1840	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,050 recipients (heat deployment update #1).
August 8, 2021: Sunday
2000		ICS 204s for the Misting Sites and Cooling Centers drafted and approved by Ops Manager.
August 9, 2021: Monday
1330		COAD preparation email; ≈ 90 community based organizations.
1545		Duty Officer delivery driver recruitment email to Bureau Directors to request City Employees.
2	1600	St. Johns cooling center cancellation announced to NETs signed up to volunteer there, asked to volunteer at other locations if possible.
1600		Oregon Office of Emergency Management releases message urging the public to take proactive actions to reduce the risk of heat related illnesses.
1700		Ops Manager adds three more misting stations and requests volunteers for them.
1800		COAD informational presentation for CBOs interested in opening a cooling shelter.
August 10, 2021: Tuesday
3	0815	PBEM Bureau Director sends email to all City employees requesting them to take shifts at cooling centers.
	0820	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,050 recipients (heat deployment update #2).
0915		Governor Kate Brown declares a state of emergency due to forecast heat.
1100		Multnomah County panel discussion/Q&A for community based organizations.
1120		NET Coordinator sends PIC training schedule to assigned PICs.
4	1130	Message via NextDoor recruiting cooling center volunteers; goes to 237,000 recipients.
5	1150	Request for volunteers goes out on PBEM’s Twitter account; 8,823 followers and 33 retweets.
1200		Multnomah County Chair declares state of emergency due to extreme heat.
6	1300	Renewed NET deployment request via Everbridge; 873 confirmed recipients (mostly via SMS).
1400		Mayor Wheeler declares state of emergency due to extreme heat.
1430		COAD Safety Alert #1 goes out; ≈ 90 community based organizations.
7	1500	PF&R makes the request to firefighters to serve as cooling center staff (particularly PICs).
8	1630	Mayor Wheeler makes internal request to all City employees to serve as cooling center staff.
1800		Online cooling center PIC training #1 by Multnomah County.
9	1800	PBEM Director sends email request to all City bureau directors and managers to encourage their employees to take overtime and staff cooling centers.
August 11, 2021: Wednesday
	0930	PBEM Director expands the number of staffing slots at the Portland Building.
	1430	PF&R confirm they will fill all remaining PIC slots at the Portland Building through the morning of August 15.
10	1515	Request for volunteers goes out on PBEM’s Twitter account; 8,823 followers and 11 retweets.
11	1715	Request for volunteers goes out on Multnomah County’s Twitter account; 47.5k followers and 49 retweets.
1800		Online cooling center PIC training #2 by Multnomah County.
2230		More slots added for Portland Building staff to reflect expanded occupancy permit to 70 guests.
August 12, 2021: Thursday
12	1100	Portland Chief Administrator’s Office sends email to all City employees, again encouraging them to staff cooling centers.
13	1215	NET request sent via email with signups; 3,908 recipients (heat deployment update #3). Unlike prior NET updates, this one went to both active and applicant NET volunteers.
1230		Multnomah County announces opening of Kellogg School as a cooling center
1240		PBEM makes request for NET volunteers trained specifically in Mental Health First Aid and crisis de-escalation.
1600		NETs volunteering in the evening at Lents Park misting station instructed to stand down their shifts due to criminal activity at the station. Shifts resume the next morning.
14	1620	NETs who took shifts at Charles Jordan Community Center are informed that their shifts are canceled due to low use of the facility. They are encouraged to take shifts instead at Kellogg School and the Portland Building.
August 13, 2021: Friday
0900		County sends Wireless Emergency Alert to area cellphones with a warning about the extreme heat.
1000		The National Weather Service issues an advisory about air quality due to wildfire smoke in the area.
1045		COAD Safety Alert #4 goes out; ≈ 90 community based organizations.
15	1115	Request for volunteers goes out on Multnomah County’s Twitter account; 47.5k followers and 24 retweets.
16	1300	PBEM Director sends update email to all City employees and a renewed request for cooling center staffing.
1400		Demobilization slots are added to NET volunteer shifts for the Portland Building.
17	1515	NETs who took shifts at Charles Jordan Community Center are (again) informed that their shifts are canceled due to low use of the facility. They are encouraged to take shifts instead at Kellogg School and the Portland Building.
17	1545	NET request sent via email with signups; 2,050 recipients (heat deployment update #4).
18	1730	Request for volunteers goes out on Multnomah County’s Twitter account; 47.5k followers and 16 retweets.
August 14, 2021: Saturday
0945		Multnomah County issues press release advising that cooling centers will remain open until August 15, closing at 10:00 AM.