County emergency official outlines preparedness plans, urges local COOP and CERT training

At the Scappoose City Council meeting on March 17, 2025, the Columbia County emergency management director briefed the council on updates to countywide emergency planning, grant-funded equipment for volunteer response teams, improvements to the county's public alerting capability and early work on a community wildfire protection plan.

The director said the county is updating its integrated preparedness plan and comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP) and expects no local fee increases through 2028 while the plans are revised. He said the county is pursuing Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funds to buy deployment trailers and additional supplies for CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, and that some grants remain pending.

"We have a couple outstanding grants that are waiting to come in through the UASI funding," the county emergency management director told the council, describing planned purchases including a trailer stocked for rapid deployment and additional medical-surge supplies.

He summarized planning work already completed: an updated Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) base plan and a larger CEMP made up of many annexes and appendices addressing mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. He said the county and state want continuity-of-operations (COOP) plans updated by the end of the year and that he is pursuing funding to provide half-day community trainings plus one-on-one follow-up to help municipalities complete COOP documents.

County emergency staff also discussed natural-hazard work. The director said the state has awarded a subgrant to begin a natural hazard mitigation plan and a community wildfire protection plan; he described the latter as early-stage and a priority as fire season approaches.

On evacuations and sheltering, the director said mayors and local police retain authority for mandatory evacuations but that the county has designated the county fairgrounds as the primary mass-shelter location and has revised mass-care and sheltering annexes in the EOP. "That went pretty good the last time when people were fleeing the smoke," he said, describing work to expand relationships and logistics for future events.

The county is also reviewing alerting procedures after residents received multiple National Weather Service messages relayed through Everbridge during a recent event. The director said the county will share Everbridge duties and, when ready, be able to originate Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (iPAWS) messages to reach people passing through the area as well as residents.

Councilors asked about regional coordination. The director said he has met with neighboring counties and is planning exercises with ham radio operators to maintain communications. He said the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization (RDPO) is helping coordinate regional projects and UASI distribution.

Public-health staff attending the meeting highlighted local mass-care and medical countermeasure roles and said outreach — including youth education and partnerships with the Oregon Department of Forestry for defensible-space education — is part of preparedness work.

Volunteer recruitment and retention was raised repeatedly. The director and public-health representative both said volunteer programs nationwide have waned and recommended local visibility, recurring events and small deployments to keep volunteers engaged. The director said he will email the EOP base plan and other guidance to city staff and offered to attend city planning meetings to help integrate city and county plans.

Councilors and staff discussed water distribution options for outage scenarios; the director noted two county-owned portable water-purification units (military surplus) and state-delivered bottled-water pallets stored at the county EOC after a recent outage.

No formal council action followed the briefing. Councilors thanked the county team and asked staff to follow up on training schedules and materials.

Ending: The director said he will circulate the EOP base plan electronically and bring materials for local COOP training; councilors indicated interest in using upcoming community events for outreach and in scheduling follow-up work sessions.