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City presents emergency management and resilience framework; council presses for clarity on evacuations and vulnerable residents
Summary
City staff presented a consolidated Emergency Management and Resilience Framework, including incident levels, community resilience hubs, GIS planning and outreach to vulnerable populations. Council members pressed staff for clearer public communications, evacuation assistance for mobility‑challenged residents and funding/reimbursement planning for response costs.
Milwaukie — City staff presented an Emergency Management and Resilience Framework that packages mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery work into a single, cross‑departmental approach and identified near‑term priorities for implementation.
Marta Patenni, the city’s emergency management and resiliency coordinator, described the framework’s concentric structure: resilience goals, current status and future actions across the emergency management cycle. She said staff are aligning existing plans (natural hazard mitigation plan, climate action plan) and identifying gaps in outreach, training and resource distribution.
Key actions presented included tracking mitigation plan progress, developing community resilience hubs (libraries were cited as an example for potential generator or battery installations), expanding Search and Rescue (CERT) recruitment and training, building a GIS‑driven emergency response plan that maps social vulnerabilities and critical infrastructure, and formalizing incident activation thresholds. Patenni described the incident levels as:
• Level 0 — non‑emergency handled by a department; • Level 1 — routine crisis management using internal city resources; • Level 2 — requires outside assistance (county, Red Cross); • Level 3 — major incident with unified command (e.g., a Cascadia earthquake).
Council members asked practical questions about recent field incidents and communications. Council President Joseph (remarks delivered in role) and others pressed staff on a recent gas‑line rupture near Harvey Street that prompted a short evacuation; staff acknowledged internal communication gaps and said the county’s Everbridge system sent evacuation messages but that internal after‑action reviews remain scheduled.
Members emphasized evacuation support for people with mobility issues and said jurisdictional coordination with the county, fire district and TriMet is critical for tests and drills. Patenni said the city will participate in regional exercises, expand outreach to vulnerable groups, and pursue grant funding for resilience hub upgrades and equipment.
The presentation prompted council direction to prioritize practical training, coordinate reimbursement and funding pathways for emergency costs, and further develop standard operating procedures for different hazards. Staff will report back with implementation priorities and a timeline.
Next steps: staff will complete after‑action reviews of recent incidents, update emergency operations and continuity plans, finalize hub definitions, and pursue interagency exercises and grant funding.
