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Multnomah County Emergency Management Monthly Newsletter
August 2021
Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management (MCEM) compiles this monthly email to provide information related to emergency management activities. If you have content for this newsletter, please submit to em.dutyofficer@multco.us by the 20th of each month.

For COVID-19 information and updates, visit Multnomah County's COVID-19 website.
Oregon Wildfire Resources/Announcements
Below are some helpful resources regarding wildfire action being taken in Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest:
Community Engagement Lessons Learned - 2020 Disaster Events

In 2020, we navigated a multi-layered set of crises and disasters, from lack of housing supply to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts of toxic wildfire smoke, to name just some. Yet emergency response and recovery efforts far too often do not include, or ignore, the needs of the very communities most impacted by natural or human-caused disasters.

The Portland Metropolitan Area Disaster Messaging Work Group intends to hear from communities who are disproportionately impacted by disasters, and collect feedback about successes and areas of improvement in communicating and engaging during the disasters of 2020. These communities include Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) communities, immigrants and refugees, people with access and functional needs, and any others who experience barriers to services, as well as the community-based organizations (CBO) who walk beside them.

View the brochure for more information. Please contact pilar.montejo@multco.us with questions or to join this conversation.
MCEM's New Interim Planning Division Chief

We are pleased to announce that the MCEM Planning Division Chief position will be filled on an interim basis by current Planning Division staff members. David Lentzner will hold the position until early December, and then return to his previous role as Justin Gibbs will be offered the position until it is permanently filled in Spring 2022.  MCEM Planning Division Chief Lisa Corbly left county service on June 1.    

David Lentzner has been with Multnomah County Emergency Management since January 2019, having previously worked with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. David will continue to work on Natural Hazards Mitigation Planning projects while joining the MCEM management team to support departmental planning initiatives and grants management, and divisional staffing and onboarding needs.      

When the interim position is later offered to Justin Gibbs, we will introduce him and give you a chance to welcome Justin at that time. For now, please join us in welcoming David to his new role as he leads the MCEM planning team!
Upcoming National Emergency Alert Tests - August 11th
FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) at 11:20 AM on Wednesday, Aug. 11.

The WEA portion of the test will be directed only to consumer cell phones where the subscriber has opted-in to receive test messages. This will be the second nationwide WEA test, but the first nationwide WEA test on a consumer opt-in basis. The test message will display in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset. For more information visit the FEMA event webpage.
June 2022 National Level Exercise - Participation Notice
Multnomah County hosted a Concept and Objectives (C&O) Meeting for the upcoming Cascadia 2022 National Level Exercise next June (2022) on July 8th. This event shared general exercise information, tentative Multnomah County play, and next steps with the planning process. Please review the meeting slide show if you were unable to attend.

If you organization is interested in participating, submit an Extent of Play Agreement (XPA) to the County Training and Exercise Specialist, Robert Quinn (robert.quinn@multco.us), to share tentative focus areas and be included in future exercise planning meetings.
Upcoming Training & Exercises Events

Please review the upcoming training opportunities for August through the following events calendars: Multnomah County, the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization, the State of Oregon, and the State of Washington.

Below are some events we would like to highlight:
  • August 11th National Emergency Alert Test (expanded on above): The Wireless Emergency Alert portion of the test will be directed only to consumer cell phones where the subscriber has opted-in to receive test messages. This will be the second nationwide WEA test, but the first nationwide WEA test on a consumer opt-in basis. The test message will display in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset.
  • Power Outage Workshop Event (August 17th): Multnomah County is hosting a power outage workshop to, A.) identify the essential elements of information (EEI) required to respond to this hazard type, and B.) Determine the resources available through countywide disaster response partners. Reach out to the MCEM Training and Exercise Coordination (Robert Quinn, robert.quinn@multco.us) with questions or interest in attending.
Have something you'd like to include in one of our future newsletters? We'd love to hear from you! To have your upcoming trainings, exercises, events, or other announcements added, please email em.dutyofficer@multco.us.

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