Revitalized Yachats emergency committee aims to help locals and visitors prepare for and survive disasters

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS ­– Whether pandemic or prolonged power outage, forest inferno or earthquake with a tsunami chaser, preparing for possible emergencies on the Oregon coast is an essential that is best not postponed.

Emergency planners across the nation map evacuation plans, prepare shelters and stock caches for a host of eventualities, and to varying degrees Oregon’s coastal communities are no different.

But all of that planning only serves as a supplement to what managers repeatedly emphasize is actually the responsibility of every individual.

“People have to have their own supplies,” says Linn West, interim chair of the Yachats Emergency Preparedness Committee. “I mean that’s the focus for emergency preparedness, is preparing the individuals to have stuff. We expect people to take care of themselves as much as possible first.”

The emergency preparedness committee serves under the city’s Public Works & Streets Commission with the goal of helping prepare the community for various emergencies including fires, mudslides, long-term power outages, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The committee also serves as a city liaison with the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District.

After several years of languishing, the city made a concerted effort to revitalize the committee after its membership last year dwindled to less than a handful. Interim city manager Rick Sant made the case to the city council that neglect and inaction was leading to an exodus of members.

“With multiple changes in city managers and government it impacted the committee keeping things moving,” West said. “And everybody’s a volunteer and they got frustrated if things didn’t happen fast enough.”

More caches, more supplies

Now, Yachats is on firmer ground for coping with catastrophes.

Some of those plans are still in the works – like a resilient civic campus capable of providing heat and shelter during a winter power outage – while others like the well-stocked caches of supplies positioned above the tsunami zone are mostly limited by the numbers of people who may need help for the duration of a disaster.

“Along with their own stuff, I would say (the caches) probably have enough for a week at most,” West said. “Not long enough. We are trying to take care of the supplement for people who have actually lost their own – say if there is a fire up river and those people are coming in. Not the rest of the community necessarily.”

Currently there are three shipping containers staged at strategic locations – the Yachats fire station, on Radar Road and on Crestline Drive south of the Yachats River bridge. The hope is to purchase two more — they cost about $11,000 — to have one near Yachats Memorial Park cemetery and another south of the bridge.

But city-owned property south of the bridge is limited and steep so the committee hopes to find a private landowner willing to provide space to relocate the current one and to place a new one.

Each of the containers is meticulously stocked with first aid kits, water and food – primarily dry goods like oats and grains that can be mixed with water and cooked. There are space blankets and 12-person tents, flashlights and batteries, handheld radios to communicate between the caches and mini solar panels to charge radios and batteries.

“There’s also a radio station so we can communicate with Waldport,” West said. “We are set up so some Ham radio operators can communicate also with us. And one of the members on the committee is a Ham radio operator and he set up the network so we can relay from Yachats to Waldport to Newport.”

There are stoves, ponchos, tarps, ropes, shovels, bleach for purification, candles, a host of miscellaneous items, toilet paper and even body bags. The container by the fire department, which will double as a triage center if needed, is also stocked with “go bags” for hotel guests.

The bags are small backpacks filled with survival items that include a stocking cap and gloves, water bottle and filter, flashlight and poncho. The packs were made possible with a $5,000 donation by committee member Drew Roslund, managing partner of the Fireside and Overleaf motels.

“The city is going to look into creating some go-bags and having them available for sale for people in the community,” West said. “We keep saying ‘You need a go-bag, you need a go-bag,’ but we don’t know how many people have actually done anything about it.”

More people needed

The nine-person emergency preparedness committee, which meets once a month and is always looking for more members, will continue to bolster supplies in the caches while also doing outreach in the community. People interested in joining the emergency preparedness committee can fill out a volunteer application on the city’s website or email West at linnarchspec@gmail.com

“We have an emergency preparedness fair coming up Sept. 14 at the Commons,” West said. “We had one two years ago that about 100 people attended. It brings in people that have supplies. We are also bringing in people to teach first aid classes. And we are going to try to find someone to teach about using Narcan, about how to shelter in the woods, about edible plants, things you need for survival if we have something happen.”

The committee also runs a program called “map your neighborhood” that encourages individuals to contact their neighbors and ask them to fill out a form to list items such as generators, chainsaws, shovels and other items they would be willing to share if called upon during an emergency.  The Yachats Trails Team is also chipping in to carve a trail above the tsunami zone that connects the fire station with the cemetery.

The city budgets about $20,000 a year toward committee work, West said, and has applied for a state resiliency grant worth $50,446.

For Waldport-area residents who wonder where that city stands with emergency preparedness, city manager Dann Cutter said the city has a large storage unit with supplies located at the public works shop near Waldport High School on Kathleen Street.

“There is a large emergency tent, MREs (meals ready to eat) and water,” Cutter said. “The intention is we would bring emergency supplies to the Red Cross shelter at the school or wherever it ends up being.”

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com