Smoke from the Cedar Creek Fire looms to the west near Lemish Butte and casts a yellow glow over Waldo Lake, and adds to the haze blanketing much of Oregon and creating unhealthy air quality for many parts of the state.
Cedar Creek Fire Incident Command on Inciweb
Two years ago, high east winds ripped through a large swath of bone-dry western Oregon, intensifying wildfires and sparking new blazes. So Oregonians had plenty of reasons to be fearful heading into this past weekend when all of those same elements were in play. While fires increased, and many Oregonians had to evacuate, the emergency response this time around was much different than the response during the Labor Day fires in 2020. Andrew Phelps is the director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. He joins us to talk about the latest emergency response to the wildfires, and lessons learned from previous disasters.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We’re coming to you this week from Coos Bay. Two years ago, high east winds ripped through huge parts of a bone dry western Oregon, fanning existing flames and sparking new blazes. So Oregonians had plenty of reasons to be fearful heading into this past weekend when all of those same elements were again in play. But while fires did grow and many Oregonians had to evacuate, we did not have a true reprise of Labor Day 2020. Andrew Phelps is the director of Oregon’s Department of Emergency Management. He joins us to talk about what happened and also what didn’t happen. Andrew Phelps, welcome back.
Andrew Phelps: Hey, thanks Dave for having me.
Miller: Thanks for joining us once again. What was the worst case scenario heading into this past weekend?
Phelps: Well, there was certainly some uncertainty about the timing of these east winds, and of course these east winds bring warmer drier air into much of Oregon. We didn’t know exactly what the timing was going to look like, and really the ferocity of these winds, but we knew it had potential to exacerbate the existing fires that were burning across the state, and certainly cause new fires, whether it was from downed power lines or or other issues that from time to time start these fires here in Oregon. And uncertainty surrounding where and when these winds were going to be the most severe, and where new fires might be ignited, I think led to the most uncertainty heading into the weekend.
Miller: Can you give us a big picture update now, a little after noon on Monday, of where the biggest fires stand?
Phelps: The one that’s the most concerning and caused quite a few evacuations over the weekend was the Cedar Creek fire in eastern Lane County, near the Oakridge community. That’s where we, of course, had the Holiday Farm Fire in 2020, but we had a lot of other small fires pop up in Marion County, up in Clackamas County, and dozens and dozens of fires across the state. It really was a testament to the prepositioning of resources at the Department of Forestry, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, and dozens of local fire departments had set up in advance of the weekend, and the strength of what we call the initial attack, the ability of these firefighters and aircraft to jump on these fires when they first start, keep them small, and keep them from impacting broader communities.
Miller: Do you have a sense for how different the last few days would have been if Oregon lawmakers hadn’t updated wildfire response laws after the 2020 Labor Day fires?
Phelps: I think there are a couple of factors that mitigated the effects of fires or prevented new fires from starting, or smaller fires from growing larger. I know the Department of Forestry and the State Fire Marshal’s office throughout the summer have spoken about the additional resources they have and the capacity they have to respond on this initial attack. But also just thinking about community preparedness, the trauma that we all experienced in 2020 and a commitment to better protect communities, whether it’s through better notification systems or working with utilities on these public safety power shutoffs to mitigate the potential of downed power lines igniting new fires.
Miller: Well, let’s dig into those last two you mentioned. Because in 2020, we heard a lot of complaints about either late or just non-existent emergency notifications. How did those systems work this time around?
Phelps: We have a much more unified state wide mass notification system called OR-Alert. That has garnered the support of just about every county in the state. I think all but two counties have opted into the Oregon alert system, and the other two counties have existing contracts with other mass notification systems. So we’ve got a lot more coverage and a lot more familiarity with the system. As an emergency manager, it can sometimes be a little anxiety inducing to know you’re going to hit a button that’s going to send a message to tens of thousands of residents, and we want to make sure that we’re getting it right, and that we’re using that system to warn folks of those imminent life safety situations. We don’t want these mass notification alerts to become overused and people become desensitized to them. So we’ve done a lot of work with our local emergency management partners, our telecommunication partners to get a little bit more familiar with how that tool can work, and get folks in Oregon to sign up for those opt-in alerts, in addition to those automatic alerts that go out to to folk’s cellphones during those life safety instances.
And then the other piece is those public safety power shutoffs. Working with utilities and the communication that they provided in the days leading up to the wind event really helped folks lean forward, take some steps to prepare for the inevitability or the possibility of being without power for a couple of days. And then the continued messaging and notifications from the utilities about the restoration of service was really important, I think, to providing peace of mind. It’s really not a perfect system, it’s something where there’s still a lot of uncertainty around when it’s going to be safe for the utilities to come back in and begin the restoration. But as of last night, all of the utilities that initiated those public safety power shutoffs reported those shutoffs have all been restored.
Miller: Whether it was Pacific Power or PGE or another utility, who ultimately makes the decision to preventively shut off electricity?
Phelps: The decision is left to the utilities, but it’s been a very collaborative process where they’re talking to emergency managers, they’re talking to forecasters, they’re talking to the Public Utility Commission, and making sure that folks are on the same page in terms of the timing, the risks, and the other hazards associated with shutting off power to to large swaths of the community. That in and of itself presents other challenges around evacuations and notification and people that rely on power for medical equipment. And having all departments at the table for those conversations just allows us to lean a little bit further forward, and take steps proactively to try to take care of these community members before the power gets shut off.
Miller: You mentioned medical equipment, but there’s also AC units, which could be really crucial and and life saving at the same time that fires could be immense, or well pumps that provide water for people. What do you, from the state Department of Emergency Management, have to do if big areas of Oregon don’t have electricity?
Phelps: Whether it’s a public safety power shutoff, or something related to an emergency power shutoff due to downed power lines and a wildfire, or preparing for a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, there are things that we have set up at the state level, relying on federal partners when needed, a host of state agencies, incredible volunteer organizations that provide resources to get into these communities to help provide things like cooling centers, food, water, bags of ice. When we have an event like we had this weekend where we can forecast a little bit and say “in 24-48 hours, we’re likely going to have shut off power to this community,” it allows us to pre-stage some of those things and make those things more accessible.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that this is Preparedness Month. And the theme here in Oregon for Preparedness Month is plan today, ready tomorrow. And that really comes back to this culture of preparedness we need to build across the state, and understand that it’s a shared responsibility. We all have things that we can do individually and as families and communities to prepare for bad days, but it’s a larger system that needs to come into play and leverage the resources that we have, whether it’s communication resources, or physical assets to try to support the communities when they’re having a bad day.
Miller: What is the fire outlook right now?
Phelps: Things are still burning. We have dozens of fires still burning on the landscape, tens of thousands of acres have been burned in the state to date. We are heading into that time where we can hope to see some of those Fall rains start to impact our state in a positive way. I know in the Portland metro, in parts of the valley, we had some, some sprinkles overnight. Hopefully that’s a harbinger of things to come, and we can end this persistent drought and these dry conditions and start to welcome that familiar Pacific Northwest Fall rainy season.
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