Lane County recommends organization for long-term disaster recovery partners

With more communities experiencing natural disasters, there’s an emerging need to share best practices around recovery. On Sept. 17:

Heather Buch (Lane County commissioner): Last week I had the honor of attending a megafire conference in Sonoma called ‘After the Fire.’ This conference was born out of the Sonoma fires in 2017 and beyond (they had more than one).

And there was a very large Maui contingent, about 30 people, of both elected officials from Maui and recovery partners and leaders from the Lahaina Fire, along with professionals in private industry, government, building officials, and it was enlightening.

[00:00:48] I did get to present on the last day regarding the potential for a more formal association of recovery partners. Right now, you know somebody who knows somebody who’s been through a fire, who can give you a kind of a heads-up of what might hit you. But the rate of the fires that are occurring and the size of them continues to grow.

[00:01:15] And there is an unfortunate association of people that really understand fire recovery. We have these kinds of formal associations for, say, emergency managers or first responders, but we don’t have that necessarily for recovery partners who will be in this work for years and years and years.

[00:01:39] So we’re seeking a way in which we can help develop that. And this conference now is annual and brings around an eclectic array of people in the recovery realm that helps us share stories—things that are helpful, things that weren’t so helpful, and just a way to connect. So if anybody’s interested in knowing more about that, wants to help participate, please feel free to contact me. Aand this is, you know, of course, ongoing work.

[00:02:16] And I want to thank the Maui contingent for sending so many people out, sharing their stories, and their aloha…

[00:02:25] I forgot to add one thing. As my Watch Duty just rang on my iPad, I did forget to mention at the conference I did meet the creator and CEO of Watch Duty, who’s from Sonoma, it was born out of the Sonoma fires.

[00:02:40] And one important aspect is that, you know, I have, these dreams of Watch Duty being available for more than just fire—other disaster notifications—and intuitively he does as well. So it’s not called Fire Duty, it’s called Watch Duty so that it can be expanded to other events.

[00:03:04] But it’s not there yet. It is only in the western United States. They’re just now expanding into Hawaii. And they’re only made up of like 10 full-time employees and about 150 volunteers. And of the 150 volunteers, they’re generally people who’ve retired out of emergency management or first responders. They’re all over the world.

[00:03:29] So for example, whatever’s happening here regarding fires, it could be somebody listening to the radio traffic in Australia and they are diligently putting in very timely, accurate information at all times throughout the Western United States.

[00:03:46] He’s certainly a very savvy techie, knows the business, but needs resources and support from governments in order to help expand the service. And for agencies that originally were very skeptical of the app and software are now heavily reliant upon the information that it provides and are now being integrated into governmental agencies like utility companies, etc.

[00:04:17] So if there’s ever a way in which Lane County can help resource or advocate for resources for this entity, it is a nonprofit. There’s nothing else like it that I’m aware of, in order for it to help us. So we need to help them to help us. And I would really love to add that some way to our policy discussions, advocacy discussions in future legislative sessions or advocacy to the federal government.

[00:04:57] He has been offered by the federal government to purchase this particular app and continues to refuse because of its timely and nimble way that it operates. And I do have to agree that they’re doing an excellent job, but it is something that we should all be aware of because, you know, we rely on it now.

[00:05:17] Our whole community relies on this kind of information every fire season, but it has significant potential for the community in other situations.

[00:05:27] John Q: Commissioner Heather Buch represents Lane County at a conference on disaster recovery, and looks to help communities share insights on the long recovery process.