Commissioners to focus on fire recovery MAX KIRKENDALL newsguardeditor@countrymedia.net
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners announced this week they are shifting their focus and resources to recovery and rebuilding following the destruction caused by the Echo Mountain Complex fire. At their regularly scheduled Sept. 28 meeting, the Commissioners discussed several topics regarding recovery. First, starting with temporary housing for displaced residents of North Lincoln County. The Red Cross continues to have over 380 individuals in motels throughout Lincoln County and is serving them about 400 meals a day. Several motel vouchers are expected to expire between Oct. 5-10, but the Commissioners announced they are pushing to have this extended. Housing has become priority number one for both short-term and long-term according to the Commissioners. “I think it’s important to note that much of the housing that was destroyed
Celebrating A Decade COURTESY PHOTO
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla Depoe Bay gather for a group photograph in front of the U.S. Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat Station Depoe Bay.
Coast Guard Flotilla Depoe Bay reaches 10-year mark MAX KIRKENDALL newsguardeditor@countrymedia.net
See RECOVERY, Page A8
On Sept. 21 of 2010, the newly established United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Flotilla Depoe Bay held a chartering ceremondy at the Gleneden Bach Fire Station. Now, a decade later, the Coast Guard Station in Depoe Bay celebrates its voluntary detachment. Tucked away in the small town of Depoe Bay, the Coast Guard has a strong presence. Along with the active duty members,there is a group of citizen volunteer auxiliarist that augment the non-law enforcement missions of the U.S. Coast
Guard. Flotilla Depoe Bay was created in 2010 after serving as a detachment in 2009, to Flotilla Yaquina Bay located in Newport. During this time, Flotilla Yaquina Bay had a large membership with Lawrence Cox as the Flotilla Commander. Mr. Cox decided it would a positive
See COAST GUARD, Page A3
City schedules after action review for evacuation analysis MAX KIRKENDALL newsguardeditor@countrymedia.net
Since the evacuation from the Echo Mountain Complex fire in the Otis/Rose Lodge area, the City of Lincoln City has been actively making plans to improve their role in communication when disaster strikes. At the Sept. 21 City Council meeting, City Manager Ron Chandler announced City staff will be holding an after action review Sept. 29 that will be led by City Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Murphy and Chief of Police Jerry Palmer. “These are intended to look at the performance that has taken place, the context of the emergency, the City’s role in it and then to look at and do evaluations that would come from staff, elected officials, the public, on how we can improve in efficiency,” Chandler said. After reviewing all public comments and following the staff meeting, the City Council plans to discuss ways to improve at a Oct. 5 work session that is set for 1 p.m.
That Session will be available for the public to view but not participate in. Until then, the City is asking any citizens to submit comments if they have concerns or experienced issues during the evacuation on Sept. 9. Virtually in attendance for Monday’s City Council meeting was Ken Murphy, who spoke about what he saw during the evacuation of North Lincoln City. “I would never say, everything went perfect,” Murphy said. “I’ve done 42 of these disasters now and nothing ever goes perfect or
as planned, simply because people react different ways and plans are only a plan and can be adjusted.” From his perspective, Murphy said the evacuation had room for improvement. He also said many of the issues the City will be discussing going forward about emergency preparedness are things he’s been speaking about for a long time. “Now, everyone is interested since we just had a disaster,” Murphy said. “To me, this is a teaching time, a learning time and a time to try to fix things. I would encourage we
really look at all of the issues out there.” Murphy said he has documented several discussion points involved with the evacuation that he will be bringing up with City staff. “Considering how it happened, I think it was surely not 100 percent efficient, but it was effective,” he said. “We were under a lot of different issues.” Murphy pointed out that the County’s Lincoln Alerts system did not work properly in some places like Rose Lodge, Otis and North end of Lincoln City, but he is still
waiting for official records of where the system failed. He suspects the lack of alerts was due to issues with local cell towers and stated that North Lincoln County likely put a great strain on the cell towers, as everyone was looking for updates or making calls. Murphy said he will also be looking for clarification as to why the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) decided to block Highway 101 at the north end of town. He said he doesn’t know if it was good thing or a bad thing but it “clearly caused issues,” and once it opened traffic began to move. As traffic headed south, there were a number of problems reported that the City will hope to address, such as traffic signals being down, as well as trees and power lines in the roadway. “There were lots of these little issues that when you add them up, present challenges. There’s lots of different things that we can do to deal with that,” Murphy said. One of the immediate concerns that both Murphy and City Councilors Rick Mark and Riley Hoagland would like
to address is that lack of emergency information broadcasted on local radio stations. “I really understand the frustration and the anger and I can imagine the terror people were feeling while sitting in their cars on Logan Road, not being able to move for hours and not getting the information they wanted,” Mark said. “I think several of us have acknowledged there was a glaring error not getting more information out on the radio.” Mark entertained the idea of having a dedicated local radio channel to could be on all the time for weather, traffic and emergency information. Hoagland addressed the issue of City’s lack of social media presence during the evacuation. “All we can do is say, yeah we hear that you’re disappointed and we hear that we could’ve done better and we’re still going to do that, we’re going to do better,” Hoagland said. The City Council will meet again prior to the after action review during a regular scheduled meeting on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m.