For Immediate Release
November 4, 2024
Douglas County Participates in IronOR-24
(Douglas County, Ore.) The Douglas County Board of Commissioners are pleased to share that Douglas County’s new Wayne Stinson Emergency Management Facility was the base of operations for a county-wide disaster simulation last week. Douglas County joined Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) in IronOR-24, a full-scale, multi-day, multi-agency emergency exercise. Douglas County was among a diverse mix of collaborators, including multiple state agencies, city and county governments, recognized Tribal governments, and federal agencies, that all came together to strategize and execute a unified response plan.
IronOR-24 was a Functional Exercise (FE) designed to test readiness and validate the capabilities of local, tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions as well as selected private sector and non-governmental organizations when responding to a catastrophic Cascadia Subduction Zone 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami with associated aftershocks along the west coast of the United States. IronOR-24's planning effort cascaded across 12 months and included a comprehensive review of multi-jurisdictional disaster priorities and goals. According to OEM, "Redundant communications" was among the key goals, aiming to ensure contact lines remain operational in the face of infrastructure failure.
“This exercise was not just about preparing for an earthquake. It was also about using our resources, including utilizing the experience and knowledge of our immense local talent pool to improve our ability to respond to any emergency as an integrated team.” - Commissioner and Liaison to the Douglas County Emergency Management Department, Tim Freeman.
Locally, Douglas County Emergency Manager Emily Ring and Assistant Emergency Manager Tyler Connors, facilitated the exercise and chose to conduct the “all-hands on deck” scenario in three separate training sessions: Auxiliary Communications, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Activation, and Mass Care. Each focus area rotated through a different mix of participants. All three Douglas County Commissioners, several county employees and several local agencies joined together to take on various roles and participate in the exercises.
The Auxiliary Communications portion of IronOR-24 was a functional exercise which consisted of testing Douglas County communications capabilities when traditional cell phone/ Wi-Fi is unavailable. Additionally, during this session, we tested the County’s Starlink and satellite trailer communications equipment to communicate with the Cow Creek Tribe and the communications base station in Reedsport.
The EOC Activation session of the exercise was another functional segment that included testing the county’s emergency operations plan and providing just-in-time-training to a selected EOC staff. When major disasters strike, often the traditional people that typically staff an EOC are unavailable. This exercise provided training to the EOC staff to quickly familiarize them with their assigned role, based on their knowledge, background, and skillsets. After the just-in-time-trainings were completed, Emily and Tyler added injects (tasks) to test the EOC’s ability to coordinate as a team to solve various problems and create a unified plan.
The Mass Care session of the exercise mobilized hospital, public health, mental health, and social services staff to brainstorm capabilities and solutions to mass care needs that could result from a catastrophic incident such as Cascadia. This included exploring ideas, identifying alternative means to maintain essential services such as Meals on Wheels, welfare checks, and maintaining the public health throughout Douglas County.
“The exercise went very well! As with all exercises, we came away with a lot of great ideas and a list of things that we can learn and improve upon. We were excited to be able to utilize our new facility. It is a perfect set up for this type of exercise since it allows us to have large groups of people and different types of equipment in motion with no impact to surrounding businesses or departments. We were able to use flexible spaces in the storage bay, outside in the parking lots, and inside for drills and mock operation centers. We’re grateful to have so many awesome response and recovery partners across Douglas County.” – Emily Ring, Douglas County Emergency Manager.
Douglas County Emergency Management partnered with multiple agencies across the county for IronOR-24. There were 60 individuals actively participated in the Douglas County exercise representing the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, Douglas County Senior Services, Douglas County Planning Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Douglas County Human Resources, Douglas County Public Affairs, Douglas County IT Department, Douglas County Parks Department, Douglas County Public Works Department, Douglas County Juvenile Department, Douglas County Fleet Division and Douglas County GIS Division, Douglas County Dispatch (911 Communications), Douglas Public Health Network, Douglas County COAD, City of Sutherlin, Glide Fire Department, Roseburg Police Department, Lower Umpqua CERT, Douglas County Central CERT, Douglas County ARES, National Weather Service, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Mercy Hospital, Cow Creek Tribe, and OEM. Additionally, CHI Mercy Hospital, City of Sutherlin, Glide Fire Department, and Cow Creek Tribe completed their own internal exercises, along with the county exercise. All these agencies and groups play a vital role in ensuring that our community is prepared for a disaster. Many different state and federal agencies also participated in the exercise including the Oregon Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Army National Guard and the U.S Coast Guard.
“We are very excited to report that we received several requests to conduct more exercises like this in the future with community partners!” – Emily Ring, Douglas County Emergency Manager. For more information about IronOR-24 and how you can prepare for a disaster visit OEM at www.oregon.gov/oem/
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Media Contact: Tamara Howell, Douglas County Emergency Communications & Community Engagement Specialist, Douglas County Public Affairs Office | Office: (541) 957-4896 | Cell: (541) 670-2804 | Email: tamara.howell@douglascountupr.gov
Photos © K.Trenkle/Douglas County. Individual photos are available upon request.
Photos –
1 Emily Ring DC Emergency Manager talks about the exercise.
2 Participants in DC IronOR24 exercise listen to a brief on the simulation.
3 Public Works Director Scott Adams leads his operations team through exercise.
4 Commissioner Boice and the Planning Section come up with a plan.
5 Commissioner Tim Freeman organizes his Logistics Team for the exercise.
6 Tyler Conners, Assistant Emergency Manager and ARES board operator receive signals from other locations during the excercise