County Emergency Management Activates Simulated Public Information Call Center (Photo) -10/29/18

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Division and Public Information Officers coordinated a simulated Emergency Operations Center Public Call Center exercise on Saturday, October 27, 2018 from 09:00am – 12:00pm.

The objective of the exercise was to set-up a call-center and take calls directly from simulated community members in search of information.  The practice scenario include calls regarding the current conditions, evacuation assistance, and damage assessment. Staff focused on using the county phone system, using the new call center recorded message lines, utilizing online mapping resources, relaying of river levels, sharing shelter and animal services resources, offering evacuation assistance, and identifying if properties were in the distant tsunami zone.

Exercise Scenario (simulated):

Lincoln County had been under a significant flood warning since Thursday for the Siletz, Alsea and Yaquina rivers with the cresting of the rivers not anticipated until the following Monday. Many community members had already been evacuated from these areas and damage to homes, properties and roadways was present.

The County Emergency Operations Center activated the call center to assist with evacuation needs and begin collecting damage assessment information from affected individuals when a distant tsunami watch was received at 08:00am Saturday morning. With the added event, 911 Dispatch Centers were quickly becoming overwhelmed and County Public Information Officers began pushing out messaging to reroute non-emergency calls for information to the County Call Center instead of the Dispatch Centers.

The exercise involved an invitation to local public safety volunteer groups to assist as call takers in the call center or to act as the simulated callers. A total of 7 individuals volunteered to act as call takers and 12 individuals volunteered to act as simulated callers. Over 90 calls were simulated to the call center during the 3 hour exercise; that’s an average of 1 call every two minutes. Call Takers estimated that each call took 3-5 minutes and typically included looking up the affected address, relaying requested information and ensuring the callers’ needs were met.

Volunteer Service:

• Call Taker Volunteers (7): County Emergency Management (4), Auxiliary Communications Service (3)
• Simulated Callers (12): North Lincoln CERT (1), So. County CERT (3) County Emergency Management (1), Depoe Bay CERT (1), Newport CERT (1), Auxiliary Communications Service (4), American Red Cross (1). *It should be noted that 5 of these individuals have dual volunteer roles with both Auxiliary Communications Service and their local CERT Chapters.

Jenny Demaris, County Emergency Manager stated “after my return from my most recent deployment to Josephine/Jackson County to assist their emergency operations center team with wildfire response, I was determined to come back to our County and ramp up our ability to meet this need. We already had back up phones in place but we had never faced this type of challeng and we were not ready. After this exercise and working with local volunteer groups who will provide the base staff support for this type of an operation, I feel confident that if this service was needed today we would be able to quickly and effectively set-up and operate.”

The following are comments from the Volunteers who participated in Saturday’s exercise.

“It is important for everyone to know that the county is making progress at fully establishing and improving a county call center to help and assist county citizens and visitors during emergencies and disasters. The recent exercise did exactly what it was supposed to do; we found what did work and what did not work. Many great ideas were developed and many things were streamlined. This effort is just one more step to providing better services to the citizens and visitors to Lincoln County.” - Ken Murphy, County Emergency Management Volunteer, Retired FEMA Regional Director

“Acting in the role of a Call Taker - it was harder than it looked. Our simulated callers were not as desperate or panicked as what actual callers from an emergency event or disaster might be. As a retired local Pharmacist I can see that this call center, though we utilized it for a flood and distant tsunami event today, would be a great benefit to our public health services in the event of a large scale outbreak or the need to set up an immunization or treatment clinic.” Judy McNeil, County Emergency Management Volunteer, Retired Pharmacist

Photo Credits: Casey Miller, Public Information Officer (PIO)

Call Center 001:

• Volunteer Call Takers (left to right): Bruce Miller, Michelle Pelkey, Ken Swaggart, Peter Benjamin, Judy McNeil, Ken Murphy
• County Staff: Samantha Buckley, Asst. County Emergency Manager

Call Center 002: County Call Center Stations

Call Center 003: Call Center Staff Receiving Updated Information

• Bruce Miller, Jenny Demaris (County EM), Chuck Gerttula, Susan Trachsel (County HHS PIO), Ken Swaggart, Peter Benjamin, Judy McNeil, Ken Murphy, Samantha Buckley (County Asst. EM)

Call Center 004: County Call Center Staff and Status Boards

Call Center 005: County EM and Public Information Officer Recording Briefing

• Samantha Buckley, Assistant Emergency Manager, Jenny Demaris, County Emergency Manager and Susan Trachsel, Health and Human Services Public Information Officer

###

Respectfully submitted,

Virginia "Jenny" Demaris
Emergency Manager
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office
Emergency Management
225 W. Olive St.
Newport, Oregon 97365
vdemaris@co.lincoln.or.us
(541) 265-4199 Office