Columbia County Emergency Management

Columbia County Courthouse

230 Strand

St. Helens, OR 97051

503-366-3931

Dear Visitor: 

Welcome to our home page! Columbia County Emergency Management is the chief responsible agency under Oregon Revised Statutes 401 for coordinating emergency preparedness, response and recovery throughout Columbia County. Emergency Management is about being a good steward of resources and making sure we work toward being prepared for whatever comes our way. Major emergencies such as earthquakes and floods require a LOT of planning, training and equipping in order to even begin assisting folks who may be affected, whether that be public agencies or private citizens. Having had five presidentially-declared disasters from 2000-2010, it is even more important to be ready!

We appreciate you taking the time to explore our portion of the Columbia County website. We encourage you to check out our blog, Twitter and Facebook for more about us and events going on around our area. Most importantly, We hope you will take the time to prepare by having a preparedness kit and a plan at your home and place of business. A good place to start on these would be http://www.oregonredcross.org . Please feel free to contact us!

PREPAREDNESS AND EMERGENCY ALERT INFORMATION AT:

Some of the things we do....

PREPAREDNESS:

* Write or coordinate local emergency plans that cover a wide variety of issues--shelters, evacuation, earthquake issues, at-risk individuals, wildfire, etc.

* Provide different types of training to emergency responders, government officials, and citizens/businesses.

* Apply for and manage public and private grants that help fund various aspects of preparedness.

*  Work on mitigation (minimizing or eliminating) of risk from hazards--flood walls, land buyouts, seismic retrofitting, etc.

* Design exercise drills that test planning and training.

* Meet with regional, state and federal partners to ensure smooth coordination during emergencies and sharing of resources.

RESPONSE:

* Operate the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the hub of resource and information coordination and prioritization during a major emergency.

* Work with local officials to communicate with the public during times of crisis.

* Assist local communities with various aspects of disaster response, from setting up shelters to handling donations and volunteers.

RECOVERY:

* Gather damage information after the incident.

* Pursue a presidential declaration (if the damages are costly enough), which could open up financial recovery programs from FEMA.

* Coordinate the post-disaster recovery process and programs.

* Look for opportunities for post-disaster mitigation efforts.