Are we really half way through 2013 already?  It is going too fast!

The SRGP recently got some love from the Oregon press.  Check it out:  http://www.albanytribune.com/10062013-tuality-hospital-receives-seismic-upgrade%E2%80%8F/

And, Congresswoman Bonamici is still working hard to free up some of the funding that is available for marine debris removal.  You can read about it here: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/06/help_for_tsunami_debris_cleanu.html

For more updates, check back throughout the summer.

I recently found out that I was awarded the UO Public Impact Fellowship.  Check out this article from the University of Oregon’s Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management: http://pppm.uoregon.edu/node/414

This past week, I had the opportunity to attend the Oregon Chapter of the American Planning Association’s (OAPA) Annual Conference at the Portland Convention Center and present two posters I created that discuss the work I have been doing here at OEM.  Pictures of the posters can be seen here:

PDFs of the posters can be found on the OEM website.

At the OAPA Conference, I also had the opportunity to listen to Kent Yu and Jay Wilson, Chair and Vice-Chair of OSSPAC, talk about the new Oregon Resilience Plan.  For me, the big take-away was that we shouldn’t just think about natural disasters as a one time emergency; instead, we should perceive them as the obvious results of our everyday planning.  Natural disasters offer us an opportunity to think about how we organize our communities and to maybe make some really important and beneficial changes.  As Jay Wilson says, “You constantly need to ask yourself, ‘How prepared am I at this very moment?'” How prepared are you for a magnitude 9 earthquake?   

At the beginning of the month, I had the opportunity to travel with Kim Lippert, OEM’s Public Information Officer, up to Astoria to have a meeting with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.   Briana Goodwin from SOLVE, Steve Rumrill from ODFW,  David Solomon from ODPR, and Patrick Corcoran from Oregon Sea Grant also attended and  took part in a short briefing about what we are seeing occur on our coast in relation to Japan tsunami marine debris (JTMD).  The Congresswoman also presented legislation that she is introducing to Congress that is directly related to JTMD cleanup reimbursement.

 The first bill, titled “Marine Debris Emergency Act of 2013,” would expedite the current grant award process made through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program.  Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has existing grant programs available to assist with debris removal, but the process for awarding these grants is slow and does not account for extreme circumstances. The bipartisan Marine Debris Emergency Act would speed the grant award process and give preference to applicants who are facing a severe marine debris event.  Here is a draft of the bill: Marine Debris Emergency Act of 2013

 The second bill, titled “Tsunami Debris Cleanup Reimbursement Act,” would give NOAA the authority to use the $5 million provided to the U.S. government by the Government of Japan for the purpose of assisting state governments with funding marine debris cleanup activities they have already undertaken.  In December 2012, the Japanese government generously provided the United States government with $5 million to assist with the cleanup and removal of debris from the tsunami; however, because of the statutory language describing their grant authority, NOAA can only provide grants to states for future projects, not those that are already completed.  Therefore, this legislation would give the NOAA Administrator authority to reimburse states for the cost of cleanup efforts they have already undertaken to address marine debris from the tsunami. Here is a draft of this bill: Cleanup Reimbursement Act – draft

 For more information on this meeting with Congresswoman Bonamici, check out these articles from OPB and The Daily Astorian.

 On April 24, there was a great assembly at Central Elementary School in Albany to celebrate the success of a $1.5 million retrofit project funded by the SRGP.   The student assembly was followed by an earthquake drill and a building tour for guests who were interested in seeing all of the retrofit work done to the building.  Distinguished guests and experts at the event included: Senator Betsy Close; Albany School District Superintendent Maria Delapoer; Dr. Chris Goldfinger, one of the world’s leading subduction zone earthquake experts from Oregon State University; Albany Mayor Sharon Canopa; Jay Raskin, a commissioner with the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission; and Ryan McGoldrick, Red Cross Preparedness Program Coordinator for the Oregon region.

 In reality, Central Elementary School is just one of many schools that have benefited from the SRGP.  Since 2009, state-funded seismic retrofit grants have been awarded to 21 K-12 schools, three Oregon community college and university campuses, and 18 public safety facilities deemed in danger during an earthquake. The Governor’s budget requests $30 million for this priority for the next two years, and legislators will decide the final funding level later this spring.

For more information on this wonderful event, check out the new SRGP website and these stories from OPB and KEZI. 

So much has happened here during my first quarter at OEM! And there is so much exciting stuff coming up!  It’s going to be hard to fit everything into one blog.

The Western States Seismic Policy Council (WSSPC) Board of Directors recently announced the winners of the 2013 Awards in Excellence. The Overall Award in Excellence in the category of Mitigation Efforts went to the Oregon Emergency Management for the Oregon Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program (SRGP).For more information, check out: http://www.wsspc.org/news/news_files/eNews_Winter13.pdf. 

“Oregon Emergency Management is honored that it has been selected to receive the WSSPC 2013 Overall Award in Excellence for the Oregon Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program,” said OEM Director Martin Plotner. “The program helps protect the residents of the state by providing funding to rehabilitate schools and emergency facilities.”

For those interested in seeing some of the amazing work that has resulted from the Oregon SRGP, come meet us at Central Elementary School in Albany on April 24 at 9 am.  Central Elementary is one of the schools that received seismic retrofits through SRGP funding.  We will be holding an assembly there to talk about the progress of the SRGP, its impacts on Central Elementary, and its impacts on the entire State of Oregon.  There will also be a tour of the school in order to highlight the specific types of retrofits that can receive SRGP funding.   This is a great opportunity to learn more about the SRGP, to learn more about the importance of seismic safety, and to see exactly what a seismically-sound public elementary school looks like.  We will be joined by a number of State Officials and Legislators, as well as UO & OSU professors and seismic safety experts. Come join us!

The Governor’s Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD) Coordination Group held its quarterly meeting this past month.  A number of programs have been established to help mitigate the impacts of the spreading marine debris resulting from the March 2011 Japan tsunami.  This past month the Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN), a nongovernmental organization, coordinated a visit to Oregon. Through this visit, JEAN and other participating Japanese organizations were able to share information about their disaster recovery efforts with U.S. audiences and do research on the tsunami debris showing up on North American shores. Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes welcomed the Japanese group and said their visit is important to her and to the people of Oregon. Hayes is founder and CEO of 3EStrategies, an environmental consulting firm. In the role of First Lady, she and “life partner” Governor John Kitzhaber have done several trade missions to Japan. Hayes does beach cleanups, convenes and speaks to groups about tsunami debris, and has filmed a public service announcement on the issue (seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtMkGz2qwE4).  For more information, read this article (http://ens-newswire.com/2013/02/18/oregon-welcomes-japanese-tsunami-debris-activists/) or check out the OEM website (http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/Pages/plans_train/tsunamis.aspx).

OEM has also scheduled the 2013 Tsunami Road Show at locations on the Oregon Coast.  The presentations will take place in Oregon coastal counties March 11-23. Residents will learn how to prepare for a tsunami should it strike the coast. Topics covered will include how to build an emergency kit, create an emergency plan, and prepare your family for a disaster.

“This will allow people to learn how to write their own survival story,” said Althea Rizzo, Ph.D., Oregon Emergency Management geologic hazards program coordinator, who is scheduled to present at the events.  For specific dates, times, and locations, check out: http://www.tillamookheadlightherald.com/news/article_86a9032a-81fb-11e2-b8c5-0019bb2963f4.html or http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/Pages/2013-Tsunami-Road-Show.aspx. 

There is so much more awesome stuff going on here at OEM! However, if you want to learn more about it, you are going to have to read my next blog.  Check out the 2013 Tsunami Road Show this month, come out to Central Elementary School in Albany on April 24th, and make sure to keep reading my blog for alerts and updates.

Hello World!

     My name is Geoff Ostrove and I am Oregon Sea Grant’s newest Natural Resources Policy Fellow.  I am a graduate student at the University of Oregon, pursuing a PhD in Media Studies from the School of Journalism & Communication as well as a Master’s of Community & Regional Planning from the Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management.  For this next year, I have been given the amazing opportunity to work with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on a couple of really important projects.  

      The first one is called the Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program (SRGP).  Over the last 10 years, the Oregon Legislature has recognized seismic safety as a critical element of Oregon’s disaster resiliency plan.  The SRGP is a State of Oregon competitive grant program that provides funding for the seismic rehabilitation of critical public buildings, particularly public schools and emergency services facilities.  Public K‐12 school districts, community colleges, education service districts, and universities are eligible for the grant program. For emergency services facilities, the emphasis is on first responder buildings, which includes hospital buildings with acute inpatient care facilities, fire stations, police stations, sheriff’s offices, and 9‐1‐1 centers.  The purpose of this grant is to help fund seismic retrofits to critical public buildings that are in serious need of improvements.  This grant is not intended to fund the construction of new buildings.  Buildings located in a tsunami inundation zone are ineligible for this grant.

     Which leads me to the second project that I am working on here at OEM: the Governor’s Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD) Task Force.  On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.  The subsequent tsunami impacted cities throughout the eastern part of the country, creating approximately 25 million tons of debris.  5 million tons of that debris is believed to have been pushed offshore, with about 3.5 million tons sinking and about 1.5 million tons floating and dispersing throughout the Pacific Ocean.   Here in Oregon, we are seeing the impacts of that tsunami earlier than most of the rest of the world.  On June 6, 2012, a dock from a Japanese harbor landed on Agate Beach.  We are beginning to see more and more of this type of activity occur up and down the west cost of North America.  The goal of the Governor’s  JTMD Task Force is to create inter-agency coordination throughout Oregon, the United States, and with Japan in order to mitigate against the potential negative impacts of the JTMD that has been dispersed throughout the Pacific Ocean and is now reaching our coast.    

      I am excited for the opportunity to work on both of these projects.  The coordinator for the SRGP is Kiri Carini, and the project is supervised by Paulina Layton, Director of OEM’s Mitigation and Recovery Division.  John Lewis, OEM’s Director of Plans and Training, is coordinating the JTMD effort.   I will also be working closely with Kim Lippert, OEM’s Public Information Officer.   

   I expect my experience here at OEM to be extremely educational and applicable to my future career goals.  I want to thank Stephen Brandt,  Sarah Kolesar,  Eric Dickey, and everyone else at Oregon Sea Grant for this amazing opportunity.  For updates on the SRGP and the Governor’s JTMD Task Force, look for my next blog.