With each passing year, video and images of wildfires growing out of control and threatening or overtaking communities in California and the Pacific Northwest become more and more common on the evening news.
In places like Philomath and throughout much of mid-Willamette Valley, the threat of wildfire is real. Emergency management staff need to be prepared if an evacuation is needed. As a result, a “community-focused evacuation drill” will be staged in neighboring Corvallis from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday.
Bryan Lee, Benton County Emergency Management manager, said the May 18 event will be the fourth time that such a drill will be staged.
Lee said the exercise provides value in two main areas — community education and staff training through simulation.
“It allows community members to practice their actual evacuation routes as well as just educate the community on what evacuations might look like and the kinds of challenges and constraints,” Lee said.
When the drill begins, targeted community groups will receive a text alert.
“You receive a notification, drive the actual route and time themselves to just see how tight their plans are and how well it works,” Lee said.
On the emergency management side, officials can test processes for various components of the drill, such as sending out the notifications and operating a temporary evacuation point.
“We set up certain evacuation points and we drive people through it to sort of simulate what a real location might look like,” Lee said. “We would actually have people come in and get information and just check in with us. That allows us to test that (the process) out.”
The Oregon Department of Emergency Management plans to evaluate the operation.
Two temporary evacuation points will be set up:
- Northwest Hills Community Church, 3300 NW Walnut Blvd. The city of Corvallis will be on site to operate.
- Benton County Kalapuya Building, 4500 SW Research Way. The Benton County Community Emergency Response Team will operate the site.
Benton County Emergency Management will have staff at the sites and will also be running a call center (541-766-6200).
“We’re mainly focusing on our Firewise neighborhoods and groups,” Lee said when asked to define the targeted community groups that he had mentioned. “Anyone’s welcome to participate.”
Lee said the county planned to spread the word to let the public know “that this exercise is happening and they are welcome to participate but we don’t want to create additional alarm and phone calls and text everybody in the community. It’s going to be far-more focused.
“That way, folks can still practice and still get the message,” he added, “but we’re really working with those community groups to test out a couple of different systems with that text.”
Those targeted groups that receive the text will receive detailed information about the exercise. Anyone else who may want to participate can email emergencymanagement@bentoncountyor.gov or call 541-766-6864.
County officials said community members may notice additional traffic in the area as the evacuation drills get underway. Unless there is an emergency, people are advised to not call 911.
Those with questions about the drill should call the Benton County call center at 541-766-6200.
The county issued a press release Wednesday to inform voters of possible challenges with dropping off ballots at the Kalapuya Building. The ballot box will remain accessible to the public but from 9 a.m.-noon when the drill is in progress, there could be delays. In Philomath, a 24-hour accessible outdoor ballot drop box is located at Philomath Community Library.
The temporary evacuation sites for the drill were chosen because of availability.
“We just started rolling down the list to find parking lots that we thought could handle the capacity,” Lee said. “For us, the Kalapuya Building is quite large in terms of its parking and any traffic flow capabilities, so that was an easy pick. Over at Northwest Hills, they’ve partnered with us in the past and let us use their parking lot for previous exercises.”
If a wildfire threatened Philomath to the extent that an evacuation may be necessary, the Benton County Fairgrounds would be a logical site.
“In a real-life incident if we had something outside of Philomath, the main focus for Philomath folks would be to the fairgrounds or the Kalapuya Building — those are very realistic locations for us,” Lee said. “And then if it’s really big and expanding, we’d send them to Linn County, to Lane County, up north, just completely out of the area entirely.”
After Saturday’s drill ends, officials will do a quick meeting to see how things went. Then in roughly two weeks, Lee said they have a more formal discussion to look at various aspects of the operation and where improvements can be made.
