Officials learn from recent emergencies

Wahkiakum County officials reviewed their responses in recent emergencies and come away with ideas for improvement.

Officials met Tuesday afternoon of a "hotwash" review of what worked well and what didn't in responses to last month's tsunami warning and last week's closure of SR 4.

Discussion centered on response time and means of sharing information among themselves and with the public.

The county has no emergency services department; it was eliminated in budget cutting two or three years ago, so the sheriff's office coordinates emergency responses.

During the tsunami incident, Undersheriff Mark Howie was in charge and said officers early on decided there was minimal threat to Wahkiakum residents and issued no warnings of their own. They did continue to monitor the situation through the night, he said.

Lisa Marsyla, chair of the board of commissioners, and Judy Bright, director of health and human services said members of the public did want local information, even if it was "We're evaluating the situation; we feel there is not danger; we will notify the public if something changes."

Officials did acknowledge that only one dispatcher was on duty during the night, and she was busy answering phones. They said other officers would have had to go to the office to create an emergency phone message and connect with the website that would call residents. Also, the dispatcher was so busy that she didn't have time to update the department's information line, (360) 795-3911.

The county does have a Facebook information page, but officers are currently prohibited from accessing Facebook, said Chief Civil Deputy Joannie Bjorge. They also have to go through other departments to have changes or updates made to the county's website.

In the case of the SR 4 slide, officials waited until Wednesday to meet. Marsyla said they didn't have a clear indication of how long the highway would be closed until late Tuesday.

When they met, they approved expenditures to set up secure commuter parking areas at the Westport landing, and Marsha LaFarge, clerk of the board and a trained public information officer, took over the task of updating the county website and Facebook page and communicating with the media. However, LaFarge was off duty Saturday when the road was opened and couldn't make updates remotely; only certain computers in the courthouse have the program licenses to administer the county website, she said.

Jerusha Beach Kasch, who works part-time for the Wahkiakum and Cowlitz health departments as an emergency response coordinator, suggested the officials make a list of the improvements they want to make in the emergency response procedures. These included:

--Creating a list of officials and responders to notify in the case of an emergency;

--Creating a list of sources of emergency information and working to educate the public on emergency response, and

--Improving officials' ability to update the county website and Facebook page remotely and increasing the number of officials authorized to post information.

Officials said they would meet April 26 to go over progress on the list.

Editor's note: Undersheriff Howie submitted an article, printed on page 2, outlining the department's emergency response policies and procedures.