Union County prepares for emergency situations with mass care and shelter training

By on Wednesday, February 26th, 2025 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

LA GRANDE – Disaster preparedness is a multi-faceted challenge, especially when planning for worst case scenarios. Logistical considerations, short- and long-term shelter options, and above all, clear and concise lines of communication need to be identified, and stress tested in advance. Thankfully for residents of the Grande Ronde Valley and nearby, Union County Emergency Services and local volunteers went above and beyond to do just that.  

Last week, Union County Emergency Services, in conjunction with partner organizations from across Northeast Oregon, along with a small army of dedicated community volunteers, hosted an emergency shelter training at the Riveria Activity center in La Grande to practice a mass care and evacuation scenario. This culminated in a full shelter simulation and intake training on Thursday, February 20, involving around 50 people.

Volunteers and EMS staff were assigned various roles, split between evacuees, and shelter/support personnel. Evacuee role-players were further assigned different identities and attributes, such as disruptive or panicking individuals, meant to further train volunteers and EMS staff. Even Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora played the part of an evacuee.

So dedicated were volunteers and personnel in fact, that when Elkhorn Media Group’s own news staff stopped by to report on the training, they (understandably) assumed it was part of the scenario practice and addressed us as they would the media during a real shelter situation. 

Throughout the training, volunteers and staff set up and operated the shelter as it would be during a real evacuation. Cots were placed in rows throughout the gymnasium, with tape walkways, 36 inches in diameter, marked down to streamline movement. Evacuees were mustered through a check in station at the front, given a number, and assigned a cot. From there, evacuees played their assigned personalities and tasks, while shelter staff assisted them as if they needed help or had questions.

Though the atmosphere during the training was mostly lighthearted and informative, the goal was still to train staff and volunteers for an intense and possibly chaotic environment. The prospect that they could be assisting potentially dozens of displaced people likely having the worst days of their lives, some of whom may not be in a stable frame of mind, all the while handling the logistics of an ongoing evacuation and sheltering operation, was not lost on anyone. As reflected by Maggie Mayhem, program lead for Right Track Resource Center:

“Organization is extremely difficult and there’s so many different scenarios of what could happen. Is the plumbing going to go out in your emergency shelter? What do you do in that scenario? How do you make sure that all your volunteers are eligible to be volunteers? Are they going to be safe for the public to be around? Just because somebody offers to be a volunteer doesn’t mean that they’re the best fit for the job.”

Mayhem herself was assigned the role of a disruptive/mentally ill evacuee. It allowed for quite the realistic stress test as, in her own words, “I scared the crap out of a couple people.” Reflecting further, she explained:

“I deal with people that have mental illness all the time, or they come in intoxicated. Those are scenarios that are just commonplace for me, so it’s interesting to see the struggle people had. It was hard not to intervene and be like, ‘maybe you could try this in this situation.’”

Other issues were also identified, such as various cots being broken and needing replaced. Beyond the core simulation, the shelter scenario also served as an excellent co-training opportunity for the various agencies and volunteers involved, allowing for better cohesion in advance of a real emergency. As reflected by Annett Powers, Sr Department Specialist for Union County:

“I think that any time you can bring agencies together; to practice together on just a normal day, it makes us better prepared in an emergency. You’re not meeting people on the very worst day, on the very darkest night. It just helps to build our relationships and our connections with our partner agencies”

Among those that participated, the volunteers in particular helped diversify the training, offering a different perspective and skillset from EMS staff. As further remarked by Powers:

“It makes it a little more realistic when we can have not just our agency people represented, but also have some of our volunteers throughout the community.”

Mayhem offered a similar sentiment when discussing local warming station volunteers participating in the training:

“Seeing the participation between different entities, it’s a great networking opportunity. There are a couple of warming station volunteers here, which I’m happy to see. We wanted to see folks who are already working in the warming station to come here and see how it would look.”

Not everyone in attendance was roleplaying, but they were all there to learn. Pastor Frank Humber with the Summerville Baptist Church, along with a few other church members, stopped by to observe the training. As the church is a designated shelter for the Summerville area, they wanted to be better prepared. As explained by Humber:

“The only time to get ready for a crisis is before there’s a crisis. If you get ready while you’re having a crisis, you’re not going to be very effective. We just want to be prepared. We had a fire on Pumpkin Ridge this summer, and we were getting mobilized. We were going to do the best we could, but now we’re going to be able to do better.”

Long term, more training is planned for the Spring. Currently, Union County is working with Medical Teams International to draft a sheltering and evacuation plan. The county is also working closely with the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) Office of Resilience and Emergency Management, even being granted two emergency shelter kits from ODHS to be received later this year. While there’s plenty more to do, Union County Emergency Services, their partner organizations, and the local volunteers, are seemingly more prepared than ever.