Incident Management Team called in to help with flood relief

Grays Harbor has recruited the Homeland Security Region 3 Incident Management Team to help coordinate flood relief efforts after receiving requests from both Aberdeen and Hoquiam officials for assistance.

The team was called in by County Emergency Management and will be housed at Coastal Community Action Program’s offices for roughly a week or so to help set up a unified command structure and streamline flood recovery operations, said Grays Harbor Sheriff Rick Scott.

Incident management teams are set up throughout the U.S. to respond to emergencies and natural disasters, with the Region 3 team covering jurisdictions in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties. The team is made up of firefighters, police officers, dispatchers and volunteers that specialize in emergency relief.

According to Scott, a unified command structure will delegate different leaders from Hoquiam, Aberdeen and the county to coordinate resources for flood victims. Specifically, Scott said the team is here to better identify and activate resources that could be helpful for flood victims, which is something CCAP has had trouble with due to a high volume of phone calls they’ve received since the storm.

“We’re just trying to make it flow more smoothly … take a little bit of the burden off of CCAP as far as doing all of the coordination,” said Ed McGowan of Grays Harbor Emergency Management.

Before the incident management team was brought in at the request of the county, Aberdeen and Hoquiam were handling the disaster on their own. Scott said Emergency Management was only asked to take care of compiling resident damage report forms as part of assistance efforts, but no actions beyond that had been requested by city officials.

“The County Emergency Management wasn’t asked to do anything until just the other day,” said Scott on Friday.

Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson said with CCAP becoming overwhelmed, the city needed further assistance.

“We got to a point where everything was disjointed. (CCAP) just got flooded with all kinds of requests and everything else. When you’re in the middle of a disaster, you’re just trying to take care of what you can,” said Simpson.

Hoquiam Mayor Jack Durney said he hopes the team coming to Grays Harbor will improve the likelihood of the right information getting out to both city officials and residents.

“One of the things I think we’ve needed a great deal is communication. There’s been a lot on Facebook, but there has been some misinformation,” he said. “You need a single authoritative source on disasters.”

Having the team in town is a huge weight off of CCAP’s shoulders. The organization was getting roughly 100 calls per day from residents during the week of the flooding and mudslides, with that number tapering down to around 50 since.

For residents who need flood assistance of any kind, they should still call the CCAP offices at (360) 533-5100.

Renters and homeowners can report damages to Grays Harbor County Emergency Management at this link: http://ift.tt/1xZGupA