SEELEY LAKE - During the Rice Ridge Fire, the Missoula County Office of Emergency Management saw fairly low usage of shelters for evacuated people from the Seeley Lake area. Residents are asked to fill out a two-page survey to help them improve disaster planning and services by understanding more about where evacuated families went and why they made the choices they did.
OEM Projects Coordinator Nick Holloway said the use of the shelter in Missoula was very low during the Rice Ridge Fire evacuations. Once OEM realized that the shelter at Camp Paxson had been opened, they provided food and water.
Camp Paxson housed 62 evacuees from Aug. 28-Sept. 10 and served 123 breakfasts, 129 lunches and 305 dinners. They fed 77 people in need in the Seeley Lake community since the Seeley Lake Food Bank was closed due to the evacuation and sent three loads of food to the Seeley Lake Senior Center and their Meals on Wheels program.
Holloway said the Missoula shelter averaged between two to five evacuees per night.
Holloway said that the OEM formed a Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD).
“Knowing that all disasters start and end locally, we got together the community organizations including Montana Food Bank, the Salvation Army, the United Way, the YMCA, and we did a daily call to make sure we were meeting unmet needs that we were aware of, making sure that we were aware of all the unmet needs that we could be and making sure that we weren’t duplicating services,” said Holloway.
The OEM managed donations and financial contributions. They can also provide donation centers and mobile food trucks if the need arises as well as debris removal following a disaster and help with Small Business Association loans.
Another service OEM provided was animal sheltering. Evacuees were asked to provide the food but Holloway is wondering if transportation for livestock or other pets is a service that would be valuable.
The OEM works with the Missoula County-City Health Department that requires a permit for food preparation.
“We are aware that whether or not someone has a [food preparation] permit doesn’t change the need for someone to eat,” said Holloway. “We need to have that pre-setup and have an idea of where that might be and how many people will use it.”
Holloway said that the Missoula YMCA offered childcare and use of the facility to evacuees “to give them a break during a very stressful time.” This service was not widely used and he wonders why.
“We really need to make sure we are meeting the needs of the community and finding out what those needs are,” said Holloway.
Other needs that were brought up in the community meetings in Seeley Lake included providing HEPA filters for residents that did not leave. While this is not specifically addressed in the survey, Holloway encourages the community to include services that people felt were lacking in the final open ended question, “Do you have anything else that you’d like to add?”
The survey is currently available online at http://bit.ly/RiceRidgeSurvey. Hard copies of the survey will also be available the first week in January at local businesses including Cory’s Valley Market, Moose River Bar & Grill and Lindey’s Prime Steak House. Holloway asked that only one survey is submitted per household.
“It was a really rough time up there but it could have been a lot worse. If it was worse then what would we do and where would we go,” said Holloway. “A lot of people didn’t evacuate but if it was worse, they probably would need to evacuate.”
Holloway encourages anyone who has other ideas for improvement to attend the Local Emergency Planning Committee meetings that are held quarterly, the second Tuesday of January, April, July and October at 1:30 p.m.
“These discussions help us lean forward. It is a whole lot more productive to discuss different options when there is not flames in someone’s backyard,” said Holloway.
The next LEPC/DPC meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 9 in the Public Meeting Room (Annex 151) on the first floor of the Missoula County Court House.
For more information, please contact Holloway at 406-258-3631 or email nholloway@missoulacounty.us.
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