Newsletter - Plumas County VOAD

I’ve heard from friends and neighbors who have been working on the many fires that occurred in Southern California during January, including Forest Service crew members, public information and recovery professionals. I’m glad that we can make a difference to the many people who were affected by fires and those who lost family members and homes. Hard won perspective. That first night, I was supporting the Watch Duty team and keeping several friends company via messaging programs. It meant a lot to them to have a trusted source of information and a sympathetic ear during that very long night as we navigated evacuations and chaos. We are truly in this together.

My workstation allows me to report on wildfires happening anywhere.

The scale of the disaster in Los Angeles was particularly difficult for people who were evacuated and didn’t have resources to cover meals for their families. World Central Kitchen stepped in very quickly to work with a large number of restaurants and other volunteers to set up feeding facilities not just for evacuees but for first responders, too. Every morning at Watch Duty we updated the list of locations across Los Angeles, adapted for different communities as the fires caused disruptions across the region, and we were so proud to be able to provide up-to-the-minute information for the most basic human need.

In Plumas County, our local VOAD met on January 14th to map out food resources within our county and figure out how we can start to coordinate to provide healthy food for people in need during the first 48 to 72 hours of a disaster. Many thanks to Paul Mrowczynski for making this meeting happen and to everyone who participated. Please look at our initial notes attached and send me your feedback, corrections, and other ideas. Paul and Ali Flagler at the Dawn Institute have found resources to allow Ali to continue coordinating across communities within our county. We were also very happy to have Mimi Hall from the Board of Supervisors and our Office of Emergency Services partners sharing from the county government perspective. Please stay tuned for announcements of future meetings.

We have a Plumas VOAD meeting on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. We’ll welcome new members, so please let me know if you’re interested in becoming a non-profit member of the VOAD. We’ll also prepare for our March meeting, when we’ll continue resource mapping facilities, equipment, and supplies that can be mobilized during a disaster. Please register for the meeting using this link.

Take care,
Marty Walters, Plumas County VOAD chair

Food Resource Mapping 2025 01 14 Download

Food Resource Mapping Attendees Download

Do Effective Alerts Allow Faster Evacuation?

During the Park Fire this summer, hundreds of evacuation warnings, alerts, and orders were flying out over cell phones, through social media pages, and on the various web-based alert systems run by sheriffs and offices of emergency management in four different counties. On the Watch Duty app, where I was volunteering, we got about 5 million views of the Park incident page during just the first week of the fire. People in our region are battle hardened and ready for wildfire, and we navigated all those evacuations during an extremely fast moving fire with no loss of life. This week in Ventura County, we saw a similar dynamic play out with the Mountain Fire, which was moving up to 70 miles per hour, throwing embers 2 miles ahead of the fire front over irrigated fields to destroy homes and neighborhoods. For each member of the community who was able to get information quickly, make important decisions, and evacuate early, first responders saved precious time to focus on those who needed extra help. Being a citizen responder is something all of us can do. It means that we have a plan for evacuating, we’ve talked it through with our family and our neighbors, and we know the vulnerabilities of our homes and our neighborhoods and our roads. It means that we’re ready to prioritize what’s important to us, whether it’s our pets or our photo albums, but most of all that we’re going to prioritize the safety of ourselves and our loved ones.

Plumas County VOAD takes that citizen responder responsibility a step further, and it brings together the non-profit organizations, government representatives, and citizens to prepare for all kinds of emergencies and support each other during and after disaster. We live in a remote, rural community where resources are scarce and disaster funding is even more scarce. Our VOAD is designed to work in our low-resource environment, and we won’t burden you with extra stuff, fancy newsletters, or a ton of meetings. We will work hard to build a network to the regional and national organizations who are critical to providing assistance during disaster. At our meeting next week, we’ll be planning for next year and we’d love to have you join us in person or via zoom. I’ve attached the meeting agenda, a planning framework for 2025, and a fiscal sponsorship agreement that we’ll be approving.

November 20, 2024: VOAD Meeting
3 p.m.
Quincy Library, 445 Jackson Street, Quincy, CA
or Via Zoom – LINK TO JOIN ZOOM
Download Calendar Event for Outlook or Apple
Add to Google Calendar

Hope to see you next week.