The Great Shake-Out panel on Wednesday was fantastic. There were four people on the panel: Jay Wilson, Chief Resilience Coordinator of Clackamas County Disaster Management; Felicia Heaton of the Portland Bureau of Disaster Management; our very own Liz Safran, geologist extraordinare; and Jason Holmgren, whose title I am unsure of, but he knows about Lewis & Clark’s disaster management plan. There was a surprisingly high turn out from community members, which was promising for my study. The format of the panel was that each panelist gave a short presentation then it was opened up to audience questions. I had a midterm in my class at 3pm so I had to leave ten minutes early, but from what I heard both Jay and Felicia are experts I hope I can get in touch with to interview. Below I’ll summarize what they presented.
Jay brought in expertise from the state level. He used the example of Japan’s disaster response, and explained that there needs to be a paradigm shift in order for Oregon to be prepared BEFORE this disaster strikes rather than learning from mistakes: we already have other cities to look at for examples of what could happen, so now it’s time to prepare. He discussed the Oregon Resilience Plan, which consisted of saving lives, protecting economy, and preserving communities. He then showed us an image of Oregon, split up into four zones: the tsunami zone (red), coastal zone (orange), valley/ I-5 corridor (yellow), and Eastern Oregon (green), which corresponded to different estimated recovery times. I was shocked to hear that he thought we could potentially be without drinking water or waste water facilities for months, or even up to a whole year. This is due to the interdependencies of different systems — in order to fix the water we have to first fix the roads, then the power to run the water pumps, then finally the water. One of his main takeaways was to prepare, and to know your neighbors. Felicia echoed similar sentiments of disaster preparedness and the importance of making connections with neighbors. She mentioned that 90% of people rescued in disasters were rescued by neighbors, not emergency first responders.
These presentations, along with continuing to read about different themes connected to my research, have been incredibly encouraging and exciting because I’m realizing that my research is relevant and important. However, there are also moments that I wonder if it’s TOO relevant, and not contributing to the scholarly realm enough since it’s such a hot topic right now and a lot of research has been done about it. After talking to Liz though, I’m realizing that using Nextdoor as a case study might be the perfect niche for me. I’ve seen some criticism of social media in articles about social capital, and the articles I’ve read about social media have been about people spread out making cross-cultural connections. Nextdoor is unique in that it really does facilitate online connections but people know they also have the potential to see these people in real life around the neighborhood. This week I will look more closely at the kinds of posts I will want to focus on, and begin to categorize the kinds of responses (i.e. trust-building, trust-eroding, informational, inclusive, exclusive, etc.) there currently are.