What I did during my Summer Vacation

By:Bill Joseph and Dante Alighieri

Tribal Health has field personnel in all four Districts and maintains a “client list” that identifies our Vulnerable Population

During the fires we teamed up with Area Office on Aging (AAoA) to double check our lists to make certain no one slipped through the cracks.

Between Tribal Health, Social Services, Behavioral Health, and AAoA we pretty much tend to everyone. (All these other departments also have personnel in all four Districts.)

Tribal Health had 15 field personnel working the fires and when you add the other Tribal Departments there were about 40 working Reservation wide.

What went right?

Everything!

Why did everything go right?

I maintain a close working relationship with the DOH Tribal Liaison.

Kristen Baird RomeroWashington State Department of Health (DOH)Emergency Preparedness and Response101 Israel Road SETumwater, WA 98501 Desk – 360.236.4057Mobile – 360.791.1381

I always knew that if the Tribes declared an emergency that I’d be overwhelmed and I’d need the DOH Tribal Liaison here immediately.

Tribal Health opened its first shelter on August 13th at Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, and the second shelter on August 14th at Lake Roosevelt High School, Coulee Dam. Kristen arrived early on the 14th and we went to work through the Regions for resources.

Ideal for Shelters

Region 7:

• Two ACF Trailers• A million N-95’s

Region 9:

• A million N-95’s• Pharmaceuticals• MRC Personnel

Recently I’d gotten snotty with the State about using local resources first, but, when it was really hitting the fan I didn’t care if Nathan Weed himself drove up with a truck load of N-95’s.

Air Scrubbers suddenly became the hottest item in Eastern Washington.

COOPDidn’t work out so well

Two of our Districts were level II and III evacuation. But those that were available still showed up for work.

But, officially, all Social Programs should have been required to go to work.

And, two out of four IHS clinics shut down.

Big Take-aways from these Fires?

• DOH as a response agency• Regional help• First time MRC on the Reservation• Worked exceptionally well with Red Cross• Tribal Health in Tribal EOC• Tribal ESF 8 partners working well together

Bill JosephEmergency Preparedness CoordinatorColville Tribal Health ProgramsP.O.B. 150Nespelem, WA 99155

509.634.2961(w)509.631.1856(c)509.634.2963 (f)

bill.joseph@colvilletribes.com