Tag: NHMP

Meet our Students: Robert Morris / Community and Regional Planning

Posted on by Admin

Meet our Students: Robert Morris / Community and Regional Planning

What city, region, state do you call home?

Kingston, Jamaica

In which graduate program are you enrolled?

Community and Regional Planning

What is your area of concentration?

Sustainability and maybe Transportation

What will you be doing for the Community Service Center (CSC)?

Updating Jefferson County’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan and creating a National Hazard Mitigation Plan training program.

How does your involvement with the Community Service Center relate to or inform your graduate studies?

At the moment it does not relate to what I want to pursue as my concentration. But it will help me to be knowledgeable of a plan of action if I decide to return to Jamaica. Maybe after the project is complete, I may switch my concentration. The structure of this program is geared towards becoming more knowledge of planning goals and initiatives and enhancing my professional/ career development. I am extremely grateful for this exposure.

What can you say about the value of your Community Service Center experience?

It has been great, entertaining and refreshing. Bob, Bethany and all the Project Managers have been great and flexible thus far. Bethany has excellent teaching methods and she would fit in any teaching environment. She makes learning and coming to class fun. I think the structure is extremely professional and I absolutely feel like I am learning and gaining valuable information from each class session, and group/Pods meeting.

What outcome are you hoping for when your project ends?

I would hope my team of 6 including Project Adviser Mike Howard , Project Manager Jennifer Self, the Jefferson County local jurisdictions (Steering Committee) are pleased with our final deliverable of a NHMP and training program. I also hope I will be a more confident presenter and a more knowledgeable graduate student.

More about the Community Planning Workshop(CPW)


Oregon State Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team Meeting

Posted on by Admin

If your house is on fire, you call 911. A dispatcher alerts a fire station and an engine comes, in a hurry, to put the fire out.  No questions asked.  Citizens invest in that service and they’ve come to expect it, in four minutes or less.  But what happens when an entire community or region is affected by a disaster – whether by flood, storm or earthquake?  The answer is far from clear.

Two student teams from the Community Service Center’s (CSC) Community Planning Workshop are working with several communities in Oregon to tackle some of these larger emergency management questions.  The first team, led by Graduate Teaching Fellow Jennifer Self, will help update the Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan (NHMP) for Jefferson County, as well as produce a model training program for developing and implementing NHMPs statewide.  The second team, led by CSC staff member Josh Bruce, will develop strategic emergency management plans for the Douglas and Coos County Emergency Management (EM) programs. The strategic plan will identify opportunities for regional planning and collaboration between the two counties’ emergency management programs.

On January 17, 2013, both teams traveled to Salem to attend the quarterly Oregon State Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team meeting.  The students observed the meeting and had the opportunity to meet with key state hazards planning professionals.  Oregon Office of Emergency Management staff also led the students on a tour of the state Emergency Operations Center.  While the experience illustrated some of the resource and structural challenges faced by local, state and federal emergency management agencies, the trip also identified opportunities for moving towards a more resilient state.

For more information on natural hazards planning visit the CSC website http://csc.uoregon.edu/opdr/.