When it comes to evacuation orders, Sutter County has final say

Sept. 19--The Sutter County Board of Supervisors agreed with this year's grand jury report: The county has the ultimate say in the event of an evacuation order.

That was the finding from the grand jury's research into last February's conflicting orders between the county and Yuba City when it was feared the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam might fail. The city had recommended evacuation; the county had ordered evacuation.

County supervisors were considering their response to the official report this past week.

The eight grand jury findings and recommendations concerning the Oroville crisis included the confusing nature of Sutter County and Yuba City's conflicting evacuation orders; communication efforts; traffic and evacuation routes; accommodating disabled individuals; developing a time frame for how much time before residents are in danger of flooding; and other evacuation plans.

"Under the Local Proclamation of emergency, the county, acting as the Operational Area, has increased powers through the Emergency Services Act," according to the supervisors' response.

The response also cites the flood evacuation guidelines published by the state Office of Emergency Services following flooding in 1997: "Under the provision of the Emergency Services Act, should a county and city within that county declare local emergencies seeking to control the same event, and in so doing the two entities issue conflicting, overlapping, emergency ordinances and/or orders, the county emergency ordinances/orders are controlling."

The other findings, recommendations, and responses concerning the dam crisis include: -- Sutter County does have a "slow river rise, levee failure scenario" evacuation plan, but it is inadequate for rapidly evolving events. Sutter County agreed with this finding.

"The Flood and Dam Failure Annex of the Sutter County Emergency Operations Plan does address both 'slow rise' flooding that provide hours of advanced warnings about dangerous conditions and full failures of four dams that would impact Sutter County within hours if they failed," the response states.

Those dams (and the number of hours for flood waters to hit Sutter County in case of a failure) include Oroville (9 hours) on the Feather River; Bullards Bar (1 hour) on the Yuba River; Camp Far West (1 hour) on the Bear River; and Shasta (100 hours) on the Sacramento River.

The response stated that a failure of any of those dams would have catastrophic impacts on varying portions of the county, though there is likely to be some advance warning of problems developing with the dams.

The county's Emergency Operations Plan does not anticipate a partial failure of Oroville Dam emergency spillway, or any of the other dams, in a no-notice scenario, and the region's highway system lacks capacity to quickly evacuate an entire county with no notice, particularly when neighboring regions are evacuating at the same time, it stated. -- Create evacuation routes based on resident address and projected population growth to expedite the process.

Following the evacuation, Yuba City created evacuation maps in the specific event of a failure of the emergency spillway, according to the county's response. Sutter County expanded on Yuba City's work to include the entire county, and added the ability to get an evacuation route by entering a street address into the online version.

However, evacuation routes are selected and announced based upon the specific emergency scenario and conditions on the ground at the time an evacuation is called. -- Plans should be in place to accommodate disabled individuals and those in need.

The county said it will be updating its Emergency Operations Plan in the coming year and anticipates this particular update will be completed by June 30, 2018.

It also stated that the county is researching, and plans to acquire, communications software that will allow it to communicate with and poll by cellphone or landline, those who self-identify as needing assistance in an emergency because of a disability or other issue.

According to the response, disability advocates recommend against a "registry" of those with access and functional needs because they feel the population will not develop their own safety plans if they believe they will be rescued because their name is on a registry.

Skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities are required to have their own emergency plans to take care of the people in their charge. In a slow-rise flood scenario, they are among the first to be notified of the conditions -- 5 feet before a river reaches warning stage. During the no-notice February evacuation, more than 600 individuals from these types of facilities were taken by ambulance to facilities outside the evacuation area, some as far away as a four-hour drive, according to the response. -- Develop an accurate model or timeframe for communities to use to understand how much time they have, based on where they live, before they are in danger of flooding due to complete or partial dam failure.

"It is important to recognize that Sutter County does not have the resources nor expertise to develop such models on its own," according to the response. "Such models are developed by universities and other government agencies, some of which are available on the internet. These models differ greatly in their assumptions and timelines with limited ability to know which model is most accurate." -- Create a plan to deal with animals (livestock).

The county stated that its Emergency Operations Plan already included an annex for the care of domestic pets and livestock, but that essentially, pet and livestock owners are responsible for advance planning to identify how they will care for their animals in an emergency.

"The county can call in state assistance to help evacuate livestock, but the first priorities of the county are the safety of humans, property, and the environment," it stated. -- Develop a plan for the orderly evacuation of all schools in the area.

The county stated that each school and school district is responsible for the evacuation of its students. However, Sutter County is willing to assist schools and school districts as they review, develop, or modify their emergency plans, it stated. Its Emergency Operations Plan contains checklists to provide schools with as much advanced warning as possible as possible of the probability of an evacuation.

nCreate a communication link to keep the communities up-to-date on any potential crisis.

The county stated that the recommendation is already implemented and will be further expanded.

"Even still, it needs to be acknowledged that no single communication link will reach the entire community," it stated.

Of 880 respondents from the county to a question about whether information provided during the emergency was clear and actionable, 56 percent of the respondents said it was not.

"Some, but certainly not all, of the dissatisfaction and frustration is likely attributable to the conflicting evacuation messages sent out by different local governments," according to the response.

The full document including the grand jury's findings and recommendations, and Sutter County's responses can be found here: tinyurl.com/y9ka32md.

___

(c)2017 the Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.)

Visit the Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.) at www.appeal-democrat.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.