2017 Eagle Creek Fire brought a new urgency to Emergency Management

Hood River County’s New Emergency Manager

Hood River County’s new emergency manager is Charles Young who started in April, succeeding Barb Ayers.

Charles is not new to emergency management. For the past several decades his Information Technology (IT) consultancy focused on risk management and business continuity for businesses. In the past decade he added firefighting and EMT-I with Mosier Fire to his experience. But applying this to a County is new for him.

In Hood River County, the Emergency Management Department is operated by the Sheriff’s Office. Charles has learned much about resources available to the community in the event of an emergency. “There is so much that exists – and we have capacity as a county to call on many resources from our region, the state, and from the federal government. But we’re a rural community and it can take time to mobilize and for resources to arrive, so in a big incident people are on their own until they do,” Charles explains.

In addition to meeting dozens of partners and submitting grant applications, Charles’ focus is on building resiliency into the community. “Building resiliency is a process for individuals – keeping rolling stocks of food and water, testing batteries, updating medication lists. It’s hard work. Particularly as we’ve just used so much of our personal resiliency over the past few years dealing with COVID,” he relays.

This is why his initial efforts are centered on breaking down the process to make it easier. “I want to take folks on a resilience journey,” says Charles. “A few steps at a time.”

The first of these steps is to simply make sure people in the community are receiving Hood River County Emergency Alerts. To sign up for emergency alerts, visit OR-Alert, Oregon’s emergency alert system at oralert.gov and search for Hood River. This statewide system is now connected to the current County Community Alert system which individuals can update anytime. Oregon plans to add statewide notifications in addition to regional notifications which could be helpful for travelers.

The next step on the journey? Meet your neighbors. “Building resiliency can also be expensive in time, money, and attention. But it can be easier if it’s a neighborhood activity. Sharing skills, sharing resources, even something as simple as having a resiliency buddy,” Charles explains. “And for people who have the time and interest, there is a lot more.” It’s not necessary to start with a work party; a simple hello is a good place to begin so you know who to check on in an emergency.

Over the next months and years, Charles says the journey will include building GO kits, creating shelter in place resources, and even offering classes in first aid, search and rescue, and building community response teams.

In addition to his experience in risk management and emergencies, Charles has deep experience in project management. He has developed strategic plans, software and applications with a focus on service integration.

Originally from Australia, Charles has lived in the U.S. off and on since 2000, moving permanently to the Gorge in 2008 – initially to Mosier and more recently to Hood River. Before moving to Mosier, the smallest town he had lived in was San Francisco.