HUMBOLDT COUNTY EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Publication Date
6-16-2023
Publisher
Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury
Abstract
Earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, flooding or unnatural hazards such as chemical or radioactive occurrences – What if a catastrophic, cascading event involving two or more of these hazards were to occur in our community? Humboldt County is vulnerable to many potentially catastrophic environmental events. We find that Humboldt County is not adequately prepared to deal with a major natural and unnatural disaster. The 2022-2023 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury (HCCGJ) received a citizen’s complaint, asking that we investigate the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) operated by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The ISFSI facility is an underground storage area for highly radioactive material left over by the former Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant (HBNPP). The ISFSI is located northeast of the unincorporated community of King Salmon. The Civil Grand Jury is not authorized to investigate non-governmental agencies such as PG&E. However, we did investigate how prepared Humboldt County is to deal with multi-disaster events. Upon reviewing county emergency preparedness measures, we found no evidence that Humboldt County’s master Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) has been completely updated since its publication in 2015. Presently, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department, Office of Emergency Services (OES) is charged with emergency preparedness planning. The OES intends to update and rewrite the EOP over the next two years. Both the Disaster Council and OES were created by the same county ordinance in 2011. The OES is placed under the control of the elected Humboldt County Sheriff. The Sheriff is designated as Humboldt County’s overall Director of Emergency Services and is a mandated member of the Disaster Council. The Disaster Council’s function is to advise the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and oversee the EOP. The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury found no evidence that the Disaster Council, an advisory and oversight body, has met since 2015. Moreover, we could find no one who could provide us with a current roster of its members. Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury 2022-2023 pg. 2 The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that while individual companies and various first-responder agencies and departments seem to adequately respond to incidental emergencies, the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff have been lax with respect to their responsibility to maintain a comprehensive plan for responding to large-scale disastrous events