Her bureau has new digs, a $19.8 million facility that will serve as the headquarters for emergency management in the event of a major natural disaster.
Earlier this week, Merlo participated in an AMA on Portland's sub-Reddit to shed some light on what residents should do to prepare for an earthquake.
Here's a quick synopsis of some of her answers:
Q: What are the best places for an extended family to meet?
A: "We tell people that open spaces, parks, are the best reunification sites, because there's no danger of things falling or causing injury. If you're able to communicate without traveling to see each other, for example by text or social media, we encourage people to stay where they are. We have no idea how badly the road infrastructure will be."
Q: What are three streets to get prepared for an earthquake that anyone could do?
A: “Have a reunification site with the people in your home. Know where you would go to meet each other if telecommunication systems were down.
Be aware of where you are when you travel around the city. Think about alternate transportation methods. You may not be home when an earthquake happens.
Do an assessment of your home, to identify home hazards - whether that's things blocking ingress, egress routes, whether your home is bolted to the foundation, so on.”
Q: Will the city help poor people evacuate and find food/housing?
A: "Everyone assumes an earthquake is something to evacuate from. Our goal is to keep people in their homes if it's safe. We want people to stay in their neighborhoods - in the back yard if the house is not safe.
Although we encourage people to have their own supplies, more often than not we find people are charitable. We want people to take advantage of social networks - whether that's the neighborhood association, a church group, or whatever, it's about people helping people."
Q: What challenges do Oregonians face in emergency management preparedness?
A: "Our biggest challenge is the fact that we're fortunate, here, in Oregon. We don't experience disasters very often, so we don't get to practice real-world response. We do training and exercises, but one of our biggest gaps is the lack of real-world opportunities to respond.
For individuals and families, it's a similar situation. It's hard to motivate people to get prepared, when nobody has experienced a large quake here in the Pacific Northwest."
Check out the full AMA if you're interested.
©2015 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
