History

In Pursuit of Our Mission

The Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay (EVCNB) formed in February 2008 following a storm that brought hurricane-force winds, flooding and a total power outage to the north Oregon Coast, temporarily isolating the three small communities and surrounding areas of Manzanita, Nehalem and Wheeler.

EVCNB is dedicated to building community and regional resilience, developing programs to promote readiness and creating a culture of emergency preparedness in the Nehalem Bay Region. We are a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded and run by local community volunteers. We are funded by individual and business donations, civic agency contributions and grants.

Developing Programs To Promote Readiness

Our coastal communities are likely to be isolated in certain emergencies, limiting first responder aid and access to government resources. Therefore, it is critical that our community members be trained and prepared to respond in a self-sufficient manner.

EVCNB began as a Map Your Neighborhood effort and has grown into a multifaceted organization that includes Prepare Your Neighborhood (PYN), Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), Emergency Communication programs, Emergency Community Shelter activity and much more.

EVCNB has organized a team of leaders with specific skills in preparedness to foster communication and to provide cross-functional and coordinated training exercises and drills, education and public outreach.

Creating A Culture Of Emergency Preparedness

We seek to provide the necessary training, tools and practices so that residents, both full and part-time, in our region will be prepared to take care of themselves and support their neighbors during an emergency.

Our goal is to engage our community in emergency preparedness, recruiting volunteers to support our work and encouraging individuals, families, neighborhoods, businesses and the cities to create emergency plans. We will all rest easier knowing we are prepared – individually and as a community – to turn a disaster into a manageable event.

Our volunteers record over 15,000 hours annually working on EVCNB planning and projects. We train community members to be self-sufficient and able to respond to disasters, train and certify CERT members and we hold regional communications and evacuation drills to enhance community preparedness. We work with the local fire department to provide rehabilitation services to firefighters. Many of our Nehalem Bay MRC are part of the State Emergency Registry of Volunteers in Oregon (SERV-OR).

While our primary mission is that of preparedness, during an emergency certain operational divisions of EVCNB can be activated through the city and/or county Incident Command Structure. During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic emergency, the EVCNB Medical Reserve Corps was activated to do contact tracing for the Tillamook County Health Department and EVCNB CERTs were asked by Tillamook County Emergency Management to be on standby. EVCNB is proud to have developed the skills in our community to support city and county emergency response efforts and to be able to answer the call when needed.