Hello World!<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My name is Geoff Ostrove and I am Oregon Sea Grant’s newest Natural Resources Policy Fellow.\u00a0 I am a graduate student at the University of Oregon, pursuing a PhD in Media Studies from the School of Journalism & Communication as well as a Master’s of Community & Regional Planning from the Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management. \u00a0For this next year, I have been given the amazing opportunity to work with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on a couple of really important projects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first one is called the Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program (SRGP).\u00a0 Over the last 10 years, the Oregon Legislature has recognized seismic safety as a critical element of Oregon\u2019s disaster resiliency plan.\u00a0 The SRGP is a State of Oregon competitive grant program that provides funding for the seismic rehabilitation of critical public buildings,\u00a0particularly public schools and emergency services facilities.\u00a0 Public K\u201012 school districts, community colleges, education service districts, and universities are eligible for the grant program. For emergency services facilities, the emphasis is on first responder buildings, which\u00a0includes hospital buildings with acute inpatient care facilities, fire stations, police stations, sheriff\u2019s offices, and 9\u20101\u20101 centers.\u00a0 The purpose of this grant is to help fund seismic retrofits to critical public buildings that are in serious need of improvements.\u00a0 This grant is not intended to fund the construction of new buildings.\u00a0 Buildings located in a tsunami inundation zone are ineligible for this grant.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which leads me to the second project that I am working on here at OEM: the Governor’s Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD)\u00a0Task Force.\u00a0 On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.\u00a0 The subsequent tsunami\u00a0impacted cities throughout the eastern part\u00a0of the country, creating approximately 25 million tons of debris.\u00a0 5 million tons of that debris is believed to have been pushed offshore, with about 3.5 million tons sinking and about 1.5 million tons floating and dispersing throughout the Pacific Ocean.\u00a0\u00a0 Here in Oregon, we are seeing the impacts of that tsunami earlier than most of the rest of the world.\u00a0 On June 6, 2012, a dock from a Japanese harbor landed on Agate Beach.\u00a0 We are beginning to see more and more of this type of activity occur up and down the west cost of North America.\u00a0 The goal of the Governor’s\u00a0\u00a0JTMD Task Force is to create inter-agency coordination throughout Oregon, the\u00a0United States,\u00a0and with Japan in order to mitigate against the potential negative impacts\u00a0of the JTMD that has been dispersed throughout the Pacific Ocean and is now reaching our coast.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am excited for the opportunity to work on both of these projects.\u00a0 The coordinator for the\u00a0SRGP is Kiri Carini, and the project is supervised by Paulina Layton, Director of OEM’s Mitigation and Recovery Division.\u00a0 John Lewis, OEM’s Director of Plans and Training, is coordinating the JTMD effort.\u00a0\u00a0 I will also be working closely with Kim Lippert, OEM’s Public Information Officer.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 I expect my experience here at OEM to be extremely educational and applicable to my future\u00a0career goals.\u00a0 I want to thank Stephen Brandt, \u00a0Sarah\u00a0Kolesar,\u00a0\u00a0Eric Dickey, and everyone else at Oregon Sea\u00a0Grant\u00a0for this amazing opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0For updates on the SRGP and the Governor’s JTMD Task Force, look for my next blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello World! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My name is Geoff Ostrove and I am Oregon Sea Grant’s newest Natural Resources Policy Fellow.\u00a0 I am a graduate student at the University of Oregon, pursuing a PhD in Media Studies from the School of Journalism … Continue reading