Photo courtesy of Debris Management Taskforce.

Oregon rising: Oregon's recovery from the September 2020 wildfires

Fueled by once-in-a-century windstorms and tinder dry drought conditions, more than a dozen lightning and human-caused catastrophic wildfires swept through Oregon’s most cherished scenic corridors following the 2020 Labor Day weekend.

Accelerated by wind, the fires burned intensely hot. In their wake, nine lives were claimed, entire towns and more than 4,000 homes and businesses were destroyed, 40,000 wildfire survivors were displaced, and more than one million acres were burned in total.

Once the smoke settled, Oregon and these fire-impacted communities were confronted with the daunting challenge of recovering and rebuilding from what remained. The wildfire debris—including wreckage, hazardous waste, and other materials left from structures, as well as fire-damaged trees and other damaged infrastructure—was unprecedented and unlike anything Oregon had ever experienced.

University of Oregon graduate Tony Andersen, BS ’07 (planning, public policy & management) helped lead the Debris Management Task Force, which was created by Governor Kate Brown and state leaders to work with all levels of government and community to oversee an operation of nearly 1,200 staff and contractors to start this recovery work immediately.

Specifically, Andersen, who is a strategic communications director with the State of Oregon, led a team that communicated the state’s efforts and services to impacted communities and shared citizen stories as work progressed to help elevate and unite their experiences. He says that his role was one of most difficult tasks that he has accomplished in his career.

"We were the front-line and first-in-line responders immediately after the fires. Working simultaneously in nine different counties throughout the state for roughly 14 months, we worked to provide solutions and hope so that wildfire survivors could move forward and onto their next step."

“It was the true definition of crisis communications, sustained for 14 months, during a global pandemic, underlined almost entirely by trauma and loss,” Andersen says. “So many had lost everything. They were going through one of the worst times in their lives. On top of that, many had left or moved from these areas, didn’t have access to the internet, didn’t have a current address on file and, rightfully so, struggled to stay engaged with yet another government process.”

Andersen and his team responded by launching a community-centered, all-channel strategy for every major communication that was shared, every step of the way. This included the standard digital approaches, including social media, media outreach, one-on-one phone calls and support, and establishing a call center. Hundreds of presentations at local community meetings were held and field staff were trained as spokespeople, equipping local influencers and messengers with information to leverage central community gathering points.

Tune in to GlobalPDX: Speaking Change Podcast – Strategic Storytelling: unpacking the toolbox through the lens of the Oregon wildfires.

Grounding the state’s communication efforts in empathy, equity, and plain language were critical to success.

“I would ask my team to write everything as though they were hand-delivering messages in person to someone who had just lost everything or who might otherwise not know how to access government solutions.”

Eugene’s back yard: Holiday Farm Fire and Clean-up Efforts

 

Andersen describes the Highway 126 corridor and the McKenzie River as an Oregon treasure. Unfortunately, this area was also a casualty of the Holiday Farm fire.

“I worked for a rafting company after my junior year at UO, near the town of Blue River,” Andersen says. “I lived on the McKenzie River with the other raft guides that summer. When I visited the area after the fires, witnessing what was such a beautiful and special place to so many people, it was absolutely heartbreaking to experience the aftermath and to feel the livelihoods and natural landscapes that have been so tragically impacted.”

Seeing the damage firsthand, Andersen was able to better understand how recovering from a wildfire is a traumatic multistep and years-long process, and how it is a different experience for everyone. He says that it will take many years for the community to recover, rebuild, and heal—but that the State’s goal was to provide the critical first step of the recovery journey so that all future steps could be made possible.

“Ultimately, we wanted to get people back to their lives. Back to their homes and around their dinner tables. You can’t start rebuilding amidst debris and you can’t bring people back to certain areas if hazardous materials and contamination remain,” Andersen says. “We were the front-line and first-in-line responders immediately after the fires. Working simultaneously in nine different counties throughout the state for roughly 14 months, we worked to provide solutions and hope so that wildfire survivors could move forward and onto the next step.”

“There’s no greater professional aspiration than that—being able to use language and your knowledge of a community to truly help change someone’s life.”

That next step was the State of Oregon providing debris cleanup work as a no-cost and state/federal-funded solution for those who had already lost so much.

By immediately getting to work, through ensuring that hazardous materials were removed, by clearing debris and providing rebuild-ready areas, and by reducing the threats and risks posed by dead and dying trees left towering over these areas, Andersen says that the State is hopeful that this work has charted a path for rebuilding, for new businesses to reopen, for schools to once again ring their bells, for local watershed groups and other conservation organizations to continue replanting, and for communities to feel some semblance of normalcy again as they continue their recovery process.



-By UO Alumni Association Communications