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This article discusses the Portland, Oregon, Water Bureau's (PWB) extraordinary utility emergency response model to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf Coast region. Staffed with management andoperations crews trained to respond toearthquakes that threaten the PacificNorthwest community, and backed bycity leaders, the PWB responded to anurgent request by the Sewerage andWater Board (SWB) of New Orleansfor gate-valve control trucks; itmobilized a fleet of its own servicevehicles and 70 employees for a two-monthfield mission. The effort hasinspired several other cities to considerpicking up in 2006 where PWB left offin early December.As described by PWB and SWBofficials and witnessed by the author,PWB's pioneering response has mostlikely altered the water utility disaster-responselandscape permanently. Itbrought the water supply communitynot only a greatly expanded vision ofemergency management in thesethreat-plagued times but also thedeeper bonds of family shared for solong by police officers, firefighters, andother danger and disaster frontline firstresponders.Portland's remarkable experiment inemergency assistance to a seriouslywounded water utility some 2,600miles distant has been as beneficial tovolunteer PWB crews as it has been toSWB's suffering employees andcustomers. The result of PWB's actionscould very well mark a transformationin how water utilities think about andprepare for helping themselves andother utilities when disaster strikes.

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Edition: Vol. 98 - No. 1 Published: 01/01/2006 Number of Pages: 11File Size: 1 file , 930 KB