Douglas County Commissioners Tim Freeman, Chris Boice and Tom Kress are delighted to add a new story to their series highlighting the wide-array of services provided by departments within Douglas County government. Douglas County has 26 separate departments, with an additional 19 divisions associated with those departments. For part five of “What Can County Government Do for You?”, the Commissioners would like to highlight the amazing services provided by our Douglas County Emergency Management Division.
The Douglas County Emergency Management Division currently operates under the direction of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, and is a division within the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO). The Emergency Management Division is run by our Emergency Manager, Wayne Stinson. He reports to Undersheriff Jeff Frieze, who oversees the division within DCSO. Wayne has been Douglas County’s Emergency Manager for the last 27 years, but has been volunteering or working for DCSO in varying degrees and positions for an impressive 49+ years. Wayne started as a volunteer in 1973, under then Sheriff John Truitt as a part of DCSO’s Search and Rescue (SAR) Explorer Post #510. In 1976, he was hired as a part-time DCSO Cadet, while continuing to volunteer with SAR, and by 1978 was hired full-time as the DCSO Supply and Maintenance Assistant. During his time as a Supply Assistant, his duties included traveling all over Douglas County and inventorying the World War II (WWII) fallout shelters. Wayne continued to advance through the DCSO ranks with promotions to Assistant Search and Rescue (SAR) Coordinator (1980), SAR Coordinator (1983) and Emergency Manager and SAR Coordinator (1995). As the SAR Coordinator, he managed the administrative functions of the SAR Program including volunteer recruitment and management, training and on-site rescue event coordination. With the growth in responsibilities for both Emergency Management and SAR Coordination, the decision was made to separate the two into their own divisions in 2017. Today, Wayne continues to manage the Emergency Management Division, while Lt. Brad O’Dell oversees the SAR Division. Wayne’s duties as the Emergency Manager include coordinating with response and recovery agencies, as well as emergency planning and preparedness in relation to manmade and natural disasters.
“You would be hard pressed to find someone in the Emergency Management, Disaster or Search and Rescue field in Oregon that has not heard about or worked with the incomparable Wayne Stinson. He has been an exemplary employee, who’s passion for saving lives, rescue prowess, immense preparedness knowledge, problem solving skills and dedication to serving to the citizens of our county is unparalleled,” commented Commissioner Tim Freeman, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Liaison Commissioner.
According to Wikipedia, “Emergency management, also called emergency response or disaster management, is the organization and management of the resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (prevention, preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery)”. Like many other county-led emergency management programs across the United States, Douglas County’s disaster response and emergency preparedness programs were brought into existence following the creation of the Federal Civil Defense programs and the creation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1979. Sheriff Norm Neal is credited with helping to develop the first Civil Defense program in Douglas County within the DCSO in the early 1980s. While mostly operating behind the scenes, the Douglas County Emergency Management Division prepares plans and procedures for responding to and recovering from disasters and other emergencies. These efforts work under or in coordination with the County Commissioners, public safety officials, other elected officials, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. The role of the Emergency Manager is to help communities and organizations identify and anticipate possible hazards and vulnerabilities, while undertaking and establishing measures to more effectively deal with, mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters, tragedies and hazards.
Douglas County has more than our fair share of natural disasters, tragic events and emergencies over the years. In fact, in researching archives and online news stories, we estimated that since 1959, well over 30 disasters have been declared by Douglas County, most of which were related to severe storm events or wildfires. From the catastrophic 1959 Roseburg Blast (that to this day is one of the deadliest explosions in Northwest history) to the relentless heavy rains and severe rain storms that caused the 1964, 1972, 1974 floods to the 1969 Snow Storm to the deadly rain storms in late 1996 to the Apple, Bland Mountain, Rattle and Boze Wildfires in 2002-09 to the 2011-12 mud and landslides to the 2013-19 Douglas Complex, Cable Crossing, Stouts Creek, Umpqua North Complex, Mile Post 97 Wildfires to the UCC tragedy in 2015 to crippling Snowmageddon Winter Storm of 2019 to the two-plus year COVID-19 pandemic to the devastating Archie Creek Fires in 2020 – we sure have endured a lot. Through much of that history, Wayne has had either a supporting or central role in the County’s emergency response to those events.
While there are many emergency response efforts that standout out in Wayne’s past, it is the events surrounding the deadly series of storms in the County from November 1996 to January 1997 that still resonate with him today. These storms produced record rainfall causing massive flooding, power-outages, landslides, downed trees and washed-out roads, including a huge sinkhole on Interstate 5 near the Harvard Exit in Roseburg. The emergency response to these storms involved several rescue and recovery missions, evacuations, roadwork, power restoration efforts, debris clean up, and the stand-up of emergency housing. These storms caused numerous deaths including that of a young mother and her two children whose car was caught in a landslide and was pushed into the Umpqua River. As part of the dive recovery team Wayne was among the emergency responders who recovered the bodies from the river. In a newspaper article about the incident, Wayne was quoted as saying, "I don't think the public really realizes what we had to do. It was one of those days I just wanted to get out of the water, dump the gear and go home and hug my kids." Today, Wayne’s message to the public continues to be borne out of those tragic experiences, as he hopes “that everyone takes the initiative to learn about and prepare themselves and their families for natural disasters, because they could happen anytime and anywhere, and there are simply not enough police, firefighters or volunteer workers to help everyone. Please, be prepared.”
“Emergency management has an important role in preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies. We are very fortunate in Douglas County to have a robust emergency management program with someone of Wayne’s caliber and tenure as our Emergency Manager.” stated Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin.
During his tenure with Douglas County, Wayne has worked under 9 Douglas County Sheriff’s, including: Truitt, Jacobs, Jensen, Neal, Pardon, Main, Brown, Burge, and thirteen years under our current Sheriff John Hanlin. Additionally, he has also worked for 19 Douglas County Commissioners, including: Flegel, Michaels, Doerner, Truett, Vian, Makinson, Long, Robertson, Wadsworth, J. Morgan, Winters, Kittelman, Laurance, S. Morgan, Leif, Goodwin and our three current Commissioners; Freeman, Boice and Kress. Wayne served two terms as Chairman of the Oregon Search and Rescue Advisory Council, which provides expertise to Sheriff Offices in Oregon, the State of Oregon and other public and private organizations involved in search and rescue. He also served on an early FEMA work group assisting in the development of FEMA’s national model for Urban Search and Rescue Teams. Wayne became a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) in 1995, which is a national level certification, and is one of the few CEM's in Oregon. He has earned and achieved many appointments and honors over the years including, being named Oregon Emergency Manager of the year in 1996, 2006 and again in 2016 by the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM). Locally, he was recognized by the Roseburg Optimist Club as “Deputy of the Year” at the 40th Annual Respect for Law Banquet in February 2016. An award he was surprised, honored and humbled to receive, because even though he is a sworn officer with DCSO, he isn’t a certified police officer. However, receiving this award speaks to the respect he has earned from his fellow law enforcement deputies that count on his professional expertise and work as an integral part of their mission of serving our citizens. Wayne has also been instrumental in writing and procuring numerous grants for Douglas County and local agencies over the years, including National Homeland Security grants and being the chief coordinator with FEMA, OEM and other Federal and State agencies for the entire county before, during and after emergencies.
Wayne has dedicated his life to helping others. He has held titles as a certified Emergency Medical Technician, a Scuba Diving Instructor, a Certified Search and Rescue Diver and as a Trainer for Search and Rescue Volunteers. We know that a well-deserved retirement will be coming soon for Wayne, and his legacy and boots will be very hard to fill. Wayne has been married to his wife, Kimberly for 36 years, and has two daughters and two granddaughters. He is proud to be an Oregon Native, and in his free time enjoys the outdoors and motorcycles.
For more information about Douglas County Emergency Management check out our website at https://www.dcso.com/em or call the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office at (541) 440-4450.
Original source can be found here.
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