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In its latest report from the 2022-23 session, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury says the Humboldt County Sheriff and Board of Supervisors have been “casual to a fault” when it comes to organizational preparedness for large-scale disasters.

The report notes that communities in our region are especially susceptible to such catastrophes given the extreme weather fluctuations, wildfire risk, tectonic activity and steep, erosive topography. 

“When such conditions coincide – cascading events – the potential for unmitigated catastrophe grows,” the report says before immediately mentioning the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant meltdown in Japan, which triggered widespread radiological contamination. Yikes!

The Civl Grand Jury doesn’t have authority to investigate private companies such as PG&E, which maintains an underground storage area near King Salmon for highly radioactive material left over from the decommissioned Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant. 

Both PG&E and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission say that storage facility is secure enough to withstand any catastrophic event, and the Grand Jury notes, “County government officials take these assurances at face value.”

But the Civl Grand Jury does have authority to investigate the county’s own preparedness, and as noted above, they found it lacking.

Among other findings, the 19 volunteer members of the Civil Grand Jury note that the county’s Emergency Operations Plan hasn’t been comprehensively updated since its first publication in 2015, though they note that the Office of Emergency Services (OES) intends to rewrite that plan over the next two years.

Cutting to the chase, the report says, “We find that Humboldt County is not adequately prepared to deal with a major natural and unnatural disaster.” 

The county government formed a “Disaster Council” back in 2011, but the Grand Jury found no evidence that the council has met since 2015, nor could they find anyone with the county who could provide a list of the council’s current members.

This lack of activity is bad news given the “rapidly developing science” on such matters as climate change, sea level rise and plate tectonics, the report says. 

“The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that while individual companies and various first-responder agencies and departments seem to adequately respond to incidental emergencies, the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff have been lax with respect to their responsibility to maintain a comprehensive plan for responding to large-scale disastrous events,” the report concludes.

Ultimately, the Civil Grand Jury makes seven recommendations, paraphrased below:

1. The Board of Supervisors should fully staff the Disaster Council and schedule meetings before the end of the year.
2. Before the end of next year, they should also expand the council’s membership to include “state-mandated members from culturally diverse communities, utilities, and emergency communications, as well as the integration of interpreters and translators.”
3. They should direct the council, in coordination with the Sheriff’s Office, to submit a comprehensively updated Emergency Operations Plan by the end of next year.
4. Sheriff Billy Honsal should clarify the chain of command and direction of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and other local volunteer emergency preparedness groups by the end of this year.
5. Sheriff Honsal should direct the OES to “write and print for release an easily-understood emergency preparedness handbook, including emergency evacuation routes and destination maps to all county residents and visitors by no later than March 31, 2024.”
6. Honsal should direct the OES to update its contact directory regularly and distribute it to county emergency agencies and local volunteers by the end of the year. And …
7. Honsal should direct the OES to include a contingency plan in the Emergency Operations Plan addressing spent nuclear fuel storage emergencies, by the end of next year.

Both the Sheriff and the Board of Supervisors are required to respond to the report over the next three months.

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DOCUMENT: Humboldt County Emergency Preparedness: Ready or Not?

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Previous 2022-23 Grand Jury reports:

• ‘IT’S OK TO VOTE’: Grand Jury Issues Its First Report of This Cycle, Focused on Humboldt County Election Integrity
• In its Second Report of the Year, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury Tackles the ‘Dysfunctional’ State of Child Welfare Services in the County and the ‘Toxic’ Work Atmosphere Within the Department
• CITY of MCKINLEYVILLE? It’s Time for Real Talk About Incorporation, Grand Jury Sez
• Civil Grand Jury Finds ‘Appalling and Dangerous Conditions’ at Humboldt County Animal Shelter