Humboldt municipalities assess communication systems in light of recent disasters

EUREKA, Calif. — As Humboldt County recovers from multiple destructive weather events and the Dec. 20 Ferndale earthquake, local municipalities are looking back at how they handled the past few weeks with the systems and protocols that are currently in place.

For some communities like the City of Trinidad, these past few weeks have led some to ask for better communication systems to avoid being left in the dark, as some residents were for more than a week when the storm took out power in the area.

"When the 'Big One' hits, even with this earthquake in Rio Dell, we saw communication infrastructure go down — particularly in Rio Dell. So, we do have backup plans for that," Humboldt County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) Public Information Officer Samantha Karges said.

Over the past few weeks, Humboldt County has seen multiple earthquakes, including two that had a magnitude of more than 5.0, as well as severe weather events that caused widespread damage to the area.

"We know in Humboldt County that an emergency where all of our communications get wiped out is definitely possible," Karges said.

Throughout these situations, local governments were relaying messages to their residents using various methods, many of which were online. But when large storms led to widespread power outages, some areas were literally in the dark.

"We had printed copies of all of the information, and it was posted and ran down to Rio Dell to the different community areas where people gather and posted physically in those locations," Karges said.

Now, as the county recovers from the past few weeks' events, officials are reviewing the systems they currently have in place to determine whether they were enough.

"We just have to continue pushing that message and informing and educating people on where to go," Karges said.

When power was out for hundreds of customers around Trinidad following a large storm event, the city quickly came together to provide resources in the intercity where power was available. But what proved to be more challenging was communicating to all of those customers that those resources were available to them.

According to Trinidad City Clerk Gabriel Adams, the city hopes that new features including banner alerts on the city's website homepage and SMS alert notifications — both of which are currently under discussion — will help leave Trinidad in a better spot should there be another disaster.

At a Trinidad City Council meeting on Jan. 10, these potential new features were discussed as part of a larger plan to upgrade the city's website. According to Adams, these features were "high on the list of must-haves" for the new website.

According to Karges, residents should visit humboldtsheriff.org/emergency for the latest up-to-date information on any disasters in the county. Residents are also encouraged to sign up for Humboldt Alerts, which can also be done on that site.