The Bay City Emergency Volunteer (BCEV) corps was established at the urging of Helen Wright, Bay City Council member. In recent years we have experienced wind events (the December 2007 cyclone), tsunami warnings from the Japanese earthquake (March 2011), tornado warnings from the Manzanita damage (October 2016), and most recently a near miss from the Pike Road fire (September 2020). We have also been warned that this area may be subject to earthquakes and local tsunamis due to an offshore Cascadia subduction event.

Living here means being prepared for these events, plus the constant windstorms often accompanied by power outages and damaged roofs. Flooding often closes or washes out completely the roads cutting us off. And with climate seeming to be getting more extreme, storms are predicted to have more energy as the planet warms.

Our county emergency managers used to tell us to be prepared to support ourselves for 3 days, then for 3 weeks, maybe now for 3 months before help could reach us from the Willamette Valley. And what about localized events such as a house fire or localized flooding?

We offer in this website references to help us prepare for these emergencies. What would you do if electric power was cut? How about if the water was shut off for an extended period? Do you have drinking and cooking water? How about water to flush your toilets? And what if the sewer lines became unusable? Do you have the ability to cook without electricity? Do you have food that won’t spoil and is easy to prepare?

Your BCEV has been thinking and planning for these events. To this end we have established two emergency storage sheds above the tsunami inundation line. We have distributed emergency starter kits at community events. We have established a block captain system and equipped them with GMRS radios.

The next steps are up to you, the local Bay City resident, to prepare to care for yourselves and your family. Let us know how we can help. Let’s get started!