What the Task Force Does
The Task Force works alongside Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA), the National Weather Service, AirNow, and the Emergency Alert System to constantly monitor the weather.
When there is a severe weather event, we coordinate a response with Clark County, the City of Vancouver, and our community warming and cooling shelter partners. Together, we all support anyone who may be experiencing homelessness by providing safety and shelter from the heat, wildfire smoke, extreme cold, heavy rain, and more.
Severe Weather Events
A severe weather event can be extreme cold snaps or intense heat, a man-made event or a natural disaster, and includes flash flooding, wildfires and smoke, heavy rain, snow and cold weather, extreme heat, and other severe weather events that can cause harm to our already vulnerable neighbors without stable housing. Our shelters can be cooling or warming centers during the day and evening, and may provide overnight shelter.
In the winter, we look at the risk for hypothermia and rain chill. In the summer, we evaluate the risk for unhealthy air quality and the potential for heat-related emergencies. We also look at the risk of flooding and flash flooding, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lightning throughout the year.
What Happens During a Severe Weather Event?
After calling a severe weather event, Council for the Homeless works with our community partners to track shelter space that will be available, and to gather and distribute requested supplies, including socks, gloves, soap, and snacks to ensure they have what they need. We also work with our outreach team to ensure encampments have supplies.
To assist shelter sites in securing volunteers, we ask shelters how many volunteers and what skill levels are needed at their respective sites. This information is shared with CRESA so they can activate their volunteer network.
We then notify the public through social media and a community-wide email. Our outreach team is also on the ground doing in-person outreach to unhoused people in our community.
As new information comes in, we update our social media and related web pages, and send out updated emails as often as necessary during a severe weather event.
Donating Supplies
During severe weather events, CFTH provides supplies to shelters and warming centers to support their guests. We acquire these supplies through numerous ways, like donations made through our Amazon Wish List. For a full list of needed supplies, visit our Donating Supplies page.
For more information on our severe weather response, contact Sunny Wonder at swonder@councilforthehomeless.org.
