Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center CEO Raymond Hino, left, with Dr. Helen Miller and Ralph Garono of the Cascadia Coastal Coalition pose with the new HAM Radio and Starlink equipment they donated to the hospital to aid with emergency preparedness. The donation was funded through a grant from the Oregon Office of Rural Health’s Rural Health Incubator Program. Miller, Garono, Jan Glarum and Karmen Fore started the small Oregon-based regional nonprofit Cascadia Coastal Coalition as a 501c3 nonprofit in July, 2021 (www.cascadiacoastalcoalition.org).
BANDON — In a major step forward for rural emergency preparedness, the Cascadia Coastal Coalition has delivered mobile emergency communications equipment valued at over $8,600 to Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center in Bandon and the Adapt Coastal Clinic in Port Orford.
Funded through a grant from the Oregon Office of Rural Health’s Rural Health Incubator Program, the donation provides both healthcare facilities with matching, interoperable emergency communications kits. The package includes Starlink mobile internet connectivity units, high-frequency (HF) and digital mobile radios (DMR), emergency power supplies, and antennas.
The primary goal of the project is to ensure continuity of operations and patient care across county lines during major natural disasters, cyberattacks, or prolonged power and internet outages.
“It is so important for whole-community organizations, especially those providing lifeline services, to be able to communicate and continue essential care during a disaster when standard phone and internet services fail,” said Dr. Helen C. Miller, Co-Founder of the Cascadia Coastal Coalition. “Disasters don’t care about county or jurisdictional borders. Having redundant, mobile communication layers ensures that rural healthcare providers can coordinate resources, share situational awareness, and protect our most vulnerable residents when they need us most.”
Southwestern Oregon’s geography makes it uniquely vulnerable to severe winter storms, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and communication blackouts. While public safety agencies focus on immediate incident management, hospitals and local clinics represent critical community lifelines that must remain connected to coordinate patient transfers, emergency care, and medication refills.
Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center serves a extended primary population of up to 60,000 residents across southern Coos and northern Curry Counties. The new equipment addresses a vital gap by establishing direct, redundant lines of communication with the Adapt Coastal Clinic in Port Orford, the nearest medical provider in adjacent Curry County.
“We are deeply grateful to the Cascadia Coastal Coalition and the Oregon Office of Rural Health for this vital donation,” said Raymond Hino, CEO of Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center. “During an emergency, seamless communication between healthcare facilities is essential to saving lives. This equipment gives our team the tools and redundancy we need to stay connected with our regional partners and serve our community without interruption.”
In addition to supplying the equipment, the Cascadia Coastal Coalition will provide ongoing training, support, and opportunities for both facilities to participate in twice-monthly regional radio net exercises and regional disaster simulations.
Founded in July 2021 by disaster medical response veterans Dr. Helen Miller, Ralph Garono, Jan Glarum, and Karmen Fore, the Florence-based nonprofit Cascadia Coastal Coalition is dedicated to strengthening disaster readiness, communications, and resilience across Oregon’s coastal communities.
For more information about Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center, visit www.southerncoos.org. To learn more about regional disaster resilience efforts, visit www.cascadiacoastalcoalition.org.