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Portland City Council voted yesterday to change the Portland Office of Emergency Management’s name to the Bureau of Emergency Management and to implement a new strategic plan for when all hell breaks loose sometime in the future.

The change in name and plans came from the results of that found the city to be woefully unprepared, with undefined roles and plans to effectively use minimal resources in the case of an emergency to deal with high priority problems. Mayor Sam Adams made this :

鈥淭his name transition reflects the stature and authority of the bureau. POEM, soon to be PBEM, is the city’s lead coordinator, the glue that holds together our emergency response and preparedness efforts. Bureau Director Carmen Merlo’s new strategic plan gives us a step-by-step understanding of those efforts through 2013.鈥�

The on Wednesday calls for a close collaboration between local and state level governmental and private entities to best solve future disasters. It will also consider the long-term changes under the and how it will effect the city’s emergency preparedness. It also takes into account Portland’s greying population, non-English speaking populations and aging infrastructure among other factors when the city tackles future problems. For instance, experts predict that when the Cascadia fault line earthquake hits Portland 鈥� with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake expected 鈥� bridgetown’s bridges will collapse.

Though it has made positive changes for its emergency preparedness, the city recognizes that there are still many challenges ahead. For example, the city has not had to deal with regular, major disasters like some other parts of the country. How city plans to beat that complacency when disaster strikes remains to be seen.

by sanbeiji via Flickr