Marina Emergency Plan

Rocky Pointe Marina Emergency Plan

Rocky Pointe Prepares Tenants to be Responders

Revised June 2017

Living on the water at a marina brings additional responsibilities to its resident’s that
must be planned for. The following information, along with annual training and review,
will better prepare us to address emergencies within our marina community and the
unique challenges we face.

It is best practice to train and educate all tenants living at the marina, along with all staff
members, rather than a select few. Our marina and boatyard staff are very well trained to
respond to all emergencies. However they are only available during normal business
hours.

The marina office may post warnings and advisements at all entrances, gates and kiosks
at the top of gangways, when potential emergencies such as snow, wind, high water, ice,
or freezing pipe protections are warranted. The marina office will coordinate emergency
contacts within the marina for fires or other urgent situations requiring immediate
response.

In case of any emergency:

  1. Call 911 first. Be sure the 911 operator is aware of our need for Scappoose Fire
    Response or Multnomah County Sheriff and Oregon State Patrol. Often they may
    try to connect to Portland city services, wasting precious time! Use a land line if
    possible, if not be sure to identify your location immediately, Rocky Pointe
    Marina, 23586 NW St Helens Rd at Old Lower Rocky Pointe Rd, 3 miles east of
    Scappoose. Draw them a map if you have to, don’t let them waste time!
  2. Call the Marina Office :503-543-7003
  3. When the marina office is closed contact Chris (maintenance 24/7) at 503-929-

9204, or Stan Tonneson at 503-329-0298, Jen Tonneson at 503-704-0101 or home
at 503-987-1899

Emergency Fire Procedures:

In the event of a fire or emergency, designate 1 person (or do it yourself if no one else
available) to immediately make the following phone calls. These instructions are for a
more serious fire or emergency. Fires start small, there are many designated red “Fire”
water buckets on the docks near the boats. Take note of where they are located, so you
are able to access one quickly. Fire extinguishers are located on every floating home
within view, as well as on the docks near the boat slips. Every fire extinguisher in the
marina is available for your use, the marina will have them recharged or replaced. Use
them! In the time it takes to make a phone call, a small fire may be easily managed by a
bucket or fire extinguisher, if left unattended, a smoldering ember may combust or may
become much larger and unmanageable, except by Fire Department personal. Use your
best judgment!

Call 911– stay on the line if possible, use a land line if possible.

Identify your location: Rocky Pointe Marina, located at 23586 NW St Helens Rd,
Portland, Oregon 97231
Identify the emergency: Fire, medical or (name the emergency)

Identify where in the marina: on a (house or boat) in the (upper, middle, lower)
section of the marina. Stay on the line if they ask you to. Keep yelling for help if no
one has come to your aid yet.

– Marina Office (if business hours) 503-543-7003

The marina office will make the rest of the calls if they are open

-Scappoose Fire Department 503-543-5026
-Jerome 971-757-0960
-Boatyard Office (if business hours) 503-543-2785
-Stan Tonneson 503-329-0298 (cell) 503-987-1899( home)
-Jen Tonneson 503-704-0101 (cell) 503-987-1899 (home)

Fire

These instructions are for a more serious fire. Fires start small. There are many water
buckets and fire extinguishers everywhere in the marina. Use them as needed.
If there are enough people available, designate all the following at the same time. If not,
do in order as listed. If possible, send someone to the security gate to hold open and
direct fire trucks to emergency.

#1 priority is to avoid injury to anyone. Look for anyone aboard the boat or floating
home

#2 Priority is to get attention. Yell up and down the docks that there is a fire and knock
on doors of boats or houses near the fire, especially the ones next to the fire. There are air
horns located in the fire pump shed. 5 short blasts, repeat every 15 seconds to gain
attention and alert tenants.

#3 priority is to avoid having the fire spread beyond the single boat or house. Do Not
push a burning boat into the river. Instead, remove all surrounding boats and/or houses as
possible. Evacuate all nearby people in homes or boats.

#4 Priority is to get water started. Gather the fire pumps near the fire and start. Water
areas around the fire to protect the fire from spreading. The fire department will want to
use our pumps while they are setting up their equipment. Turn them over as soon as they
arrive, or follow their instructions.

Obey Fire Command Unconditionally!

Snow/Ice/Freezing

Slippery docks, frozen pipes and heavy snow weight on roofs and decks are all events
that floating home owners need to be aware of and plan ahead for.

The staff will use de-icer on primary docks and ramps when frost is forecast. It is done
between 8am and 9am weekdays. Other times and days there is de-icer available at the
top of each ramp. Please do not take the entire bag to your home and hoard it. We
purchase enough for the entire marina for the year in advance. Once the freezing
temperatures come, it is very difficult to obtain. Please do not hoard, there is enough
here for everyone, and you may be putting the safety of your neighbor at risk by taking
what is available.

Snow- snow removal on the docks is a community event. Neighbors help out your
neighbors! Someone may be sick and not able to tend their docks! Knock on their door
if you see the snow piling up! See how they are doing, they may need help! When snow
is forecast, at least 5 snow shovels will be placed in each of the emergency sheds for
tenants to shovel snow off there own house and the dock in front of their house. Please do
not keep the shovels! Share with your neighbor, then return them for others to use! We
lose many to theft every year, when we need them, they are not there.

Ice and snow on the hill exiting the marina is always a challenge. It is a county road but
with low priority. Many people park their cars on top at the truck station the day or night
before and walk up the hill.

Floating Structure Snow Removal

Snow removal from the covered boat slip dock roofs will be done by the boatyard staff
when snow exceeds 6 inches or if 6 inches total accumulation is forecast. Employees will
also secure all stern lines of boats in these areas to provide more buoyancy. Do not
remove your mooring lines or remove your boats from under the cover when there is
snow without checking with the office first.

Freezing temperatures are more common than snow. Our water pipes are above ground
and will freeze. The marina turns off and drains all water lines on the inside of the marina
that supply boats from about Nov 1 until about March 1 st . It is important that floating
homes keep a small flow of water running in their homes during times that temperatures
stay below freezing for more than 6 continuous hours. This water flow/trickle should not
exceed 2 gallons per hours. Contact office for more details. To maintain water pressure
for the entire marina, please turn off once temperatures go above freezing. We will shut
off water supply to houses that are unoccupied during freezing weather. The reason for this is if your pipes freeze and break, water will flood your house. If you have a vacation
home, are not here regularly, or will be gone over night, it would be prudent to turn your
water off and drain your lines if freezing temperatures are forecasted. The marina keeps
a dripping faucet at the external end of all water lines on the docks and restrooms. Please
do not turn these off! If the temperatures stay low in the teens for extended periods of
time, (over a week) the water may slow down in some areas that people have allowed to
freeze up. With less water in, that means less water out (sewage) and then the sewer
system can freeze. Once that happens water and sewer are not available until the weather
warms. We will advise of a marina closure, should the threat of environmentalcontamination become possible. It would be very rare for this to happen, if everyone follows these guidelines and keep the water moving!

Wind Storm

Heavy winds can blow items off decks and docks. It can also cause houses or boats to
break loose from their moorings. Please keep items on docks and decks to a minimum
during windy times. Secure barbeques, kayaks, furniture, etc with rope or other tie
downs. Inspect the mooring chains on your house regularly. Inspect mooring lines and
cleats on your boat. Should a boat, home, or dock come loose secure lines to keep it from
floating away and immediately report it to the office or emergency contact. There are
ropes and chain pulleys in emergency sheds. Contact office.

Person in the Water

If you think you hear someone yelling for help, please go looking! They may have been
there for a while and getting weak! If you find someone in the water help, them out if
you can, if not toss them something that floats, and begin yelling for help immediately.
There are life rings with ropes on the docks. Look around your immediate area, anything
that floats can help. Use an ice chest, cushion, small boat, life vest, or even a dock line
off of a boat to help pull them in.

DO NOT JUMP IN THE WATER YOURSELF. We will then have two people to
rescue. A person panicking can pull you under. The best way to help them is to get them
a floatation device as soon as possible, get more help by yelling, and quickly devise a
plan to get them close to the nearest point of exit from the waterway. The possibility of
stray electrical current can also cause you to drown. If possible, quickly unplug the boats
shore power cords from the power pedestals nearest to the person in the water. As help
begins to arrive, have someone immediately cut power to that portion of the marina. If
you need to get to a person, take a boat. Do not be bashful looking for a boat. Grab what
you can, a canoe, kayak, raft, or dinghy. During this time always keep your eyes on the
person in the water. Also continue yelling for help, for someone to call 911. A person in
the water may have very few minutes.

Pollution Spill

Fuel and oil spills in the water must be contained and cleaned up. Reporting to the US
Coast Guard National Response Center at 800-424-8802 is required. Marina and
boatyard staff will respond to begin containment and assessment of the spill, and make
additional contacts as required by State and Federal law. If contact cannot be made with
the owner of an unattended vessel and urgency is required to contain the environmental
exposure, staff will immediately handle the situation and bill responsible party for
containment supplies. Check your bilges often, keep petroleum product absorbent
pads/socks in your bilge at all times while in marina waters.

Filling of boat fuel tanks with fuel cans is strictly prohibited at Rocky Pointe
Marina.

Fuel spill containment booms and absorbents are located in each section of marina. Front
of fuel dock and at the base of the middle and lower marinas in a white dock box next to
the emergency sheds. Booms are $2ft and absorbent pads are .50

Boat Sinking

Contact marina office with slip location, type and size of boat and how badly it is sinking.
They will contact marina and boatyard staff for assistance. There are electric pumps
located in the emergency sheds. The fire pumps can be used, especially for bigger needs.
The fire buckets can be used as well to bail out boats.

You can help by making sure the boat is securely tied to the docks. Also check shore
power cord. Many times power gets accidentally unplugged causing batteries to go low.
Simply plugging back in will activate the onboard bilge pumps.

Flood Preparedness Plan

Flood Warning Plan:

Typical high water times are late spring in April, May and June when the snow is melting
naturally off the mountains and also there can be spikes of high water during the snow
season when low level snow falls are melted with heavy warm rains. In either event,
advance notice is typically a week or more
.
Rocky Pointe Marina has a water gauge on a piling in front of the marina office. This
gauge is calibrated to the water levels in Portland, Or. Typical low water levels in the
summer is about 3-5 feet and high water levels in the winter about 6-8 ft. The parking lot
of Rocky Pointe Marina starts getting some water at about 18 feet. FYI- the water crest
level Feb 1996 was 23 feet and the pilings are set at 26-27 feet. The highest elevation of
the parking lot is 20ft.

There is a direct link on Rocky Pointe’s website to the river level data provide by NOAA
for our specific area. It gives past 5 day levels and projections for future 5 days. Marina
life makes observing water levels a daily habit. If levels go above 10feet, daily
monitoring of river level projections is done by marina management. Water levels rise at
a rate of 1-2 feet per day giving plenty of time to plan and prepare. Any tidal events are
calculated in the predictions from NOAA.

If projections are for water levels to be 18ft or greater, the following
plans will be implemented:

Parking Lot:

In accordance with the written rules for Rocky Pointe Marina, the following will take
place when river levels are projected to reach 18ft within 5 days:

  • Postings will be made at all community bulletin boards in marina that high water
    levels may reach flood levels for the marina and appropriate action needs to be
    taken.
  • Should this event be near the monthly statement mailing date, the same warnings
    be included with mailings.

Contact by phone to owners of all vehicles parked at the marina and request
removal to the uplands at the entrance to Rocky Pointe Marina on Hwy 30. (DOT
truck parking area) There is ample space for over 100 vehicles. All vehicles are to
be on record in the marina office, as well as a visible, valid parking permit within
the vehicle. If a vehicle continues to be parked 2 days prior to river level events of
18ft, then those vehicles will be towed and impounded by Retriever Towing in
Portland, Oregon. Vehicle owner will responsible for all charges directly to
Retriever Towing. If a tenant has provided keys for the vehicle during flood stage
events, the vehicle will be moved at no charge to the uplands. There is a key safe
at the marina office. If you are going to be away for an extended period of time
during high water season, it is recommended you leave a set of keys, with the
license plate and description of the vehicle with the office staff to avoid be towed.
The Marina will not be responsible loss or damage to any vehicle that is left
unattended and subject to tow. Any vehicle that remains unmoved after 48 hours
of notification, and reasonable attempts were made to contact the owner with
phone numbers on record at the marina office are subject to tow. It is the
obligation of the tenant to maintain current contact information at the marina
office.

Upland Parking Rules: ( DOT Truck parking area)

Only the off road parking area nearest the shoreline is to be used for parking. All the
roadways are part of the truck weigh station and must be kept clear at all times for trucks.
Portable signs will be placed by Rocky Pointe Marina as the appropriate areas to park.

Emergency Equipment List and Location:

Fire/Emergency Sheds:

There are a total of 3 emergency sheds, located one in each section of the marina. The
lower and middle marinas are located near the base of the ramp and the upper marina is
located in front of the office.

The following equipment is located in each and is there for everyone to use for
emergencies:

  • fire ax
  • big fire extinguisher on cart
  • Honda Fire hose pump. Can be used for fire or pumping sinking boat
  • electric water pump with 30amp adapter- use to bail sinking boat
  • crow bar
  • air horn- to sound emergency alert
  • snow shovels- during winter snow events
  • oil/fuel spill sorbs and booms

On the docks approximately every 100-150 feet:

  • Life rings

Fire buckets-Fire extinguishers. There are over 50 marina fire extinguishers on the property and another 50 or more as each floating home and boathouse is required to have one visible from the dock. Feel free to use any that you find. All extinguishers are checked and service annually by a certified company during early spring. If you notice an extinguisher not in working condition, please bring it to the office for immediate service or replacement. Water hoses are available for use as well.

Other Marina Emergency Equipment

  • tug boat
  • workboat
  • salt, at top at all ramps
  • snow blower

Training/Review

The marina provides training and instruction on our emergency plans as requested and
offers an annual group event focusing on new tenants but all are welcome to come.

Comments are closed.