Earthquake Exercise

For Immediate Release: Monday, June 06, 2016

Washington County Agencies Practice for Earthquake as Part of Cascadia Rising Exercise

Agencies in Washington County will respond to a major earthquake scenario as part of a disaster response and recovery exercise from June 7-10, called "Cascadia Rising." The exercise will be supported by the Oregon Office of Emergency Management and Region 10 of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), covering the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Cascadia Rising will simulate the first four days of response and recovery operations prompted by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the same magnitude of quake that struck Japan in 2011.

Cascadia Rising will help ensure emergency response partners are working together to provide decision makers with information to implement programs and policies that will save lives and property. The lessons learned in Cascadia Rising will be used to update large-scale earthquake response plans.

"Close coordination with our city, district, state, regional and federal partners will be critical to our work in the hours and days after a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake," said Scott Porter, director of the Emergency Management Cooperative of Washington County. "Practicing this level of coordination is what emergency exercises are all about. Exercises also highlight the importance for all of us, as individuals and families, to practice and prepare for emergency response and recovery at home."

Washington County will participate in the exercise in several ways. On June 4, prior to most exercise activity, Washington County's Public Health Division conducted door-to-door interviews in some areas of the county to test a national model for rapid community health assessment. Organization-wide "drop, cover and hold on" drills will be conducted on June 7, followed in some cases by building evacuations that would be necessary due to structural damage or failure. These activities will briefly impact public access to some county buildings, but not to those facilities associated with circuit court proceedings. The county will also activate its emergency operations center (EOC) and engage in rapid damage assessment activities.

Working together with the Tualatin Valley Irrigation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the county will exercise coordination and support of evacuations and other response activities prompted by the potential failure of Scoggins Dam. The dam, a 2,700-foot long, 151-foot high earthen embankment, was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the 1970s to create the roughly 53,640 acre-feet body of water in southwestern Washington County called Henry Hagg Lake. Recent structural analysis suggests the dam may fail in the event of a major earthquake.

The county will also partner with Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center, American Red Cross Northwest Oregon Chapter, Clackamas County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Washington County Animal Services Division and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue to establish a mock emergency shelter in a small area of the medical center's parking lot. All other access to the center will be open to the public.

Other agencies and organizations involved in the exercise include:

City Governments
City of Beaverton will focus on the city's emergency operations center staff and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers to simulate response to a major earthquake. The city plans to perform life-saving and life-sustaining operations in response to a significant disaster.
City of Hillsboro will activate its operations center and practice damage assessment procedures.
City of Sherwood will activate its operations center, practice damage assessment and resource management procedures.
City of Tigard will activate its operations center, use volunteer amateur radio operators to communicate and conduct damage assessment procedures.
City of Tualatin will activate its operations center, test damage assessment and resource management procedures and use of amateur radio.
City of Wilsonville will activate its operations center, practice damage assessment procedures and test secondary communications systems.

Fire Districts
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue will activate its operations centers, practice rapid damage assessment procedures and disaster communications systems.
Washington County Fire District 2 will practice damage assessment procedures.

Hospitals and Emergency Medical Services
MetroWest Ambulance will test the agency's emergency operations plan, including an emergency recall drill of all personnel, activation of its operations center and testing of secondary communication systems.
Cedar Hills Hospital, Kaiser Westside Medical Center, Oregon Health and Sciences University West Campus and Tuality Healthcare will also participate in exercise activities.

Other Agencies and Districts
Clean Water Services will activate its operations centers throughout the county and test emergency communications procedures and equipment.
NW Natural will activate its operations center and test damage assessment procedures.
Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency will conduct a "drop, cover and hold on" drill and practice other disaster response plans.
Washington County Amateur Radio Emergency Service will test activation and deployment procedures and provide communications support for multiple requesting agencies.

Emergency management officials at multiple levels of government have been helping to prepare the public over the last several years for a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The subduction zone is an area along the coastline of the Pacific Northwest where oceanic plates are colliding with the North American plate. The 700-mile-long zone extends from just off the Northern California coast northward toward Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Geologists have learned that a devastating earthquake occurs roughly every 300 years when tension is released along these colliding plates of the earth's crust. The last such event took place 316 years ago.

The devastation from such an earthquake would be severe and widespread, geologists warn. The magnitude of this quake could reach as high as 9.0. Shaking felt on the earth's surface would be violent and would last 3 to 6 minutes. The quake would also trigger a tsunami that would cause destruction along the Pacific Northwest coastline and on coastlines across the Pacific. Aftershocks would be felt for several weeks following a subduction zone quake.

As government agencies work to improve coordination and decision making, experts in disaster response emphasize that families and individuals should also take steps toward better preparedness. Because a subduction zone earthquake would occur without warning and cause power blackouts and other disruptions for weeks on end, each household is encouraged to gather enough emergency supplies to feed and hydrate each family member for two or three weeks, if not longer. Families should discuss ways to reconnect with one another after an earthquake hits, pre-designate locations to meet if their homes are no longer safe and make other arrangements.

More information about preparing for earthquakes and other natural disasters can be found at these web sites:

http://www.co.washington.or.us/EmergencyManagement/ 
https://www.ocem.org  
http://www.take5tosurvive.com
http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/
https://www.ready.gov/   

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