Federal, state and local leaders work on Cascadia Earthquake preparedness

Local, state and federal leaders converged recently to better prepare for the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami, which is expected to affect Oregon, Washington, California and British Columbia, Canada.

More than 50 leaders and staff from Oregon coastal communities, tribes, Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM), Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (OREM), Oregon Health Authority, Port of Portland, FEMA, and the U.S. Navy attended the event called the Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) Senior Leadership Seminar. It was held in the brand-new Portland International Airport conference room - which has been built to withstand a 9.0 earthquake.

The establishment of the DSCA Senior Leadership Seminar, started in 2010 in other West Coast cities coming to Oregon at least once in 2019. This recent seminar opened the door wider for engagement of federal, state and local emergency response leaders.

There was special emphasis during most of the eight-hour seminar on emergency preparedness for Oregon coastal communities, which will be hard hit from the predicted earthquake and tsunami. That is one reason for the attendance of the Navy's Third Fleet, which is based in San Diego. Coincidentally, the Navy was also in town for the Portland Rose Festival Fleet Week.

This seminar was put together by OREM, along with the Port of Portland and OEM, as a way to understand and prepare for a sea-based response, as well as to support local communities and better coordination across involved agencies and partners.

The Navy has a mission to support Oregonians, but it would take five or more days for ships to arrive with supplies, such as food, medical help, trucks and bulldozers to help the Coast. It's predicted that Interstate-5 and Highway 101 would likely be completely closed from the earthquake damage and the flooding waters, so an ocean-based response will be needed.

"We need to help prepare the Coast's communities to cope until assistance can get to them. And we need to know how to best support the Navy in their response," Ed Flick, ODHS OREM Director, said.

During the seminar there were speakers from the Department of Defense's Center for Excellence in Humanitarian Assistance, OEM, ODHS OREM, FEMA, U.S. Navy, OHA, Tillamook County, OREM Tribal Emergency Coordinator and the Port of Portland.

"Preparing for a Cascadia event requires strong partnerships and a shared understanding of how we will work together in the most challenging conditions," Erin McMahon, Director of the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, said. "This seminar brought together the leadership necessary to ensure we are coordinated, informed and ready to respond."

Randy Thorpe, Tillamook County Emergency Management Director, explained the planning and preparation work that has been done by local communities. For example, dozens of volunteer emergency response teams have formed throughout his county. They train regularly and will aid tremendously in response and recovery from minor disruptions to large-scale CSZ events. OREM has also been working on preparation and resilience support with Tillamook, as well as other coastal communities.

Ed Flick described the challenges Oregon faces in responding to a Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake which would involve evacuating tens of thousands of people from the coastal counties, and supplying food, water, shelter and other emergency supplies to those who remained. Ed highlighted the work OREM has done with local communities to prepare. These steps include establishing three large sets of equipment called Evacuation Assembly Points at Tillamook, Newport and Coos Bay to assist in the evacuation effort. OREM has also placed Resilience Hub Typed Packages, which are shipping containers, with communications, power, food, water, medical and hygiene supplies in 27 communities across Oregon, with 15 more programmed for the Oregon Coast this year.

OREM also previewed a clip from the documentary, created by OREM, called "Rumblings!," detailing how significant, small and private actions will be needed in the Cascadia Subduction Zone disaster. A memorable clip showed school children on the Coast practicing walking an evacuation route to safety.

The day ended with a round table of ideas from participants. Ideas included:

• A regular seminar schedule for this group to keep the planning work going and coordinated.
• Pre-scripted assignments for a disaster for each agency.
• Expanded resilience and planning work to other areas of Oregon, such as Central Oregon.
• More frequent operational training exercises.
• Testing of assumptions from other disaster responses.
• Start architecturally shoring up community buildings such as schools and fire stations for earthquake resilience.

As people left the seminar, Ed Flick talked about the outcomes of the day:

"We have got to have recurring engagement with the Navy. I want to get into a pattern of every other year having a senior leadership seminar like this. In the intervening year we should conduct a seminar at the Coast with community leaders. When is the best time to get ready for Cascadia? The decisive phase is now."