County to participate in Cascadia Rising exercise | News

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This week, Lincoln County residents will have the opportunity to simulate and prepare for a possible worst-case scenario for many coastal residents: the anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and the following tsunami, often referred to as “the Big One.”

Most of the county is set to participate in a local adaptation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s weeklong Cascadia Rising exercise, which will simulate the first seven days after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake with drills and activities throughout the week starting at 9 am Thursday, June 8 and going until June 16.

FEMA announced this year’s exercise in 2019 as a continuation of the first state-wide catastrophic earthquake drill held 2016, the Great Oregon Shakeout, which saw participation from all levels of government. This year’s exercise will have a focus on communication, field operations and what residents can do at home during an emergency.

An expected casualty report published by the Oregon Health Authority in May 2021 predicts “the Big One” would kill around 1,000 people in Lincoln County alone when the Juan Fuca Plate slips under the North American Plate and causes an 8- to 9-magnitude earthquake within tremor range of the Oregon coast. While the resulting earthquake could destroy certain infrastructure in the area, such as bridges and dams, the following series of tsunami waves would do even more damage.

“The more we practice, the better prepared we are and the better we will fare during an emergency or a disaster,” Jess Palma, assistant emergency manager for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management team, said. “This is also a great opportunity for the public to check their personal inventory to see what supplies they might need or what plans they might need to update. On the government and responder side, this gives us a chance to practice, see what things are working and make improvements.”

A week of drills and exercises

The first part of this year’s Cascadia Rising exercise is a “drop, cover, hold” exercise at 9 am July 9, where participants are instructed to shelter in an occupied building for four minutes before evacuating. Those who can’t participate at that time are encouraged to find another time to practice within that 24-hour period.

After the drill, participants are asked to check to see if they have emergency kits prepared in their cars, as well as make sure they have shelter-at-home supplies, go-bags and at-work kits at the ready. Businesses are asked to take time to account for the total number of employees they have and how they would go about evacuating their buildings during such an emergency.

County residents can also expect a test of the Lincoln Alerts system sometime between 9 am and 1 pm June 9. The message will be the standard annual test message and residents are asked to make sure they are signed up to receive alerts and to download the Lincoln Alerts app ahead of time. Participating residents are asked to confirm the alert messages when they come through and to complete a survey afterward to provide feedback.

On Saturday, June 11, Community Emergency Response Team chapters throughout the county will conduct activities and workshops to help prepare themselves and residents for an emergency. From 9 am to noon, each chapter will conduct a “simulated neighborhood” exercise to go through assessing the initial “damage of” a large-scale disaster such as “the Big One” and how to summarize and relay collected information to the Lincoln County Emergency Operations Center using amateur radio. Information relayed during the drill will include deteriorating road conditions, infrastructure failures, fires and civil unrest.

Throughout the week, the Auxiliary Communications Service will conduct exercises to relay information between public safety volunteer groups to city and tribal emergency operation centers and the state’s emergency coordination center. Members of the Medical Reserve Corps will set up basic first aid centers, conduct medical fragile shelter operations and simulate the processing of new disaster evacuees from the mock-earthquake. American Red Cross volunteers will also work with corps volunteers to co-locate mass care and shelter services and simulate in-processing of evacuees to the shelter center.

Lincoln County Emergency Management and its volunteers will work with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at the County Emergency Operations Center throughout the week as support staff. An open house is scheduled for 11 am to 2 pm June 13 at the operations center at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds.

For more information, go to tinyurl.com/d2dafrfn. While it’s too late this year to sign up for any of the scheduled volunteer exercises, countrywide volunteer groups are always looking for additional members.

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