28
Wednesday, July 31, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Scientists warn Oregon is lagging in disaster preparedness Legislature
fails to
approve hemp
commission
By Sarah Zimmerman
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) 4 Oregon
state lawmakers abandoned
a multimillion-dollar proj-
ect to develop early warning
systems for earthquakes and
wildfires, and scientists warn
that the funding shake-up
could endanger public safety
and put Oregon further behind
other West Coast states in pre-
paring for natural disasters.
Researchers were shocked
when nearly $12 million
to expand ShakeAlert and
AlertWildfire 4 early warn-
ing systems to help detect
significant earthquakes and
wildfires 4 unexpectedly
went up in smoke last month,
just days before the end of the
legislative session. Money for
the projects was included as
part of a larger funding pack-
age, but was stripped in a last-
minute amendment.
Disaster preparedness has
continually been a focal point
as western states are poised
to enter the hottest and driest
months of wildfire season.
And two massive earthquakes
in remote areas of Southern
California this month
reminded the public it9s only a
matter of time before the next
destructive quake hits.
<We don9t know when the
next big earthquake or wild-
fire will strike, but we know
it will happen at some point,=
said Douglas Toomey, a seis-
mologist and earth sciences
professor at the University of
Oregon who helps run both
early warning detection sys-
tems. And Oregon is <woe-
fully= unprepared, he said.
Gov. Kate Brown, who
included the $12 million in
funding for the projects in her
proposed budget last year, has
told reporters the decision not
to expand the early detection
systems was one of the <big-
gest disappointments= of this
year9s legislative session.
ShakeAlert
and
AlertWildfire are designed
to detect natural disasters as
they start and alert responders
and the public before signifi-
cant damage occurs. They are
managed by a consortium of
public universities and funded
through state, federal and pri-
vate partnerships.
In Oregon, the programs
are in the initial phases and
need significant state invest-
ments to expand to a point
that they9ll be useful to the
public, Toomey said.
AlertWildfire is a sys-
tem of cameras stationed in
some of the most remote and
fire-prone parts of Oregon,
Nevada and California. It has
provided critical information
to first responders in over 600
fires during the past three fire
seasons, allowing firefight-
ers in some cases to contain
blazes before they spiral out
of control.
ShakeAlert, meanwhile, is
a sensor system being built
out across California, Oregon
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and Washington. The sensors
pick up on faster-moving but
less-damaging energy waves
that emerge during the start
of an earthquake. They can
then sound the alarm before
the stronger, more destruc-
tive secondary wave, giving
people seconds or minutes to
prepare depending on the size
of the earthquake and their
distance from the epicenter.
Other western states have
thrown significant cash behind
the two systems, allowing
them to build out hundreds of
earthquake sensors and wild-
fire cameras.
Cities and states need at
least 75 percent of their earth-
quake sensors in place before
officials can begin alerting the
public through the ShakeAlert
app.
Los Angeles became the
first U.S. city to make the app
available in January. The sys-
tem could be sending alerts to
the rest of California by the
end of the year thanks to a
$16.3 million investment from
state lawmakers.
Additional emergency
management funds also have
allowed California to expand
its use of AlertWildfire, and
the state is expected to install
200 to 300 new wildfire cam-
eras by October.
Washington9s ShakeAlert
system could be ready by
October 2020, and the state
contributed $1 million this
year to enhance the network.
Meanwhile, only three
wildfire cameras have been
installed in Oregon, and the
state still has to build over
100 more earthquake sen-
sors before alerts can be sent
through ShakeAlert.
Without any additional
money from the state,
ShakeAlert will remain
dependent on federal funds.
That could mean the system
won9t be online until 2021 at
the earliest 4 far later than
Oregon9s neighboring states.
State lawmakers didn9t
specify why funding for
ShakeAlert and AlertWildfire
was abandoned, but it9s com-
mon for last-minute funding
shake-ups to happen based on
available resources, according
to the office of Sen. Elizabeth
Steiner Hayward, who chairs
the legislative committee in
charge of funding decisions.
Lizzy Atwood Wills,
chief of staff to Steiner
Hayward, said ShakeAlert
and AlertWildfire were some
of the many projects not to
receive funding this year.
Investments are prioritized
<within the limited resources
available,= she said.
Toomey said he still doesn9t
understand why it wasn9t
considered a priority, saying
the money would have cre-
ated jobs and attracted addi-
tional federal matching funds
besides possibly saving lives.
<It feels like the State is
demoting public safety,= he
said. <There are lives at stake
here.=
A Partnership
Beyond Your
Expectations
SALEM (AP) 4 A pro-
posal for an Oregon Hemp
Commission has died in a
Legislative committee.
The East Oregonian
reported Friday that the pro-
posal for a commission to raise
research funds for Oregon9s
hemp industry failed to pass
the Joint Ways and Means
Committee in June. The com-
mittee approves budget mea-
sures in each legislative ses-
sion; a similar proposal was
rejected by the committee two
years ago.
An Oregon State University
researcher says an industry-
wide organization would help
increase understanding of the
difficulties faced by hemp
growers.
Annual hemp production
in Oregon has increased from
less than a square mile to more
than 78 square miles in the
past five years.
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