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9A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016 Megaquake: About 800 soldiers practiced rescue operations Continued from Page 1A At Camp Rilea in Warren- ton, the staff at the County Emergency Operations Cen- ter practiced communicating and coordinating efforts with local agencies and military personnel. The team leveraged social media for the irst time during an exercise, and conducted successful ham radio oper- ations with everyone they’d intended to — including Arch Cape and a citizen in Lewis & Clark — plus some they hadn’t: Federal Emer- gency Management Agency Region X headquarters in Bothell, Washington, and Paciic County Emergency Management. In addition, they used the county mass notiication sys- tem, ClatsopALERTS!, to communicate with other par- ticipants in the training exer- cise, notify community leaders that the EOC had been acti- vated, and advised Arch Cape and Falcon Cove residents that the military would be conduct- ing aerial assessments in their area. These latest measures fol- low steps the county has taken to raise awareness of Cas- cadia, including the installa- tion of signs directing peo- ple out of the tsunami zone and local high schools add- ing Community Emergency Response Team training to the curriculum. “We only have so many resources to throw at this, and I think we’re moving in the right direction in terms of whole community planning,” she said. “There’s also no end to the list of things that we need to be looking at, improving upon.” Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian A triaged earthquake “victim” unable to walk awaits medi- cal care at Camp Rilea during Cascadia Rising, a four-day series of exercises intended to prepare local and state agencies for the “Big One.” Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian Soldiers from the Kentucky Army National Guard practice moving a reinforced concrete block with metal bars and woodblocks at Camp Rilea’s Cascadis Rising disaster training site. ‘Cycle of improvement’ How did communication between the county’s emer- gency operations center and military personnel go during Cascadia Rising? “It went great,” Brown told a group of local oficials and community leaders tour- ing the military base Thursday. “Did it go like we thought it was going to? Yes and no. We knew there would be problems talking to one another, systems that didn’t jive. But that’s the nature of exercising.” Most of those problems happened on the irst day, before the teams had found their “battle rhythm,” she said. “When it came time to send our requests to the state, the way we had practiced and understood that it would be happening was not the way it ended up happening, and it took us several hours to sort of readjust and get that moving in the right direction,” she later elaborated. “And it’s no one’s fault, it’s just the way things played out that morning that weren’t anticipated.” Sometimes a communi- cation hiccup boiled down to human error. Other times it was a technical dificulty, like a nonfunctioning fax machine. “You can have all the sys- tems and the plans and the lat- est and greatest equipment, but, at the end of the day, you still have human beings run- ning it,” she said. Making mistakes and igur- ing out how to correct them is precisely the point of training exercises, she said: “Mistakes are good in this world. And it’s counterintuitive to a lot of people, but mistakes are what we’re looking for.” “We write a plan, we exer- cise it to identify the gaps and vulnerabilities, we take cor- rective action, we update our plan, we exercise our plan, and we continue that,” she said, “and, in this way, it’s a contin- uous cycle of improvement.” Meanwhile, the agen- cies build relationships and get used to working together under pressure. “If you participate in an exer- cise, you always have the oppor- tunity to improve relationships,” she said. “That may be the most important thing that comes from them in many cases.” Disaster relief During Cascadia Rising, about 800 soldiers comprising a dozen military teams assem- bled at Camp Rilea and ran through a series of simulated rescue operations, including saving people in a collapsed inner city. After touring the County Emergency Operations Cen- ter, some local leaders — and a few international dignitar- ies from partner agencies in Vietnam and Bangladesh — headed to the training site to observe the mechanics of a relief effort. The VIPs witnessed National Guard soldiers mov- ing and breaking up heavy boulders from a rubble pile to reach victims; attending to wounded or deceased (played by actors in Hollywood-style makeup) at a casualty collec- tion site; checking the area for chemical, biological, radio- logical, nuclear and explosive materials while decontaminat- ing people suspected of fac- ing exposure; and triaging and treating the survivors. Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel, the adjutant general of Oregon, told local leaders — includ- ing Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear, Gearhart Mayor Dianne Widdop and Cannon Beach Mayor Sam Steidel — that under the worst-case sce- nario, a 9.0 earthquake, most life-saving efforts in the irst 36 to 72 hours will depend on local responders, able-bod- ied citizens and well-prepared neighbors. “We expect that the casu- alty rate’s going to be phenom- enal, and even a lot of your iremen ... aren’t going to be there right away,” he said. “We don’t know what the condi- tion’s going to be for your hos- pitals and their ability to take patients.” Though outside forces will come, the mobilization may take a while, he said. “They’re going to be anxious to get here, but it’s going to be a struggle.” Stencel asked the oficials to do everything they can to help their citizens prepare for Cascadia. Compared to Japan — a country that had spent about 50 years preparing for an earthquake and tsunami, yet lost more than 15,000 peo- ple during the 2011 disaster — “we’re behind the curve,” Brown said. “We just need to do more of this,” she said. “And my hope in all of this, despite what any- one did or didn’t learn in the exercise, is that it helps them recognize the importance of it, and makes them want to do more of it.” J UNE 18 to ASTORIA J ULY 3, 2016 MUSIC FESTIVAL F IRST W EEKEND CELEBRITY SOLOISTS OPENING MATINEE Saturday, June 18 at 4:00PM FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA GALA OPENING Saturday, June 18 @ 7:30PM SYMPHONIC SUNDAY MATINEE with THE RED VIOLIN Sunday, June 19 @ 4:00PM M ID -W EEK M USIC BACH BY CANDLELIGHT Tuesday, June 21 @ 7:30PM Grace Episcopal Church 3 LEG TORSO Wednesday, June 22 @ 7:30PM Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Jesse Miller, left, and Alex Autio are Clatsop Community College’s Students of the Year. Students: ‘It’s the best feeling in the world, knowing that I will be able to be the role model she deserves’ Continued from Page 1A Then Miller said he spi- raled downward between 2009 and 2012, becoming addicted to drugs. “It was just choosing the wrong people to hang out with,” he said. Miller said he was sen- tenced to three years in prison for committing identity theft to support his habit. He spent time at East Oregon Correc- tional Institute in Pendleton, Mill Creek Correctional Facil- ity in Salem and South Fork Forest Camp near Tillamook. “The South Fork Forest Camp was a very good transi- tion for me and a lot of other people in my situation,” said Miller, who worked trails and fought ires alongside other inmates in the minimum-se- curity camp. The Christmas before he was released, his aunt and uncle Mary Jean and Jon Englund of Astoria visited Miller and offered him a place to stay away from his bad inluences. “We were hopeful,” Mary Jean Englund said of why the couple extended the offer. “We knew he had the drive.” Miller, who said moving to Astoria was a life-saving decision, was released in May 2015. He hit the ground run- ning, taking a full-time job at Bio-Oregon, saving up money and inding his own apart- ment the summer before he started college, where he has another year to earn an asso- ciate’s degree in welding. Since rejoining school, Miller said he has earned straight As every term, after never hav- ing earned an A in any grade before. Miller would like to join the boilermakers’ union, and eventually counsel others in the same situations he’s faced. He’s also waiting for his irst child, a daughter, who he said is due on the Fourth of July. “It’s the best feeling in the world, knowing that I will be able to be the role model she deserves,” he said. “It’s just heartwarming.” Leaving home Autio, 20, said he didn’t know what to expect from col- lege after a lifetime of home schooling, but was pleasantly surprised. “We have a good academic community,” he said. “We’re really friendly with each other and supportive. Being in home school became an advantage for me, something to be proud of.” While at college, he enmeshed himself in the cam- pus arts and literary scene, being published in and help- ing design RAIN Magazine, the college’s literary publica- tion, and traveling. “Having Alex in classes for the past two years has ele- vated the educational expe- rience for all of his peers,” said writing instructor Nancy Cook, who oversees the mag- azine. “I feel really grateful to be his teacher.” Autio graduates Friday and heads to Oregon State Uni- versity, where he will major in business administration and minor in music. An avid musician, Autio said he would like to marry his love of the arts with the business world and be able to support the family business, Autio Co., a food processor manufacturer, if need be. “CITY GIRL” CLASSIC SILENT FILM WITH LIVE MUSIC Thursday, June 23 @ 7:30PM S ECOND W EEKEND CHAMBER MUSIC with CARY LEWIS and the FESTIVAL ALL-STARS Friday, June 24 @ 7:30PM HAPPY HOUR with SERGEY and FRIENDS Saturday, June 25 @ 4:00PM SYMPHONIC SHOWCASE Saturday, June 25 @ 7:30PM VERDI’S IL TROVATORE Sunday, June 26 @ 4:00PM Y OUNG A RTISTS W EEK FESTIVAL CHAMBER PLAYERS Wednesday, June 29 @ 7:30PM Venue:Astoria Masonic Center, 1572 Franklin Avenue LITTLE WOMEN Friday, July 1 @ 7:30PM Saturday, July 2 @ 2:00PM in the Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center S PECIAL C OMMUNITY E VENTS • • • • FESTIVAL AWARDS DINNER YOUNG ARTISTS COFFEE CONCERT KMUN TROLL RADIO REVIEW NORTH COAST SYMPHONIC BAND “AMERICAN HEROES” 14th Annual Summer Celebra� on SYMPHONY • OPERA • CHAMBER MUSIC • FILM The most valuable and respected source of local news, advertising and information for our communities. eomediagroup.com Except as noted, all performances are at the Liberty Theater,1203 Commercial Street. Find more information on free events, complete program and details at astoriamusicfestival.org 503.325.9896
