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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2019)
A3 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019 Schools might have to do more to prepare for quakes Some worry about a ‘huge gap’ By MARK MILLER Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon is earthquake country, and stu- dents across the state prac- tice duck-and-cover drills just the same as they practice fi re evacuations, learning to protect themselves in a dam- aging quake. Now, some legislators and emergency manage- ment offi cials are zeroing in on a more diffi cult question: What happens once the shak- ing stops? Two bills heard by the state House Veterans and Emergency Preparedness Committee on Thursday afternoon aim to better pre- pare students and schools for life after the “Big One,” the megathrust earthquake, gen- erated from offshore, that experts believe has a nearly 2-in-5 chance of happening within the next 50 years. State agencies like the Oregon Offi ce of Emergency Management and the Depart- ment of Geology and Min- eral Industries aren’t opti- mistic about Oregon’s ability to withstand a major earth- quake, one that geologists believe could be as powerful as the magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake that leveled parts of Japan in 2011. Projections suggest that parts of the Willamette Val- ley, including the Portland area, could be without elec- tricity, running water or sani- tary sewer service for weeks, possibly months. Many roads, bridges and rail lines are likely to be impassible. Hospitals and other health care facilities would likely be knocked out of commission, while emergency responders expect to be overwhelmed, leaving many Oregonians to deal with injuries on their own. A state study released last year suggested that 63,000 people could be injured or Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Students take shelter under a table at Seaside High School during an earthquake drill. killed in Clackamas, Mult- nomah and Washington counties alone. Some emergency plan- ners are concerned that these grim analyses have not focused closely enough on the impact such a disas- ter would have on families. They have found support from lawmakers like state Reps. Paul Evans, D-Mon- mouth, and Sheri Schouten, D-Beaverton. “At least in the short term, it will be a very different environment,” Evans said. “It’s sometimes diffi cult for Oregonians to recognize, all right, after an event — OK, you’ve got your three days of water and food — it’s going to be months, perhaps even years, for things to get back to what people would think of as normalcy.” ‘A huge gap’ Ashley McConnell Vanderjagt, emergency man- agement coordinator for the Beaverton School District and a Schouten aide, testifi ed before the committee Thurs- day. Schouten and McCo- nnell Vanderjagt support House Bill 2558, Evans’ pro- posal for a state study on the effects a major earthquake would have on children and what can be done to prepare. The Beaverton School District conducts drills like any other school system in the state. Still, McCon- nell Vanderjagt said she sees “a huge gap in planning” between what schools do now and what they may have to do in the days and weeks after a massive earthquake. Schools and child care facili- ties are “grossly ill-prepared” for such an event, she added. “One of my biggest fears is the thought of my fam- ily being separated for an extended period of time in the event of a major seismic event,” McConnell Vander- jagt said. “Children who are separated from their caregiv- ers immediately following an event, such as a disaster, are shown to develop lasting emotional problems and an increased risk of adjustment problems after the disaster. … In a disaster, many chil- dren will be particularly vul- nerable because they are away from their families and at schools and day care cen- How many of us stopped smoking or started buck- ling up or changed a behav- ior because we have a high schooler that came home and started badgering us about our behavior, one that is engrained in our culture and that we had come to accept?” Some school offi cials are less enamored with HB 2229. “It gives me no pleasure to come and argue against things that I think are good ideas,” Morgan Allen, a lob- byist for the Confederation of Oregon School Adminis- trators, said. “I think if you talk to most of our members, they would say, ‘Yeah, if we can fi t this in, if we have the resources, we would do this.’ But unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in.” Allen argued that schools in Oregon are already stretched thin and don’t need the Legislature to mandate more lessons, especially since Gomberg’s bill doesn’t fund any additional staff training. “We’re not talking about just drills and instruction,” Allen said. “We’re required to teach students how to both prepare and survive natural disasters. So that’s a signif- icant increase in the scope and the breadth of what we’re asking school districts to do.” “To put it very boldly,” Allen asked the committee, ters that are inadequately prepared to deal with the aftermath.” House Bill 2229, also heard Thursday, would direct schools to use their existing time for earthquake drills to provide more detailed instruction to students on how to prepare to survive a natural disaster. “What we will do here is save lives,” said Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, the bill’s chief sponsor. Offi cials from the Amer- ican Red Cross Cascades Region testifi ed in support. “High schools are where culture changes,” said Steve Eberlein, whose Red Cross For duties include speaking at schools on the need for earth- quake preparedness. “Right now, one of the biggest prob- lems is we don’t actually PREPARE FOR YOUR FUTURE expect each other to prepare DEGREE OPTIONS INCLUDE: for this earthquake — and Vessel Operation Business that’s what drives culture. 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Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Astoria, OR Grant program Evans defended the bill, noting that the Legislature has already created a grant program to pay for schools’ seismic retrofi tting and ask- ing why it shouldn’t expect schools to prepare their stu- dents for natural disasters, as well. “At some point, some of these things that have con- tinued to be not part of the role of schools because of costs are going to have to be analyzed,” said Evans, who teaches at Chemeketa Com- munity College. After taking a brief recess, Evans assigned Reps. Rick Lewis, R-Silver- ton, and Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville, to take a closer look at HB 2229 in a work group. Lewis is a for- mer Silverton police chief and instructor, while Neron previously taught in the Tigard-Tualatin and Yam- hill-Carlton school districts. 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