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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2015)
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 26, 2015 5A Polk County News Oregon Resilience Plan for the Itemizer-Observer Quake: More effort has been made to be ready for disaster by state and individual households Continued on 1A In the valley under cur- rent conditions, people should expect to be without electricity for one to three months, longer the farther you are from an urban cen- ter. Clean drinking water and sewer systems could take one month to a year to re- store. Police and fire stations could take up to four months before they are functional. Major highways damaged in the quake may not be us- able for six months to a year. Other resources, such as gasoline, likely will not be available to anyone outside first responders for months. Life will change dramati- cally, with one of the more noticeable differences in what happens when people call 911. Estimates are that after a disaster of this proportion, about one-third to one-half of first responders — police and fire — will be unable to report to work, leaving de- partments undermanned to handle calls for help. Bender said under those circumstances, residents will need to make a plan to help themselves. “If people become self- prepared, it takes the bur- den off government because we are not going to have the people to go help them,” he said. “There are not enough of us.” In this scenario, Kimber Townsend, Polk County Community Emergency Re- sponse Team (CERT) man- ager, said the prescribed 72- hour kit of food, water, and other supplies will not be sufficient. She recommends at least three weeks, and, if possible, up to three months of supplies. Statewide and local agen- cies have been busy assess- ing what damage may occur and what can be done to mitigate it. Townsend said she’s en- couraged by the moves made at the state level in re- cent years, but still believes More fun facts about quakes • The tsunami that could hit the Oregon Coast after a 9.0 magnitude Cascadia subduction zone quake could reach 130 feet. • The last “really big one” took place in January of 1700. Dating back 10,000 years, the average number of years be- tween Cascadia quakes is 243 years. • It is predicted that six major highway bridges would col- lapse in a 9.0 magnitude quake. Total bridge repairs statewide would cost $1 billion. — Source: Oregon Office of Emergency Management. Oregon and the rest of the region that will be affected by the quake is playing “catch up.” “We are behind the curve, but I think we are rolling a little faster,” Townsend said. That includes the Oregon Resilience Plan, completed in 2013. Rizzo said she would like to see the recommendations in the plan be accomplished in small chunks. She said the steps the Oregon Legislature took in its last session to prioritize funding for seismic up- grades, particularly in vul- nerable schools, was a posi- tive sign that may happen. More is on the horizon, as well. Next year, the states of Ore- gon, Washington and Idaho will participate in a large- scale drill called “Cascadia Rising,” focusing on how to respond in the aftermath. “There are some good things happening statewide,” Townsend said. “I’m really looking forward to the Cascadia Rising exer- cise next year. I think there are going to be so many les- sons learned that will be ac- tionable items.” As for individuals and families, Townsend believes with the amount of informa- tion out about the quake — and its destructive poten- tial — everyone has an obli- gation to learn how to take care of themselves as best they can for as long as they can. “You know you live in an earthquake-prone place,” she said. “You better be pre- pared for it and, if you are not, shame on you.” Rizzo said she thinks the tide is turning on awareness. Since the world witnessed the Indonesian quake and tsunami in 2004 and the 9.0 that hit Japan in 2011, Cas- cadia has become a topic of more concern and conver- sation, she said. “That was the first time Oregonians had really seen what we can expect to see here,” she said, referring to the Indonesian quake. “It just takes time. People have to hear about it often enough. Since 2004, pre- paredness has gone up ex- ponentially. Before that, there were just a few voices in the woods.” Now that it has become a shout from the mountain- top, officials say it’s time for people to take it seriously — and hope the fault remains dormant long enough to give the state and its resi- dents a chance to be ready. “We are hoping that Mother Nature gives us the 50 years that the Oregon Re- silience Plan is based on,” Rizzo said. Next up: • Sept. 9 — How well are local agencies, the county, cities and school districts, preparing — and what more needs to be done. • Sept. 23 — What individ- uals and families need to do to be prepared for “the big one.” Have questions? Send them to reporter Jolene Guz- man at jguzman@polkio and she’ll try and get them answered. Expansion on target for 2016 Grants received last month will get construction started By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer MONMOUTH — Funding for the Monmouth Senior Center expansion project is complete with a $90,000 grant awarded on Aug. 17 by the Ford Family Foundation. That, coupled with $40,000 from Meyer Memo- rial Trust, $30,000 from Ore- gon Community Fund and $15,000 from the Collins Foundation, will be added to the $127,000 raised by Friends of the Monmouth Senior Center and $120,000 donated by the city of Mon- mouth. Bids on construction of the 2,133-square-foot addi- tion will go out in the next few weeks with expected completion in 2016, said Mark Fancey, Monmouth community development director. The expansion plan has been 10 years in the making, starting out at a 3,600- square-feet add-on costing $800,000, Fancey said. The city applied for a Community Development Block Grant to construct the expansion, but the Senior Advisory Board would have to make policy changes to either only allow people older than the age of 60 in- side the building, or to only allow residents of Mon- mouth. The senior center serves Monmouth and surround- ing communities, including sister city Independence, which does not have its own senior center. The advisory board did not want to make policy changes as a condition of funding, and so went back to fundrais- ing and finding other av- enues to pay for the project. “The committee devel- oped a revised plan … (which) would add three new meeting rooms, an ad- ditional set of restrooms and additional storage,” Fancey said. The revised plan had an estimated cost of $370,000. With the grant from the Ford Family Foundation, the total project has raised $422,000. Additional funds will be used to either expand the storage area further or possi- bly add a solarium, Fancey said. 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First Session Begins Tuesday, Sept 15 • 6:30 pm Weekday Bible Building , 1156 SE Holman Ave. For more information or to register please call Kate or visit our website. 503-917-1625 www.crossandcrownministries.org Recycle this newspaper.