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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2018)
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018 LOCAL NEWS County making progress in Cascadia preparations By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER When a wind storm knocked out power to Herm- iston recently, it sent resi- dents scurrying to nearby towns in search of food, fuel and Wi-Fi. If the Cascadia earth- quake hits, those same peo- ple who couldn’t last three hours without electricity will likely have to last sev- eral weeks without it. No electricity. No inter- net. No landlines. No cell phone reception. No debit/ credit card readers. No gas- oline for sale. That’s the prediction for Eastern Oregon residents if “the big one” hits, which seismologists at Oregon State University give about a one in three chance of hap- pening in the next 50 years. In Umatilla County, a collection of nonprofit and government entities keep chipping away at prepara- tions year after year. “It goes back to what we preach to the citizens,” Umatilla County emergency manager Tom Roberts said. “The more prepared you are, the less others have to worry about you. The same goes for the counties, the more prepared they are the less the state has to worry about us.” Some progress has been made since a summit last May brought various public and private leaders together to discuss earthquake prepa- rations. Recently the ham STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS When a major Cascadia earthquake hits there will be widespread power outages that could last for weeks. radio equipment in the coun- ty’s emergency management center was modified so that the county now has the abil- ity to contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 10 office in Bothell, Washington, and other federal agencies like the Department of Home- land Security directly in the event that the Oregon Emer- gency Management com- mand center is down. It very well could be if Cascadia strikes. Accord- ing to a state audit released in January, the Oregon Office of Emergency Man- agement’s command cen- ter is not seismically ret- rofitted, meaning there’s a good chance it could col- lapse or be damaged in a quake. There are three alter- native sites identified, but two of those are also at risk of collapse, and OEM has not practiced running a com- mand center out of any of them. The audit also found that only two-thirds of state agencies have a plan for con- tinuity of operations should catastrophe strike, and far fewer have actually trained staff on the plans. “Without these plans in place,” the audit warns, “Oregon’s government is at serious risk of failing to con- tinue with or reestablish its key operations following a catastrophic event.” Even if the county can communicate with the state during a catastrophe, area Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES/RACES) coordinator Alan Polan said FEMA may still want to communicate directly with Umatilla County to get a better idea of damage and resources. Umatilla County Emergency Coordinator Alan Polan reads out his call sign on a ham radio during a text of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 10 ham radio network on Wednesday in Pendleton. “It helps FEMA have bet- ter situational awareness,” Polan said. “... The govern- ment will be trying to fig- ure out how to get the most bang for their buck in terms of response.” Local ham radio opera- tors are participating in exer- cises with FEMA the third Wednesday of each month so that they’ll know just what to do in the event of a real emergency. In the past year the county has also worked to build more partnerships with church groups and nonprof- its that could mobilize in the event of a disaster. Last Wednesday Roberts was meeting with Mike West of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit collection of mostly veter- ans, retired law enforcement and retired medical person- nel who respond to disas- ters. In the past the organi- zation has been focused on responding to national and international disasters like hurricanes, but Team Rubi- con recently helped clean up a flooded farm outside of Milton-Freewater, and West said they have become inter- ested in having local chap- ters respond to more local challenges. “It gives people a great opportunity to come and serve,” he said, noting that he would like to start having at least one event a month in order to help build a sense of community among area vol- unteers and help them gain experience that could come in handy during a larger disaster. Roberts said Team Rubi- con could provide some “fantastic capacities” for the county in the event of a disaster, from physical labor to helping manage “spon- taneous volunteers” who often show up to help with a disaster without training or affiliation. “They can help backfill staff, do mitigation,” Rob- erts said. “Those are areas a lot of emergency manag- ers lose sleep at night won- dering, ‘How am I going to do that?’” Roberts said after the Cascadia summit last year several church groups also reached out to him, as well as businesses. Cities that participated in the summit are also doing a good job of starting to pre- pare for a Cascadia-level event, he said, citing Pend- leton and Weston as two examples doing a “bang-up job” of creating an emer- gency preparedness commit- tee and encouraging resil- iency in the community. He also cited the work of the Local Emergency Pre- paredness Committee, made up of local industries han- dling large amounts of haz- ardous materials. They are legally required to meet in committee, he said, but Umatilla County’s group has been cited as a “flag- ship” example in the state of going above and beyond what is required in planning for a disaster. They recently received a grant to host some tabletop training exercises with Dean Marcum, who specializes in designing such exercises. MORE WINNERS. MORE OFTEN. 23 FOUR 10 , 000 CASH $ GRAND PRIZE WINNERS! Win a qualifying drawing and receive: ANNIVERSARY FIREWORKS SHOW baturday, March 10 bhow begins at 8pm For Pyro-Musical tune into KCUW 104.3fm 200 CASH $ Entry into the POWER HOUR drawing for $ 1,000 cash Entry into the GRAND PRIZE drawing for $ 10,000 cash Earn entries all month long! Drawings Every Thursday-Sunday I 8-9:30pm 10pm Power Hour Drawings Grand Prize Drawing March 29-April 1 ® CASINO • HOTEL • GOLF • CINEPLEX • RV • MUSEUM • DINING • TRAVEL PLAZA 800.654.9453 • PENDLETON, OR • I-84, EXIT 216, wildhorseresort.com. 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