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.
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