PORT TOWNSEND — At 10:18 a.m. Thursday, the tone went off at Salish Coast Elementary School signaling the beginning of the the Great Washington ShakeOut.
Students in Karmen Meier’s fourth-grade class were discussing similes as they read stories they are writing when the drill began.
Students tucked quickly under their desks, held their necks with their hands and grabbed furniture legs, all per instructions. They held the position while listening to an announcement read by Assistant Principal Shelby MacMeekin over the intercom system that lasted a couple minutes.
MacMeekin read from a prepared script, describing the event as the “largest earthquake safety drill in U.S. history.”
She asked students to drop, cover and hold and said that in the event of an earthquake, a tsunami might be generated.
“In the event of a real earthquake, we would evacuate the building,” she said.
Kaleb Kruse and Kaida Rodrigues, both 9, took the drill seriously.
“I’m excited, and nervous, and a little scared,” Rodrigues said.
Kruse said he didn’t want to make a mistake.
“I haven’t done this before and don’t want to mess up for the real earthquake,” he said.
A group of students had been outside during the drill and knelt and covered their heads. Several said they felt safer being outside than being in the building under a desk.
AHAB (All Hazard Alert Broadcast) tsunami sirens were activated for three minutes. The tones were broadcast from three sirens in Jefferson County — the Northwest Maritime Center, Point Hudson and Fort Worden — as well as in Clallam County, where schools, libraries and tribes held drills.
“The dispatch center got some calls from some people who were not aware of the planned drill,” said Keppie Keplinger, deputy director and public information officer for Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.
The drill provided the opportunity for local radio station KPTZ to be on-air, broadcasting live from the Elkins Road Emergency Operations Center. Also on site were ham radio operators who were practicing between organized neighborhood groups.
Participation in the drill in both Jefferson and Clallam counties has increased from nearly 13,000 participants in 2016 to an estimate of nearly 20,000 this year, including 1,200 members of tribes in Clallam County, according to the state Military Department’s www.shakeout.org/washington website.
There were an estimated 12,607 ShakeOut participants in Clallam County and 7,011 in Jefferson County.
“It’s always a good opportunity to practice these steps and we always learn something,” Keplinger said.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
