This week’s massive Cascadia Rising rehearsal for disaster will involve people all across the North Olympic Peninsula.
The regional drill will be largely a tabletop exercise for first responders and emergency management officials in Clallam and Jefferson counties as they prepare for possible isolation, lack of electrical power and other hazards after a major earthquake.
From the southern end of East Jefferson County to south of Forks, firefighters and law enforcement, hospital and ambulance personnel, city and county officials, amateur radio operators, National Guard, Coast Guard and others who will be on the front lines when a disaster hits the Peninsula will be working on the four-day drill.
Working with them this week will be many people who are ordinary residents — people who just live here and who would be in dire straits in the event of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami that could cut off access in and out of the Peninsula.
Five neighborhoods in East Jefferson County are organized to become an important part of the drill by practicing how to assess damages, injuries and needs, and get the information to the emergency command center.
The neighborhoods — Cape George, the bluffs in upper Uptown in Port Townsend, Kala Point, Port Hadlock Heights and all of Marrowstone Island — have been trained to the highest level of preparedness, said Tanda McMillin-Cox, community operations program coordinator for Jefferson County Emergency Management.
Teams will receive images of damage and injuries and must convey what they are seeing to amateur radio operators who will communicate with the emergency command center.
“This will be folded into the Cascadia Rising exercise,” said McMillin-Cox.
“At our end, we are waiting to hear from them.”
The Dungeness Map Your Neighborhood group on Tuesday also will practice procedures to inspect and secure their neighborhood.
Tsunami Saunter
At about noon Wednesday in Port Angeles, volunteers with the Peninsula Trails Coalition will walk participants through a possible route to higher ground in a Tsunami Saunter from the Feiro Marine Life Center on the waterfront to the Vern Burton Community Center on Fourth Street.
The saunter is limited to 35 people, so those who want to participate are asked to arrive at Feiro on City Pier by 11:40 a.m., said Kathleen Reiter, training coordinator for Clallam County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES).
Two businesses — Olympic Stationer and Sound Bikes & Kayaks — have offered to allow participants to be guided through their businesses to provide access that might otherwise not be available after a disaster, Reiter said.
Some volunteers will be in costume, dressed like tsunami waves pushing people ahead of them.
The Joyce Community Emergency Response Team on Tuesday will conduct a damage assessment exercise in that area.
From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday in Clallam Bay, Clallam County Fire District No. 5 plans a “reverse CPOD” (Community Point of Distribution) that will both provide practice for first responders and the community and collect food for the local New Hope Food Bank, said Fire Chief Patricia Hutson.
In a disaster, people would come to the Strait View Self Storage and Strait Shots Espresso area at 17295 state Highway 112 to get food and water.
On Thursday, they will go through the drill but will donate food to the food bank in Clallam Bay.
“Hopefully, we will get a good turnout,” Hutson said. “It’ll teach them where to go during a disaster and give us practice.”
Many mini-drills
Those are just a few of the mini-drills that will accompany this week’s effort to coordinate local, state and regional responders so they are prepared for the Big One.
“All 140 neighborhoods that have organized through the Map Your Neighborhood program will play at whatever level they can,” McMillin-Cox said.
Said Keppie Keplinger, Jefferson County Emergency Management public information officer: “We’re encouraging anyone to take advantage of this moment in time and stop and think for a moment and do something for preparedness.”
If nothing else, business staffs and families can talk “and discuss, if the Big One hit, what would we do,” Keplinger said.
Shaking time
Jayme Wisecup, program coordinator with the Clallam County Emergency Management Department, said a massive quake would announce itself by shaking the ground for two minutes or longer.
If that happens, one should “immediately drop, take cover and hold onto something to protect your head,” she said.
Once shaking stops, check for injuries, then check on family and pets, she said. Assess your area. Can you stay there, or must you leave? Then fan out to help your neighbors.
The “golden hour,” the 60 minutes after a quake, is when the most lives can be saved, Wisecup said.
Keplinger asked those who do participate in some manner in emergency preparations during the Cascadia Rising drill to “write a few notes and let us know.
“Tell us the lessons you learned and what we can do to help them get better prepared.”
At least 120 neighborhoods have organized in Clallam County through the Map Your Neighborhood program, Wisecup said, and department officials hope to get more interested.
The community points of distribution will accept drops of food and water from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and serve as distribution points “because we won’t have roads” possibly after a quake, Wisecup said.
Five sites have been established so far.
First responders
Among the activities visible during the drill will be setup of emergency operations centers in both counties.
In Jefferson County, the center will be set up Monday morning at Bob Bates Little League Field off Elkins Road in Port Hadlock, Keplinger said.
At Indian Island, the Army will oversee a Joint Logistics over the Shore exercise, which concerns the loading and unloading of ships without port facilities, as part of Cascadia Rising.
It will involve “multiple military assets.”
In Clallam County, the Joint Information System Command and Control from Dover, Del., will set up operations at 255 Carlsborg Road on Monday, according to Jim Borte, project coordinator at Clallam County.
On Tuesday, a similar unit will set up at William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles, he said.
An air rescue with the Washington Air National Guard is planned Friday from the Carlsborg center. No time has been scheduled.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.