Emergency drills train Portland residents on earthquake response and logistics

PORTLAND OREGON (KPTV) – The Portland Office of Emergency Management on Tuesday hosted a training exercise at its headquarters in SE Portland, running disaster scenarios in preparation for the days following the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

According to geologists, such an earthquake is overdue in the Pacific Northwest, where one occurs approximately every 300 years when tension is released along the colliding plates of the Earth's crust off the coast. The last earthquake occurred 324 years ago, and there is a 1 in 3 chance it will strike within the next 50 years.

They say the quake could reach a magnitude of 9.0, and could also trigger a tsunami along the coast.

Tuesday's emergency drill reenacted how things could play out just days after an event when agencies scramble to get critical information and supplies to people.

The building itself was specially designed to withstand an earthquake, with supplies needed to support staff independently for up to two weeks after the disaster.

During the so-called “IronOR” exercise, members of the bureau announced different aspects of the simulated “disaster”, announced the damage to different parts of the city, and how different agencies responded.

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Participants were divided into teams from Incident Command, Planning (gathering/sharing information, making plans), Logistics (managing supplies, making sure they have what they need), Finance and HR (making sure regular HR and finance processes occur), and Operations (strategies and tactics, how to implement ideas and plans).

The last time they did an exercise like this was about a decade ago, said Amanda Westervelt, operations coordinator.

“We've been through an important time in our nation's history, which is the COVID-19 pandemic, and we're getting back in person to do this kind of work now,” she told FOX 12 on Tuesday. “Multnomah County is the city of Gresham, Clackamas County, Washington County, the state and a bunch of other cities and counties throughout Oregon all at the same time.”

For local public information officers like Brandon Zero of Portland's Water Office, it's been a matter of learning how to collect important information and distribute it as quickly as possible.

“If there was an earthquake, no one would get their head pierced properly,” Zero said. “So how do I make the message as simple as possible, as clear as possible, and what is the most important information to get across to people?”

He said he also realized the importance of building strong relationships with his colleagues so that in the event of such an event, they could work together easily.

“There's a lot of passion and a lot of dedication in the room,” he said. “It's refreshing to see the level of collaboration we can achieve when everyone is in the same room.”

For the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), it's as much about passing on information as it is about measuring the condition of the roads.

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“What's the top priority? Those emergency routes are the ones that get you to hospitals, fire stations and other vital destinations,” said Dylan Rivera, a PBOT spokesman.

The biggest challenge is learning to communicate when the usual ways are not an option.

“One of the big things that comes up in every exercise is communication. How are we going to talk? It depends, if there's an earthquake, it might take out some of our basic communications, so we practice our PACE plans, which are the units' primary communication methods,” Westervelt said. and emergency alternatives.

“Maybe we rely on radios to get messages to these lighthouse points, and then word of mouth from there, and people spread the information to their neighbors,” Rivera added.

Even as they prepared for conditions that would be under their control, participants wanted audience members to know how to take care of themselves as well.

“It's really scary to think about,” Rivera said. “It's helpful to think about how you will survive the event, what you will need from day to day, what medical supplies you will need, and what non-perishable food you will need to be able to eat in a few weeks.”

For more information on how to better prepare yourself for disasters, you can visit publicalerts.org.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.

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