Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias was among a number of county and City of Sequim representatives to attend the executive-level Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) seminar on Jan. 8 in Olympia.
The seminar aimed at Washington county and city officials was intended to provide an overview of the CSZ policy challenges anticipated to occur during a catastrophic natural disaster and an update on state response planning underway.
The CSZ is a tectonic plate interface where the Juan de Fuca plate is moving beneath the continent (North American plate).
Stretching between Northern Vancouver Island to Northern California, the subduction zone is about 700 miles. Movement of the tectonic plates creates stress and pressure along the fault until it breaks — resulting in a large magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
The last big earthquake to leave its mark on the Olympic Peninsula dates back 316 years ago in 1700, but on average occur about every 500 years, according to the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup. Given the odds, chance of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake stemming from the CSZ within the next 50 years is about 1 in 10.
Estimated damages could result in more than 10,000 deaths, more than 30,000 injuries and economic losses in Washington, Oregon and California of about $70 billion.
Seminar speakers included Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty, the Adjutant General; Gov. Jay Inslee; John Schelling, Washington Military Department’s earthquake program manager; Glen Woodbury, director of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security; John Ufford, Washington Military Department’s preparedness unit manager; and Ed Taylor, Washington Military Department’s state exercise program manager.
Why did you attend this seminar?
Ozias: “I felt that it was important a county-level elected official go to help strengthen our lines of communication with those that will be helping us. As a county commissioner we’re ultimately responsible that our emergency preparedness staff are as ready as possible and we need to be able to explain to others what our needs are. I think our county’s emergency preparedness staff has done a fantastic job so far and after going to the seminar I think we’re a little ahead of the curve according to the National Guard.”
What was addressed?
Ozias: “It was more of policy focused seminar — they started out by trying to describe what the anticipated complications are going to be. Most of the discussion had to do with what the state and national responses are going to look like. There will be National Guard units coming from surrounding states to aid, but it was strongly encouraged that counties and local municipalities ensure they have lines of communication open, develop priorities and establish whether the different departments have the legal authority they may made need in such an unusual environment.”
What did you find most interesting?
Ozias: “I was really interested in and excited to see the level of planning that’s already going into this subject. Whether it’s a Cascadia event or something else, it’s very difficult for government to plan for something like the Cascadia event that will require resources and has an unknown timeline. Making the case for spending resources for some event expected to happen, but not sure when exactly, is a tough issue. It was interesting to see how many people around our county get it though and have been actively engaged in planning.
Secondly, it was interesting for me learn how important it is for individuals to prepare. It’s easy to think that it’s going to be so bad so what’s the point of trying to do anything? But there are a lot of simple things people can do to prepare. Our emergency preparedness staff work with self-organizing neighborhood groups to create plans and help outline how to handle things in the first few days of an emergency like this. I want to figure out what we can do publicly to facilitate more preparation.”
What can someone do to prepare?
Ozias: “Something anybody could do immediately is work with their own family to come up with an emergency plan. I know after I went to this and was telling my wife about it, we started to talk about a plan and what we can each expect. As a family you may have a different plan depending on what time of the day it happens. Other planning could include ensuring you have several weeks of food, water and medications. Think about pets. Moving beyond that, there’s working and planning with neighbors. Again, the county can assist with neighborhood planning efforts. I encourage anyone interested to get in touch with county’s emergency coordinator.”
What are the big concerns for the Sequim area, eastern Clallam County?
Ozias: “For eastern Clallam County the real concern right now is making sure communication between the government agencies is there and that we’re all on the same page. We need to make sure the fire and police departments are working collectively to come up with a regional plan because we’re all going to have the same immediate needs.”
If this event has been building for the past 300 years, why is there a seminar and push for preparation now?
Ozias: “What I remember hearing is a combination of things. Over the past 10 years, but especially the past five to six, we’ve learned a lot more. The science and predictions have gotten better. Basically, what we know now is this scale of earthquake happens every 300-500 years and it has been 316 years since the last one. So, it’s predicted that right now there’s a 1 in 10 chance that this earthquake will happen in the next 50 years. I think those odds are significant enough to warrant the level of planning we’re in.”
Clallam County Emergency Management
What: The Division of Emergency Management plans for and responds to both natural and manmade disasters
Phone: 417-2485
On the web: www.clallam.net/emergencymanagement
Upcoming exercise: Cascadia Rising is a multi-state, county and city catastrophic earthquake and tsunami functional exercise slated for June 7-10. Participating emergency operations and coordination centers at all levels of government and the private sector will simulate field response operations within their jurisdictions and neighboring communities, state emergency coordination centers, FEMA and major military commands.
