Cambridge to host emergency preparedness event April 12

The City of Cambridge is sponsoring a special event Tuesday, April 12, featuring members of Washington County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) who will highlight preparedness and response in the wake of a natural disaster.

 Taxing districts, organizations, churches, businesses, and the public are invited to attend the event, which will take place at the Washington County Exhibit Hall, located off Highway 95 in Cambridge, at 7 p.m.

 An in-depth presentation will be given concerning “Cascadia Rising 2022” a national level exercise under the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) scheduled for June that will examine the ability of all levels of government, private industry, and the public to respond to, and recover from, a large rupture along the Cascadia Subduction Zone fault line.

 The fault line runs along the Pacific coastal states and a major shift, creating a large earthquake, would give rise to catastrophic scenarios including tsunamis, road and railway disruptions, fuel and supply shortages, and even refugees coming to Idaho from Oregon and Washington.

 If such a scenario sounds farfetched or unlikely, think again. 

 “It has the potential to take place,” said Tony Buthman, a local LEPC coordinator for Washington County Emergency Management. “The Oregon and Washington coast is susceptible to a 9.0 earthquake every, approximately, 350 years and the last event happened in the year 1700, so we are nearing our window.”

 Residents in Washington County would most likely experience fuel shortages and supply shortages, Idaho depending in large part on goods coming from ports and rail lines in Oregon and Washington, and power from Oregon’s major hydroelectric facilities along the Columbia River.

 FEMA is concerned enough about the probability of such an event occurring, it has been actively collaborating with local, state and federal agencies, tribal nations, private sector and non-governmental organizations across three states – Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Other key partners include the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Guard.

 “It’s not just about the exercise for us,” Army Maj. Gen. Bret D. Daugherty said of Cascadia Rising 2022 in an interview with the Washington (State) Military Department in 2019, three years after the 2016 Cascadia Rising national exercise. 

 “We really want to be prepared for the day an actual earthquake hits,” he said. “The better prepared and the more assistance we can get … will only make us stronger.”

 The objectives for the national exercise include Catastrophic Disaster Preparedness, Stabilization and Initial Recovery, National Resource Prioritization and Adjudication, Intermediate and Long-term Recovery, and Strategic Coordination.

 “The experts are saying we have about a 30 percent probability that it could happen between now and 2050 and when you start getting above 20 percent, it could happen just about any time now,” Buthman said.

 “The biggest thing is that we are under moderate shortages right now in the supply chain for different items such as fuel, food, and different things like that. If this were to happen, a large portion of our supplies come from the impacted areas, the ports of Washington and Oregon, so our supply chain would be disrupted to a point. Not only that, but we would also be a staging area to receive refugees from that area.”

 Ada and Canyon counties would serve as staging areas for supplies coming in from cities across the nation for the recovery effort.

 There has been an uptick in recent months in activity at or near the Cascadia Subduction zone, with a 5.0 hitting the southern point of the fault line on Sunday, April 3 and there have been others in recent months. A swarm of midrange quakes let loose along the line about a year ago.

 Buthman stressed that it is not his intent or the intent of Washington County’s LEPC to spread fear, but that a potential major earthquake at the Cascadia Subduction zone is a scenario people should take seriously.

 “Our presentation on April 12 will have quite a bit of forecast on the amount of expected damage,” he said. “They are talking about 16,000 miles of highways being disrupted and 700 port facilities. Millions of people would be impacted by this, so it’s a lot bigger than people give it credit.”

Buthman added that everyone should be prepared for anything, such as serious weather and the power going out, and stock up on essential supplies and food.

 “A few years ago, we saw the power go out for 13 hours here locally because a high transmission line drooped and shorted out on a tree in the Willamette Valley,” he said. “I would say this: you can take your chances if you want to, but wouldn’t it be better to be prepared in the event something does happen? So what if you move up your timetable for having additional supplies at home? You are probably going to use them throughout your life, so have a good supply on hand?”