This week, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are participating in Cascadia Rising. It’s an Earthquake and Tsunami response exercise.
There’s a lot of happening in this room at the Eugene Fire and Emergency Builiding.
“So they need shelter for about how many?”
People with government and private agencies are on phones, checking computers, talking with each other.
Kevin Holman is the City of Eugene’s Emergency Manager.
Holman: “One of the activities that they’ve been assigned initially in here, one of their main objectives is to find sheltering for 20 thousand individuals. So they’re out looking now.”
He says the training is a simulation of what would happen if a 9.0 earthquake hit the coast.
Holman: “We put in place a lot of policies and procedures to try to give us the preplanning piece so we don’t have to do this on the fly, from a cold start if you will.”
Holman says this drill is the culmination of about a year and a half of planning. The Cascadia Rising Exercise includes northwest states and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Rachael McDonald KLCC news at the Eugene Fire and Emergency Center.
