June 07, 2017

Citizens, first responders prepare for a great shake

If and when the “big one” hits, Clallam County Fire District 3 Chief Ben Andrews says, Sequim and its surrounding communities will be much more prepared than they were a year ago.

A crowd of community residents who are part of CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) joined first responders — in all, about 200 — on Saturday in Sequim, in what local emergency preparedness leaders call the first-of-its-kind earthquake response training.

See a video of the training courtesy of KSQM’s Ed Evans here.

Led by Clallam County Fire District 3 officials, citizens who have been training for the better part of a year practiced searching for “victims” located throughout an unused portion of the Sequim Community School.

The exercise aimed to simulate on a small scale the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, a predicted magnitude 9.0 seismic event local and regional leaders expect would knock out power and resources to regions from southern British Columbia to northern California.

Andrews, who with District 3 Assistant Chief Dan Orr and Blaine Zechenelly, disaster planning/EMT for District 3, led the exercise, said the impact on the Olympic Peninsula may be even more catastrophic than in more urban areas, considering the area’s geographic isolation.

“We’re an isolated community; we don’t have the depth of first responders to respond on a large scale,” Andrews said.

A shift of nine firefighters and four police officers aren’t going to be able to cover a 145-square-mile area, he said. Instead of putting out fires and treating minor injuries, first responders will be assessing the overall emergency situation, organizing a response and managing civilian efforts such as CERT teams.

“It’s going to be neighbor helping neighbor,” Andrews said.

The Sequim chief said recent emergency experiences like the Oso mudslide encouraged him to examine how local responders can integrate the community in handling emergency situations.

The CERT program has been around for years, said Penny Linterman of the emergency management unit of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, but that it was predominantly established to be used in local neighborhoods.

Adding a “Tier 2” of CERT helpers lets community members become part of the overall emergency response, she said. Instead of simply helping organize relief efforts in their own neighborhoods, citizens can get training on how to lead efforts throughout the community.

That help takes pressure off the fire department, Andrews said, who many people may look to for help in a major disaster.

“Eventually we will overcome all these problems (in a Cascadia kind of event) but it’s going to be a 30-, 60-, 90-day (issue) of moving resources,” Zechenelly said. “As Washingtonians, it’s ‘How do we survive until we get those resources moving?’”

Fortunately for the Sequim area, he said, the CERT program has been popular with dozens of community members bringing forth their own background expertise and efforts.

“Think about all the skill sets we have here; we have a lot of life experience,” Zechenelly said. “That’s a key factor in helping getting us organized.”

In all, about 200 people are CERT trained, Linterman said, and hopes to see that number double by this time next year.

By preparing for a major earthquake, Andrews said, the community will be much better prepared for any disaster that comes its way.

“We’re going to be so much more prepared for the five-day winter storm, the two-week power outage, the flood event,” he said. (He encouraged citizens to have even more than a standard three-day supply of food and supplies, instead asking them to consider something closer to two weeks up to a month.)

On Saturday, nine teams of CERT trainees performed search-and-rescue efforts through darkened hallways of the Sequim Community School, in portions that are earmarked to be removed this summer. Using a system of ropes to keep team members from getting lost, CERT squads sought out victims and made note of what was found in each room and when each room was searched.

Real-life training

Saturday’s training was a boon for both CERT teams and local first responders, he said, because it gave local citizens a hands-on experience in what a major disaster would look like.

“This is the first time they’ve been able to use these skills outside their neighborhood,” he said.

“This is as close as we can get to (an emergency environment) in real life,” Zechenelly added.

Pat Baxter, a Joyce-area CERT team captain, has been involved with emergency preparedness groups for years before she retired three years ago and moved to the peninsula.

“I look at this as being the perfect storm,” she said of the exercise.

Baxter said it looked as if CERT members had a good time after the morning portion of Saturday’s nine-hour exercise.

“I’m totally amazed at the professionalism and the enthusiasm from all these teams.”

Saturday’s drill was the largest CERT training ever in Clallam County.

Andrews said a successful training session for CERT members would be that “everyone comes out uninjured and that they are taking pride in their training and work,” for for the fire district, “that teams come away with an understanding of what’s expected of them.”

A goal for Clallam County, Linterman said, is to see more of these exercises and training across the county. She said there is a 150-person waiting list for CERT training but that the county always is looking for more volunteers.

For more information about the CERT program, contact Linterman at plinterman@co.clallam.wa.us or 417-2483.

Kudos for their efforts

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Emergency Management Department received special recognition in a recent report by the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, which helps resolve difficult public policy issues in conjunction with Washington State University Extension Service and the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.

The report, entitled “Washington State Coast Resilience Assessment Final Report,” recognizes Clallam County as a leader in Cascadia earthquake planning and preparation. Clallam County Sheriff’s Emergency Management Division’s “island/area command concept” is recognized as a model for emergency preparation planning for Washington Coastal counties.

Five command areas have been established within Clallam County with about 20 “islands” within those command areas. This allows planners of Emergency management to craft a response plan each community can implement to start immediate rescue and response without waiting for outside help.

The Ruckelshaus Center also recognized the important contributions made by Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management volunteers who mapped the 20 micro-islands and began coordinating plans with residents.

The report was developed for U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer, the Washington State Department of Ecology and a number of coastal Communities in Grays Harbor. The assessment explores opportunities to address concerns about coastal erosion, flooding, landslides, rising sea levels, large earthquakes and tsunamis. More than 100 people were interviewed for the assessment in Washington coastal counties from the Columbia River to Cape Flattery.

Map Your Neighborhood

A key to helping overall community efforts in responding to emergency situations, Fire District 3 chief Ben Andrews says, is the Map Your Neighborhood program. The next local one is set for 2:30-4 p.m. Saturday, June 17, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave. RSVP to Wayne at 907-227-2296.


By:  Michael Dashiell
Source: Sequim Gazette