The Great Oregon ShakeOut: Putting earthquake preparedness in daily discourse Althea Rizzo Oregon Emergency Management

Great Oregon ShakeOut October 18, 2012

Shakeout.org/oregon

The Great Oregon ShakeOut: Putting earthquake preparedness in daily discourse

Althea RizzoOregon Emergency Management


Shakeout.org/oregon

What is the Great Oregon ShakeOut?

• The largest earthquake preparedness event that you’ve probably never heard of• October 18, 2012 at 10:18 a.m.• A state-wide Drop, Cover and Hold On

earthquake drill• Many other states, including California,

Washington and British Columbia


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March 11, 2011Tohoku-oki Earthquake and Tsunami

Seismic Intensity Map Locating Lost Family and Friends


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Human impact– 22,600 persons killed or missing nationwide • 15,500 confirmed deaths• 92.4% drowning

– 107,000 buildings collapsed, and another 111,000 partially collapsed

• BUT ….– 6.5 million people live within 200 miles of rupture

zone


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Factors affecting survival of tsunami

• Physical factors– geography and topography– distance to high ground– pre-disaster land use


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Factors affecting survival of tsunami• Human factors– time of the event– limited mobility– care giving behavior– past experience w. small

tsunamis (always more frequent than big ones)

– instinct to protect property


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Survival factors: Preparedness + “Herd Instinct”

• Regularly practiced drills• Follow other people evacuating


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Prepare your community …


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Recommendations• Enhance evacuation routes– Harden infrastructure– Clear way finding – night or day– Practice, practice, practice

• Build vertical evacuation refuges where high ground is not available.


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Embed tsunami information in ambient built environment


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Cascadia Planning Assumption

• Magnitude 9+ earthquake probable• Three metropolitan cities in impact zone–Portland–Seattle–Vancouver, B.C.

• Heavy urbanization along the I-5 corridor• Approximately 9.5 million people live in the

hazard zone in WA & OR


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Japanese emergency response challenges.

• Extreme scale of the tsunami disaster • Early reporting hampered by damage. • Satellite telephone access limited. • Highways/railways cut by landslides, tsunami. • Marine access to Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima

prefectures blocked 1st day by tsunami action, later by damaged docks + floating debris.

• No fuel (loss of power and facility damage).


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Responders as victims

• Lost political and response personnel,– Emergency Facilities

destroyed. •Otsuchi

Lost mayor, seven senior staff, and 31 other municipal employees in the tsunami.

•Minamis SanrikuEmergency operations and tsunami warning center was destroyed. 10 staff members survived by clinging to antennas on the roof.


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Recommendations: Ensure Critical Continuity

• Relocate critical facilities out of inundation zone• Retrofit critical facilities• Prohibit building new critical facilities in

inundation zone (already the law in Oregon – SB379)

• Construct critical facilities to meet the most robust standards


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Challenges to sheltering in Japan

• Local government officials and facilities did not always survive.

• Pre-designated shelters destroyed. • Food and water delayed up to three days. • Sheltering - mix of planned and ad hoc


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In-place sheltering

• Family or friends or own homes• Local shelters (can be a barrier to finding folks). • Lifelines (power, water, sewage, gas) lacking for

weeks.


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Recommendations

• Plan robust sheltering• Bring the message home– Personal prep– Neighborhood prep– Community prep

• Create a culture of preparedness– Great Oregon ShakeOut


Shakeout.org/oregon

How did it start?

• Based on the highly successful Great California ShakeOut

• Annual event involving over 12 million people• Now spreading to other US states and to

Canada, New Zealand and Japan.


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What is the purpose of the ShakeOut?

• Annual opportunity to practice how to be safer during big earthquakes

• Educate on the correct actions during an earthquake (Drop, Cover and Hold On!)

• Raise awareness and CREATE ACTION• Make it fun!


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Objectives of the ShakeOut

• Encourage participation in the one minute drill• Encourage participates to use this opportunity

to:– Revise emergency plans, – Practice tsunami evacuation– Assemble emergency kits– Talk to friends, family and coworkers


Shakeout.org/oregon

How does it work?

• Register on the ShakeOut website– http://www.shakeout.org/oregon/

• Participate in the Drop, Cover and Hold drill– October 18, 2012 at 10:18 a.m.

• Take it even further – conduct an evacuation, practice your business continuity or family plan...various options available


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You can’t prevent an Earthquake, but you can prepare for one

Building a culture of prevention is not easy because the cost of prevention has

to be paid in the present, while its benefits lie in the distant future.

Moreover, the benefits are not tangible; they are the disasters that did not

happen. (to paraphrase Kofi Annan)

[email protected]

You can create a culture of awareness.

You will make the difference between “surviving the next Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami” and “recovering from the next Cascadia Subduction earthquake and tsunami”.

If you take this message home, and make it a part of your daily discourse, then we will be able to recover, not just survive.

Documents

The Great Oregon ShakeOut: Putting earthquake preparedness in daily discourse Althea Rizzo Oregon Emergency Management