Tsunami Evacuation Drills at the Oregon coast beginning next week!

May 13, 2011
Portland, Oregon: As part of the ongoing Tsunami Outreach Oregon education and awareness program administered by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) and Oregon Emergency Management (OEM), several coastal communities will be holding tsunami evacuation drills in the next 2 weeks.

The coastal communities of Pacific City and Neskowin and surrounding communities will be holding a voluntary Tsunami Evacuation Drill Tuesday, May 17, beginning at 10 AM. For more information on this drill, please contact Fire Captain Jim Kusz at (541) 407-0801.

Gold Beach, Port Orford and surrounding communities will be holding voluntary Tsunami Evacuation Drills Thursday, May 19, beginning at 10 AM. For more information on these drills contact South Coast Tsunami Outreach Coordinator Dave Lacey at (541) 373-0487 or Don Kendall, Curry County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Services Coordinator at (541) 247-3208.

On May 25 at 10 AM, the City Of Warrenton, nearby unincorporated areas, and Warrenton area schools will hold their voluntary Tsunami Evacuation Drill. For more information on this drill contact North Coast Tsunami Outreach Coordinator Patrick Wingard at (503) 717-3995.

The community wide drills in Pacific City, Gold Beach and Port Orford will also incorporate an aircraft broadcasting a message about the drill using an airborne public address system developed by Guardians From Above and the Power Sonix Corporation. This same type of airborne public address system has been used in search and rescue efforts by the Civil Air Patrol throughout the region and has been demonstrated in tsunami drills as an additional method of alerting coastal residents of a distant tsunami warning issued by the National Weather Service where sirens have limited coverage.

Read the complete news release in the attached PDF or go online at: http://www.OregonGeology.org

Information from: Althea Turner Geologic Hazards Program CoordinatorOregon Emergency

Oregon lies at a convergent continental boundary where two tectonic plates are colliding. There are over 1000 earthquakes over magnitude 1.0 in Washington and Oregon every year, with at least two dozen being large enough to be felt. Approximately 17 people have lost their lives due to earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest. Since 1872, there have been 20 damaging earthquakes in Washington and Oregon[1]. The Pacific coast poses special risk from tsunamis associated with a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. In addition to Subduction zone earthquakes, Oregon is also susceptible to crustal earthquakes. The two largest earthquakes in recent years in Oregon, Scotts Mills, (magnitude 5.6) and the Klamath Falls, main shocks (magnitude 5.9 and magnitude 6.0) of 1993 were crustal earthquakes[2].

In recognition of this seismic risk, Oregon has taken measures to mitigate and prepare for the inevitable destructive earthquakes and tsunami. In the 1990s, Oregon began to revise the Uniform Building Code to reflect the recent research showing the higher risks from earthquakes[3]. Many schools, public buildings and critical infrastructure were built previous to the newer, more stringent codes, and are susceptible to failure in a seismic event. According to a 2007 Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) report, over 1000 schools and 200 emergency facilities are at a high or very high risk of “probability that the building will collapse if ground motions occur that are equal to or exceed the maximum considered earthquake at that location.”[4]



[1] http://www.pnsn.org/INFO_GENERAL/faq.html. Retrieved June 24, 2009
[2] http://www.oregon.gov/DOGAMI/earthquakes/EQs.shtml. Retrieved June 24, 2009
[3] http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/PacNW/. Retrieved June 24, 2009
[4] DOGAMI Open-File Report O-07-02. p. iv.

Application period opens for seismic rehabilitation grants

SALEM, Ore – Oregon Emergency Management (OEM) announced today that grants are available for eligible applicants for seismic rehabilitation projects on certain type facilities. Grant applications will be accepted effective Sept. 15 through mid November, 2009. Information regarding eligibility and grant information can be located on OEM’s website: http://www.oregon.go/OMD/OEM/index.shtml.

The Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program (SRGP) provides funds to strengthen public schools and emergency services buildings so they will be less damaged during an earthquake. Reducing property damage, injuries, and casualties caused by earthquakes is the goal of the SRGP.

Senate President Peter Courtney has been instrumental in sponsoring legislation to provide the means to begin these projects. Approximately $30 million included in the 2009-11 Governor’s Recommended Budget to fund this program received approval by the Legislative Assembly during the 2009 Legislative Session.

“We have a responsibility to keep Oregonians as safe as possible,” Courtney said Tuesday. “This is a great opportunity for Oregon to move forward to retrofit school buildings and emergency services facilities.”

A 2007 report from Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries shows over 1,000 school and emergency services buildings at high or very high risk for collapse during an earthquake.

A recent report, “The Geologic Hazards, Earthquake and Landslide Hazard Maps, and Future Damage Estimates for Six Counties in the Mid/Southern Willamette Valley” indicates that an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale in Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Oregon Coast would result in future damage estimates at $12 billion in property damage and nearly 1,000 deaths in the region, which includes Yamhill, Marion, Polk, Benton, Linn, and Lane Counties.