Agencies prep for Cascadia quake, tsunami

Key supports and needs for Del Norte identified

In the wake of the destructive earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, emergency agencies are creating a plan for a potential catastrophic earthquake and tsunami  on the Pacific Northwest coast.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that geophysicists identified the Cascadia subduction zone, a fault line roughly 40 miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest — including Del Norte county.

This fault line is very similar to the one that caused the 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the coast  of Japan last year, and geologists say similarly large seismic events happen periodically on the Cascadia fault line.

Should such an event happen, Del Norte would experience much more mayhem than the tsunami that rocked our harbor in March.

Last year, FEMA began “catastrophic planning for the Cascadia subduction zone.”  The “kick-off meeting” for the crucial North Coast agencies needed post-disaster was held on Tuesday at the Crescent Fire Protection District Office.

One of the goals for this initial meeting was to get the national, state and local agencies on the same page, said Cindy Henderson, emergency service manager for Del Norte County.

“I don’t think (state and national agencies) understood that we have pockets out there that are going to be by themselves,” Henderson said. “Gasquet could easily get cut off — there are big bridges in between us and Gasquet.”

Additionally, the state has resources that the county was unaware of, like an “air bridge” (fixed-wing helicopters that would fly in supplies from Redding to communities that get cut-off), Henderson said.

The 2011 meetings in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties aimed to identify where the state and federal government can provide support to local agencies after a Cascadia event.

“The result has been a tremendous help to the planning process and has assisted in providing the baseline for the next phase of planning,” wrote David Plance, the lead FEMA planner for this project, in a letter to the Triplicate.

The next step is to coordinate local communications in case normal means of communication are cut off. The Del Norte Amateur Radio Club has six members that have agreed to be part of an emergency response team if ham radio is the only communication option.

“Whether everything fails or not, ham radio will be there,” said Martin Kelly, secretary of the club.

There would be at least one ham radio operator at the Emergency Operation Center, which would be set up at the Crescent Fire Protection District after the disaster. Possibly other radio operators would be at key locations like the hospital, schools or emergency shelters, Kelly said.

“Wherever the emergency management people need it,” Kelly said.

On Feb. 9, Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino counties will test the emergency communications, including ham radio, to find out what needs work.

“If it goes off without a hitch, it means we didn’t plan the drill thorough enough to find the weaknesses,” Kelly said.

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