PORT ANGELES — Update your emergency kit, review how to protect yourself once the shaking starts and make sure you’ve designated an out-of-area contact in case cellphone towers are down.
Or, at least think about it.
It’s all about heightened awareness, emergency management coordinators in Clallam and Jefferson counties said Monday about the annual Great Washington ShakeOut earthquake drill.
Beginning at 10:18 a.m. Thursday — purposely 18 minutes after 10 on the date 10-18 — All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) sirens will echo in communities across the North Olympic Peninsula and the state for 3 minutes.
It won’t be the usual echoing Westminster chimes used for monthly tests, but rather the wail of tsunami sirens.
Participation in the drill in both counties has increased from nearly 13,000 participants in 2016 to an estimate of nearly 20,000 this year, including 1,200 members of tribes in Clallam County, according to the state Military Department’s shakeout.org website, where all manner of ShakeOut drill information and tips can be found.
“We’re hoping that it’s a reminder,” Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Cameron, also the county Emergency Operations Center director, said Monday.
“The whole thing is a couple of minutes to remind you of where you live and how vulnerable we could be.”
There will be an estimated 12,607 ShakeOut participants in Clallam County and 7,011 in Jefferson, with a major participation from governments and schools, and in Jefferson County, an estimated 5,300 community residents taking part.
“We need people to survive and get out of [tsunami] inundation areas,” said Jamye Wisecup, Clallam County emergency program coordinator-trainer.
She added that people need to think about the implications of the earth shaking for 3-5 minutes.
First, think drop, cover and hold on, covering your head while you protect yourself, not only while running for cover but while under a desk, she and Jefferson County Emergency Management Director Willie Bence said.
The two people who died in Olympia in the Feb. 28, 2001, Nisqually Earthquake, which lasted 40 seconds, died from debris falling on them, Wisecup said.
“What we are talking about is being mindful; about what’s going on around you,” she said.
Bence said he’s hoping the drill creates an awareness of the hazards of living east of the 600-mile Cascadia Subduction Zone Fault.
It stretches from off the Pacific Northwest coast to Cape Mendocino, Calif., and causes earthquakes every 300 to 500 years, the last one being in 1700, or 318 years ago, scientists say.
“We’re in right about the time frame on average that we see these events,” Bence said.
“We may be long gone by the time it hits again.
“It’s a very real threat, so it’s something we do have to keep an eye on.”
According to maps recently developed by the state Department of Natural Resources, a magnitude 9 Cascadia earthquake would generate a tsunami wave as high as 21 feet that would reach Port Angeles within 60 minutes, washing over Ediz Hook, and hit Port Townsend within 100 minutes.
“Any coastal community is at risk for some sort of inundation,” Bence said.
Soil liquefaction, he added, is a threat for shoreline properties with structures built on fill.
“But that doesn’t create any sort of immediate threat,” he said.
“The threat is far greater from objects falling from overhead.”
Bence said it’s important for residents to have emergency items on hand including a minimum 30-day supply of food, a gallon of water per day per person for 30 days, an FM radio — hand-crank, battery-free ones are available — along with a flashlight, batteries and a propane stove.
Plans should go beyond fleeing to higher ground in anticipation of a tsunami.
That should include designating a contact person outside of Washington whom residents can contact, and potential places they may have to live outside of the area should a Cascadia earthquake occur.
That 3 minutes of wailing siren is a good time to think about all that, Wisecup said.
“We live in earthquake country.
“We want people to go into that thinking process” of preparation, she added.
Being fully prepared would allow residents to avoid being caught flatfooted, “being under that table for 3 minutes thinking like I shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Wisecup said.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
