By Michael Dashiell

Olympic Peninsula News Group

SEQUIM — If and when the “big one” hits, Clallam County Fire District 3 Chief Ben Andrews said, 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.

Led by Fire District 3 officials, residents who have been training for the better part of a year practiced searching for mock victims located throughout an unused portion of 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.

Catastrophic

Andrews, who led the exercise with Fire District 3 Assistant Chief Dan Orr and EMT Blaine Zechenelly, 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 busy 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 it was predominantly established to be used in neighborhoods.

‘Tier 2’ helpers

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 takes pressure off the fire department, Andrews said, which 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 who have brought their own background expertise.

“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 she 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 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 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 mock victims and made note of what was found in each room and when each room was searched.

Saturday’s training was a boon for both CERT teams and local first responders, Andrews said, because it gave local residents a hands-on experience of 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.

Added Zechenelly: “This is as close as we can get to [an emergency environment] in real life.”

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

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

Nine-hour 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,” she said.

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 the fire district, “that teams come away with an understanding of what’s expected of them.”

Linterman said there is a 150-person waiting list for CERT training but that the county is always looking for more volunteers.

For more information about the CERT program, contact Linterman at [email protected] or 360-417-2483.

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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at [email protected].

Community Emergency Response Team members carry out a “victim” of an earthquake during Saturday’s drill. (Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Community Emergency Response Team members treat “victims” of an earthquake during Saturday’s drill. (Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group)