Historic 2012 Evergreen Quake Exercise
- John Cornelison
- June 5, 2012
Table of Contents
Washington Emergency Management Division is working with FEMA and a slew of local partners in the Puget Sound region to conduct the state's largest (i.e., most coordinated) earthquake exercise ever: Evergreen Quake 2012™.
The exercise’s goal is to “improve the collective joint-operational readiness of emergency management and other participating public safety institutions”.
From their site:
The Evergreen Quake Exercise 2012 is a series of three exercises intended to test the response and recovery capability of local, state, federal, tribal governments, and private sector entities located within the eight-county Puget Sound metro area. Read the Evergreen Quake Overview (PDF) for additional information.
Our huge thanks go to Rick Wallace in representing VashonBePrepared not only at the county level but also the state level for his months of effort in this effort.
I’m not sure if it is ironic or sad, but without such drills, we would not have had an opportunity to actually test out Operation Lifeline – getting a passenger ferry or barge to serve the island’s needs until the regular ferry service might resume. Without the drill, we might not have a phone list of all key contacts in the region – much less the personal relationships that really help in a disaster - once regular channels of business are disrupted. By preparing for a drill we get so much done that would also need to be done for a true disaster.
The three exercises in the EQES series are:
• Functional Exercise (June 5-6, 2012)
• Logistics Exercise (June 12-14, 2012)
• Recovery Tabletop Exercise (August 8 & 22, 2012)
Have a great exercise everyone tomorrow!
