By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Some 200 plus individuals will descend on the Grand Mound-Rochester area next Thursday morning as public agencies from five counties test their capacity to respond to a natural disaster.
Members of fire districts, sheriff’s offices and medics will be practicing what they would do in the aftermath if a tsunami should hit Washington’s coast.
It’s not the most likely event, but its consequences would be widespread, according to Homeland Security Region Three Coordinator Jesi Chapin.
For example, traffic from coastal evacuees will become very congested and when those residents arrive, they will need sheltering and feeding, she said.
“When the day comes, when it actually hits, (those) people are not going to be able to go back,” she said. “We’ll be in a position here of housing people in the interior corridor.”
It begins at 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. with a simulated mass casualty response – a bus filled with evacuees crashes – on county property at 183rd Avenue and Sargent Road.
The exercise conducted by Homeland Security Region Three is titled Pacific Panda.
Joining the public agencies will be the American Red Cross, American Medical Response, Olympic Ambulance and 120 volunteers who will be role playing, according to Chapin.
Agencies will be testing communications, citizen sheltering, incident management and mass care, according to organizers.
Maple Lane School will be the site for practicing sheltering, as well as a debriefing afterward, Chapin said.
Area residents might also notice shuttle busses for participants from parking areas at Great Wolf Lodge and Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers.
The counties involved in the practice response include Lewis, Thurston, Grays Harbor, Pacific and Mason.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I’m not worried about tsunami, I want to know what they think they can do when the fallout from Fukushima hits this area? Reactor #4 is ready to tumble and will have a major effect on the northern hemisphere! Guess nobody’s thought about that.