In an emergency…Major disaster unlikely, but officials urging precautions

GRANT COUNTY — In the event that Seattle area residents are forced to evacuate, Richard Pearce has concerns about where the displaced citizens would go when making their way inland.

"This is about the perfect place for people to run out of gas, food, water and ideas," the Moses Lake City Councilman said of his community.

Moses Lake becoming a relocation site for potential disaster evacuees is just one scenario Pearce and other officials have laid on the table in recent weeks. Since hurricanes have left many without a home to go to along the United States gulf coast, the local leaders have wondered how Grant County would respond to a similar disaster.

Residents of this inland county wouldn't suffer from the same type of natural disaster as those on the Pacific coast, and another ash fall similar to the one that spewed remnants of Mount St. Helens throughout the Northwest 25 years ago has also been assessed as a low risk. But Sam Lorenz does want people to be prepared in the event that a disaster such as a winter storm and blizzard was to close roads and knock power out to Grant County residents over several days.

Lorenz is the director of Grant County Emergency Management, a county agency that has been stressing the need for easy-to-create kits that could be used during a disaster situation. A blizzard has been listed by Lorenz as one of many disasters to impact Grant County, and the one with the highest risk to county residents. During countless presentations Lorenz has given to city councils and community groups in the weeks since the hurricanes first struck the gulf coast, Lorenz has urged the creation of such 72-hour kits, which store bare essentials needed for any given situation.

"Three days gives us ample time to access the damage, prioritize any actions and begin the process of reinstating services and needs of the community," Lorenz said.

While water and non-perishable food items are necessities in such a kit, Lorenz said a battery operated radio and extra batteries are also much needed when the lights go out for several days. Lorenz is able to broadcast messages on local radio stations in the event of an emergency. Emergency alert messages can also be heard on NOAA weather band radios, which Lorenz said will only be used for announcements in an emergency event, and he said are available in most electronics stores. In an emergency, radio messages will instruct residents of a specific area to evacuate, or stay sheltered.

"Sometimes that's the best thing to do, is shelter them right where they're at," said Moses Lake Interim Fire Chief Tom Taylor.

Fire and police agencies are the ones who will respond to a disaster situation, and Taylor said those agencies try to work with each other and emergency management to coordinate their response to any given situation. Every situation is a different one, but Taylor said emergency responders will still attempt to serve as many calls as they can.

"Obviously every agency is going to have their limitations," Taylor said, "and you're going to have to rely on your neighbors."

Power cut during storms usually happens because of down trees, and Lorenz said the local Grant County Public Utility District has done a good job of maintaining trimming on its trees. The PUD has a near 100 percent reliability rate for power transmission, with poles designed to meet up to 100 mile per hour winds and a half-inch of ice buildup, but in the event of an emergency, the PUD asks customers to report outages and stay away from downed power lines until crews can repair them.

Grant County PUD spokesman Gary Garnant said the PUD works with emergency management and also coordinates with local emergency planning committees in its response plans. Steel or cedar power poles are used in certain areas depending on winds, and Garnant said power could be shut off immediately and automatically if needed.

The last major storm that cut power to a large number of county residents was on Oct. 28, 2003, and Garnant said it cut power to all of central and southern Grant County over a 24-hour period, because of a number of individual outage areas in the county.

A blizzard isn't the only situation Lorenz and other officials have prepared for though. In the event of a chemical plant incident or train derailment where a hazardous material could enter the atmosphere, Lorenz said the local fire department would be the first to respond to the area. Such a cloud would force residents into their homes, through a program called "Shelter in Place" that asks people to move into a sealed inside room of a residence. Pamphlets about the program advocate turning off all ventilation systems and sealing a room with plastic and duct tape.

"Just by going into an interior room and sheltering themselves from the outside world," Lorenz said will enable residents to weather such an incident.

But Pearce's concern is that, in a disaster situation, the overwhelming number of people impacted might force some residents to go without city services for a period of days. He wants to instill in residents' minds that they may have to survive on their own for those few days, and has been supporting creation of the 72-hour kits.

"I'm kind of into this," Pearce said of emergency preparedness, "but I'm surprised that a lot of people aren't."

Once a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Pearce has learned about what is needed for emergency preparedness, and still keeps a kit in each one of his family's cars. He has recently picked up extra battery powered flashlights and radios to further add to his kits. He suggests putting items like $20 bills or a deck of cards into an emergency management kit, and pointed out that prescriptions, and contact information would be good additions to such kits.

Pearce is in the process of forming a committee to educate and communicate responses to local disasters. Once formed, Pearce said he would like to see more response plans and drills in Moses Lake.

That planning is something Lorenz has gone over extensively with a few dozen residents in the southern tip of Grant County, those within reach of the Hanford site. About 40 Grant County residents receive calendars each year that double as evacuations procedures in the event of an accident at Hanford.

"As long as they're cleaning it up, it's still hazard," Lorenz said.

Lorenz said that NOAA weather radios are also provided to the families, and those families drill annually to familiarize themselves with their evacuation plan to Wahluke High School.

But Lorenz admits that such an evacuation plan hasn't been instated in other parts of Grant County. Such planning is needed, and Lorenz said different agencies are continuing to work on those plans. Depending on how long and what type of evacuation, authorities have considered housing evacuees in locations including the Gorge Amphitheatre during a mass exodus, and using Grant Transit Authority and possibly school busses for such an evacuation.

The response, however, would depend on the situation. Leonard Johnson with Grant County Fire District No. 5 said it would be difficult to say how his district would respond to any given situation, but said any response would likely involve a number of different agencies.

Officials with the Moses Lake Police Department agree. Chief Dean Mitchell said his department takes part in table top exercises with county emergency management officials each year, mostly dealing with air disasters.

"We're lucky in this area that everyone works together really well," Mitchell said of the various agencies.

To help citizens respond to disasters, emergency management Homeland Security Coordinator Travis Skidmore is involved in the Community Emergency Response Team, designed to teach people the tools they need in disaster situations and augment emergency responders. Statistics Skidmore uses in presentations state that in 95 percent of emergencies, bystanders or victims are the first to respond for emergency assistance. Skidmore started working with the program earlier this year.

MLPD officers review their policies each year. And Mitchell said he believes the residents of Moses Lake and Grant County would probably be self-reliant if any disaster were to strike.

"You just hope you never have to worry about those kind of things," Mitchell said.