Floridians prepare for hurricanes, Midwesterners prepare for tornadoes and Californians brace for earth-shaking quakes. It’s the tradeoff of living amongst beauty or for some, the middle of the country.
But one Northern California county is taking its natural disaster planning to the next level because of its geologic proclivity toward tsunamis. Del Norte County — a rural county at California’s far northwest corner with just less than 30,000 people — is testing its citizens’ response time in the event of a near-source Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, which would create a massive tsunami and potentially wipe out parts of the county known for its towering redwoods and fishing industry.
“It’s the reality of living on our coast and enjoying our area,” said Del Norte County Emergency Management Coordinator Cindy Henderson. “It’s been the talk of the town for weeks now.”
The “live-code evacuation exercise,” held Wednesday, March 24, was voluntary for residents and business owners, but brought out many schoolchildren, senior citizens and their four-legged friends from the county’s many “tsunami hazard zones” to higher ground. It was held in conjunction with two counties just to the south (Humboldt and Mendocino), but Del Norte was the only to hold a full-scale evacuation drill. Experts believe it was the largest tsunami evacuation ever held in the United States.
“This is a giant step for us — it’s the first time that it’s been done in a whole county that we know of,” Henderson said. “And the community jumped in, my goodness they jumped in.”
Community Onboard
Nearly 50 local, state and federal agencies and organizations participated, including the three Native American tribes (Yurok, Talowa and the Smith River Rancheria), local media and various public safety agencies. A public education campaign was launched three months prior to the drill, in which officials went door-to-door and told residents their risk factors. With newly updated tsunami inundation zone maps at their disposal — which were released statewide in December 2009 and highlight areas that would be underwater in a worst-case scenario — citizens were forewarned of the drill and told they would have 10 to 15 minutes to evacuate after a near-source quake hit.“I’ve evolved into a real believer of activities that give people muscle memory of what to do in an emergency,” said Troy Nicolini, warning coordinator meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Humboldt County. “I’m not a believer in fear as a motivator — I think positive, community-based experience is powerful.”
Drill as Means for Self-Reflection
From the emergency management perspective, the drill’s end result came down to gauging community awareness and identifying weak areas of the warning system, which included sirens, TV and radio emergency broadcasts, a civil air patrol and checkpoints.
The “live code” warning was issued by the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center around 10:15 a.m. to TV and radio stations, and the county’s tsunami sirens were activated. Civil air patrols flew over the evacuation zones during this time and broadcast instructions and repeated that it was all just an “exercise.”
Officials communicated via the California Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Radio System and cell phones. An unexpected kink during the drill, however, was AT&T’s disruption of service, which affected some in the area, Henderson said. “In a real event, that’s going to happen anyway,” she said. “That’s to be expected, it was kind of helpful.”
Drill evacuees were asked to complete a survey upon reaching one of the county’s 12 checkpoints, which more than 500 did, Henderson said. Emergency management workers and related volunteers met for a debriefing the following day and gave their feedback, which focused on communication improvements.
Those results will be compiled into an action plan for next year’s drill, which will take the next step and consider what people should do for shelter and survival after evacuating.
In the meantime, dispelling fallacies is still the best way to instill public awareness. Henderson said she noticed two key factors residents need more information on — No. 1 is that people won’t hear a warning siren during a real event. “Get an NOAA radio,” she said. “It’s the personal siren for the house.” No. 2 is that when a near-source quake hits, everyone will be in self-protection mode and help for the less mobile won’t be available. “The problem is in a near-shore event, everybody will be fending for themselves,” she said. “And if anything, that should be waking people up.”
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
The county’s hotels, gas stations and other businesses displayed signage and spoke of the drill weeks before in an effort to alert tourists and others of the event. But even with all the public service announcements on the radio, newspaper articles and word-of-mouth, some still weren’t aware of the drill, Henderson said. And some people simply don’t want to face the music.
“There’s still people out there that don’t want to know and think if you talk about a disaster it will happen,” Henderson said. “And that’s sad, those are the people that will lose.”
The knowledge to save oneself can be very empowering, she said, and will hopefully spread to others, eventually blanketing the entire county. “The fact is, we live in Crescent City and we live with tsunamis,” she said, adding that it’s no different than living in Yellowstone’s bear country or in areas susceptible to wildfires.
“It’s real and it’s a threat we have to think about,” Henderson said. “We’re just trying to save lives.”
