“There has been an imminent failure at the West Pass Dike. Diablo Dam has failed at 815. Newhalem and Diablo have been evacuated,” read the post from the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management. “Concrete and Hamilton have been evacuated and moved to higher ground. Evacuate to Concrete High School and Concrete Airport.”
As the post went up, an emergency coordination center on East College Way in Mount Vernon was already teeming with activity.
Emergency responders from Skagit and Whatcom counties joined officials from Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy for a dam safety exercise.
Along with allowing various agencies to practice joint response efforts, the drill fulfilled a federal operating license requirement that compels dam operators to hold safety exercises at least once every five years.
Seattle City Light runs three dams on the Skagit River as part of its Skagit Hydroelectric Project, and PSE operates two dams in its Baker River Hydroelectric Project.
“We’re testing out what needs to be done in an emergency of this magnitude,” PSE spokeswoman Akiko Oda said while explaining various stations at the coordination center.
In the middle of the room, Mark Anderson, the director of Skagit County’s Department of Emergency Management, checked maps showing which areas of the county likely would be underwater during a dam failure. Knowing such information is important for emergency responders to determine where residents should be directed to evacuate.
With the mock failures of two dams, the exercise simulated what could happen if the Skagit River rose to a level known as a 100-year flood.
In such an instance, major flooding could be imminent in many Skagit County communities, including towns in east county and areas farther downriver such as Burlington, Mount Vernon, Conway, Bow, Edison and La Conner.
Coordination center officials worked to ensure they had reliable information about the extent of the simulated flooding in order to direct evacuations.
Those serving as public information officers prepared news releases and posted mock updates on social media.
Skagit County Public Health officials Pollie Dubbel and Bob Hicks were responsible for calling local care centers to make sure they had evacuation plans.
By mid-morning, officials were expecting to order a mock evacuation of PeaceHealth United General Medical Center in Sedro-Woolley.
“So far, most people have a plan,” Hicks said. “And if they don’t, we can connect them with transport.”
Participants in the exercise were given no indication of what they would be responding to until the day of the drill.
Katie McCulloch, an executive assistant with Skagit County Public Works, said participants were told that, according to the simulation, the dam failures occurred about four days after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.
The threat of a large-scale earthquake has been a long-held fear for many West Coast communities, including those in Skagit County and others that sit along a subduction zone known as the Cascadia fault.
That fear piqued recently when a July 2015 article in The New Yorker magazine highlighted just how devastating such a quake could be.
This summer, Washington will become the first state in the nation to use updated seismic design standards in state building codes. The state Legislature is also spending $4.6 million to use remote sensor technology to map earthquake, tsunami and landslide hazard areas.
Ted Taylor, a captain with Skagit County Fire District 13 who participated in the simulation, said emergency response drills are of great importance, but local residents should also develop their own emergency plans.
Taylor said many people likely don’t realize that in a catastrophic emergency most emergency response systems won’t work as normal, or may not be available at all. Phone lines could be down, meaning 911 calls can’t get through, and roads could be destroyed or underwater, making it impossible for emergency vehicles to reach certain locations.
Despite Skagit County’s often tranquil appearance, its location means people should not ignore the possibly of a major disaster such as an earthquake, Taylor said.
“It’s not all that peaceful and placid under the tulips,” he said.
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©2016 the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.)
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