Oregon Funding Earthquake Preparedness

There are states, like Washington state, that love to show action by writing documents that describe everything that needs to be done. They put them into a Resilience Plan.

Then there are states like Oregon, which also write Resilience Plans and then work to fund the items that are described in the goals of the plan.

See this article, Preparing for the Big One: Oregon to Fund ShakeAlert and I would add, disaster preparedness goals. It outlines the funding that is being allocated for disaster resilience, in line with their Resilience Plan. An extract from the article above calls out the funding being committed — see below:

"The Governor’s Strategy:
Brown proclaimed Jan. 26-Feb. 1 as Cascadia Earthquake Preparedness Week. Including ShakeAlert, she outlined a proposed $12.7 million investment to enhance public safety and disaster preparedness. That includes 2-Week Ready Oregon, a program to ensure 250,000 homes are prepared to be on their own for a minimum of two weeks after a disaster; funding to assess dams across the state and prioritize repairs; and updating the Oregon Resilience Plan and Coastal Plan."


Back in October 2018, she outlined her strategy that included six major goals (3 and 4). The funding above matches up with two of those goals. 

1. Continue state investments in seismic upgrades of schools
   and emergency services buildings throughout Oregon.
2. Develop a plan for the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub to
   prevent and mitigate catastrophic failure.
3. Implement a statewide earthquake early warning system by
   2023.
4. Work with local governments, community groups, and the
   American Red Cross to ensure that 250,000 homes have
   2-week ready supplies in the next three years.
5. Strengthen local emergency management organizations
   and develop more robust logistical staging bases, local
   supply chains, and more earthquake and mass displacement
   insurance options.
6. Update the Oregon Resilience Plan in 2021 to reflect current
   best practices, community input, and academic research,
   including a specific plan for the Oregon Coast.

It should be noted that they previously allocated tens of millions of dollars toward providing funding for the seismic retrofitting of schools.