MARCH 25, 2016--On March 25, OR&R Emergency Response Division staff in Seattle joined representatives from the NOAA Western Region and leadership from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Seattle and the 13th USCG District, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to brief Manson Brown, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, on the upcoming Cascadia Rising earthquake and tsunami exercise planned for June 7-10, 2016.

The meeting took place at the USCG Sector Puget Sound, at Pier 36 in Seattle. Brown is a retired Coast Guard Vice Admiral who joined NOAA last year after 36 years of distinguished service in the U.S. Coast Guard, including serving as Commander of Coast Guard Pacific Area in California and Commander of Coast Guard District 14 in Hawaii.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and tsunami is one of the most complex disaster scenarios that emergency management and public safety officials face in the Pacific Northwest. Evidence indicates that a magnitude 8.0-9.0 earthquake occurs along the 800-mile long CSZ fault on average once every 200 to 500 years. The last major earthquake and tsunami along the fault occurred over 300 years ago in 1700. The exercise will focus on life-saving, response, and recovery following a catastrophic earthquake, and will test all levels of government and the private sector. The briefing included an overview from FEMA and USCG, and the NOAA roles of weather and tsunami forecasting, charting and maritime recovery, and OR&R’s roles in emergency response, information management, assessment and restoration, and marine debris.

For more information contact Doug.Helton@noaa.gov or Rachel.Pryor@noaa.gov.

Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.