A four-day earthquake preparedness exercise called Cascadia Rising is well underway today, as emergency preparedness officials respond to a fake 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami off the Oregon Coast.
The drill, the largest ever conducted in the Pacific Northwest, will bring together roughly 20,000 people from federal, state and local governments in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, along with tribal leaders and multiple branches of the military.
Members of various National Guard units set up operations in all three states as they prepared for this worst case scenario. “There has never been an exercise of this magnitude.” said one local official, as military units prepared to rescue “survivors” and maintain order during the mock natural disaster.
