disaster preparedness
DESCRIPTION
Disaster PreparednessTRANSCRIPT
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NEWS2 ! March 24, 2011
Portland is due to have a
massive earthquake.
According to scientists, the
Cascadia Subduction Zone,
which lies about 75 miles off the
Oregon coast, has a fault which
produces a major quake about
every 250 to 500 years. Currently,
we are about 311 years out from
when the last one occurred.
According to Public Safety’s
Environmental Health and Safety
Officer Jeff Rook, the shaker
that will send the ground under
Portland quaking is expected to
be on par with the 9.0 magnitude
earthquake that occurred in
Japan earlier this month.
“Disaster is going to be
inevitable,” Rook said. “With the
one that strikes here, and not if
but when, survival is optional.”
In order to make sure the
UP community is prepared
for earthquakes, Rook started
working with CCERT, the
Community Campus Emergency
Response Team.
CCERT trains students,
faculty and staff not only from
UP but Portland Community
College and Portland State
University as well.
According to Rook, 75 to 80
percent of people who respond
in an emergency situation are
volunteers. The purpose of the
CCERT program is to make sure
the University of Portland has
some prepared volunteers.
“It’s disaster medicine,” Rook
said. “It’s learning how to take a
cardboard box, strip it down and
use it for splinting.”
On April 1, CCERT will
have a four-hour field experience
day where members will utilize
their training to size up a fake
emergency situation and extricate
victims from the emergency.
They will also practice search
and rescue as well as triage
skills.
“There are one to two Public
Safety officers to a total student
body of over 3,000 plus faculty
and staff,” Rook said. “You are
in a situation where you are
completely overwhelmed. We
want to make sure our campus
members are better prepared.”
UP has also taken steps to
prepare for a disaster.
According to Rook, UP has
a small stock of Koldkist water
bottles on campus, despite
the water bottle ban that was
implemented last year. The
Bauccio Commons has three
days worth of food that could
sustain up to 3,000 people.
“We have at least that much
product on campus during
the academic calendar,” Kirk
Mustain, the general manager
of Bon Appétit, said in an email.
“Obviously we would amend the
style of service and offerings but
I feel confident that we would be
able to take care of the university
community.”
Back-up generators are in
Franz Hall, Shiley Hall and
Public Safety that can run for a
week or two at full capacity.
“In an emergency situation
we wouldn’t be running them at
full capacity,” Rook said.
According to Rook, secondary
items would not be powered up to
make the generators last longer.
The school also has an
agreement with Belfor Property
Restoration so UP could receive
a back-up generator for the
Chiles Center within 24 to 48
hours of an emergency.
Finally, Rook encourages
everyone to make a 72-hour kit
for his or her place of residence.
“Each kit should have one
gallon of water per person per
day,” Rook said.
He said the kits should also
include at least a week’s worth
of food that doesn’t take much
effort to prepare, such as Power
Bars.
A full list of supplies to
include in a kit can be found on
Public Safety’s website at http://
www.up.edu/showimage/show.
aspx?file=7037.
“How many more times
before it actually happens do we
need to see examples before we
get prepared?” Rook said.
The next CCERT class is
coming up this summer. Students
can contact Rook at rook@
up.edu if they want to take the
class.
Jeff Rook
On Campus
Accuracy in The BeaconThe Beacon strives to be fair and accurate. The newspaper corrects any significant errors of fact brought to the attention of the editors. If you think an error has been made, contact us at [email protected]. Corrections will be printed above.
MANQUISITION
Tonight, LXG will host the
Manquisition, a satirical mock
trial of prominent men on
campus, in the Terrace room
in The Bauccio Commons at 6
p.m.
MR. CORRADO
Tonight, Mr. Corrado will be
held in the Buckley Center
Auditorium from 8 p.m. to
10 p.m. Mr. Corrado is a man
pageant fundraiser for Holy
Cross Charities. The event is
free.
‘COUNTRY STRONG’
Friday and Saturday night,
“Country Strong” will play in
the Buckley Center Auditorium
at 10 p.m.
BLUFFOONS IMPROV
SHOW
Friday night, the Bluffoons
are having an Improvisational
Comedy Show at the Mago
Hunt Recital Hall at 7:30.
Tickets are $2 per person, or $3
for two people.
HAWAII CLUB LU’AU
Saturday, Hawaii Club is
hosting its 35th annual Lu’au,
“Ke Ea o Hawaii,” in the Chiles
Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.,
and dinner is at 6 p.m. Pre-sale
tickets are the following: first
200 students are free, faculty
and staff are $10, general
admission is $20, senior
citizens (55+) are $15, children
(5-12) and groups of 10 or more
are $12 per person and children
under four are free. Tickets can
be purchased Friday at The
Bauccio Commons from 11 a.m.
to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at
the Pilot House from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. or in the UP Bookstore
with a sales associate. Ticket
prices will increase at the door.
CORRECTION
In the March 10 issue, the
photo for “No strings (or
ropes) attached” on page 16
was submitted by Sebastian
Berisford. The photo at the top
of page 14 was submitted by
Victoria Clark.
The Beacon regrets the errors.
On Campus
Q: What causes
earthquakes?
A: The two-word answer is
plate tectonics, which is motion
between lithospheric plates. On
their boundaries, forces build up
and get released.
This particular plate boundary
that released its stored energy
on March 11 was the boundary
where the Pacific Plate dives
beneath Japan. The plates are
converging, moving towards
each other, and the Pacific Plate
bends down and dives down into
the Japan trench.
That’s a line of deep ocean
floor, off the east coast of Japan,
and the Pacific plate is a slab
which is about 100 kilometers
thick, and it dives down into the
deeper mantle below Japan.
Q: What causes tsunamis?
A: To produce a tsunami,
an earthquake has to move
ocean water. Most tsunamis
are produced by great, shallow
earthquakes. And when we mean
shallow, we mean 10 kilometers.
This particular earthquake
actually initiated at about 24
kilometers depth, and then it
ruptured a big patch of the plate
boundary. It changed the shape of
the ocean floor, and produced a
big mound of ocean water.
Q: What does “9.0” mean?
A: There a bunch of different
magnitude scales for earthquakes.
The most effective scale to use is
a moment magnitude scale.
That actually uses information
such as the displacement, the
opposite sides of the fault – how
far did one side of the fault move
with respect to the other side of
the fault – and it also uses the
area of the fault that got moved.
Q: Explain the risk and
what possible scenarios could
occur in the Portland area and
at UP.
A: The Pacific Northwest has
three kinds of earthquakes. One
kind is what would be considered
to be a deep earthquake.
Another kind is crustal
earthquakes. These are on faults,
where the North American crust
is broken. There is large crustal
fault called the Portland Hills
Fault. It’s immediately across
the Willamette River from UP.
We know the fault is capable
of certainly having magnitude
6.0 earthquakes, maybe even
magnitude 7.0 earthquakes.
But we don’t know very well,
at least, when the last earthquake
occurred on that fault. That
means it makes it difficult to
assess the risk which is posed by
that crustal fault.
There is another fault called
the East Bank Fault which is
basically mapped to go along
parallel to the East Bank of the
Willamette River, and it runs
under the UP campus.
That fault is really hard to
evaluate. We know it’s there, but
we don’t have a very good idea
about what risk it does or does
not pose.
The third kind of earthquake
is what people around here in
the Pacific Northwest region call
“The Big One.” This is a great
earthquake occurring on the
Cascadia Subduction Zone.
We know the last one of these
great Cascadia earthquakes,
which was probably a magnitude
9, occurred on Feb. 26, 1700 at
about 9 p.m. That one is parallel
to this great earthquake that just
occurred in Japan. It’s the same
kind of plate boundary.
The 1700 earthquake
produced a tsunami which kind
of did the mirror image of what
the Japan earthquake did – that
is, the Cascadia 1700 earthquake
created a tsunami that arrived in
Japan and caused damage.
- Butler will present “March 11,
2011 Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake
and Tsunami in Northern
Japan: Comparisons with Past
and Future Earthquakes and
Tsunamis in Cascadia” today
at 4:30 p.m. in Buckley Center,
room 163.
-Hannah Gray
Q&AEnvironmental science Professor
Robert Butler discusses earthquakes and tsunamis
Disaster preparedness at UP?Rosemary Peters [email protected]
Wednesday, March 16
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Continued from page 1
Sunday, March 20
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