State’s disaster plans reviewed

SEATTLE – The Department of Homeland Security on Friday rated Washington state and the Greater Seattle area sufficient or partly sufficient in all categories of catastrophic disaster planning except one: evacuation from Seattle.

Evacuation is a good strategy for an impending storm, which can be seen approaching for days, said Barb Graff, Seattle’s emergency planning director.

But in this city, a catastrophic disaster would likely involve a major earthquake. “Our challenge would be getting resources to the area after,” using a relatively fragile transportation system, Graff said.

Planners around the country were asked about preparedness for a catastrophic, Katrina-level disaster, which in the Northwest would likely be an earthquake far stronger than those that rattled the area in 1949, 1965 and 2001.

“What prompted all this was Katrina, and of course evacuation was a big issue on Katrina and then Rita,” said Eric Holdeman, King County’s emergency services director, of the Gulf Coast devastation. “They were asking hurricane questions in earthquake territory.”

The past three big quakes were manageable, Graff said, but the region would be in trouble with a Katrina-level disaster “if we had to evacuate a third of our state’s population – if 90,000 square miles were uninhabitable for months.”

The assessment team sent by Homeland Security spent four days in the state, meeting jointly with city, county and state officials.

“They were amazed at the working relationships and the camaraderie,” said the state’s emergency services director, Ed Mullen.

“In many cases we were able to answer questions for our counterparts,” Graff said. “It’s my belief that it’s that kind of regional collaboration that’s going to be of the largest benefit when we experience a catastrophic-sized event.”

The city was rated sufficient in four of the nine categories – basic plan, direction and control, communications and public information.

It was rated partially sufficient in four others: warning, mass care, health and medical, and resource management.

The state was rated sufficient in its basic plan and communications, and partially sufficient in the seven other categories.

The national survey was one of several since Homeland Security’s failures in responding to Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, Mullen said.

“The questions were tilted toward dealing with the kind of catastrophe you can foresee, at least by a few days,” he said. “If you can see a hurricane coming every other year, if you have four to six days to see it develop – you should have some capacity to get people out of the way.”

Still, it’s hard to prepare for every crisis, he said.

“New Orleans might have looked like a model of preparedness – but the levee failed,” Mullen said.

In Washington, a lot of people would stay in their homes after a major quake. “We’ll have to get things to them,” Mullen said. Many homes, buildings and roads in the Seattle area have been retrofitted to better withstand quakes, he said, noting that the effort “literally saved lives.”

Mullen said the Department of Homeland Security has cut back the federal matching commitment on federal emergency-management grants.

“They’re supposed to be 50-50 grants, but in the last five years states have contributed about 80 percent … they’ve been getting away with 20 percent,” he said, adding, “That’s what pays for the planning.”