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closeAgencies helping public plan for trouble
Neil Pierson/of The Herald
From snowstorms and floods to earthquakes and lahars, East Pierce County residents appear interested in educating themselves about pre-disaster preparations.
That’s what emergency management officials from the city of Puyallup learned last year when they held their first emergency preparedness fair.
“Last year we didn’t have a lot of time to advertise and we still saw over 1,000 people show up,” said Elaina Owens, an emergency management coordinator. “So we hope this year is going to be much bigger and better.”
Owens and other Puyallup officials will present information relating to the city’s new lahar warning sirens and system, which aims to alert residents of a large mudslide coming from Mount Rainier. A federal hydrologist will also be on hand to discuss some new and little-known facts about Mount Rainier.
“They’ll probably touch base a little bit on the new Tacoma fault line and its relationship to Puyallup,” Owens said of the hydrologist’s presentation.
Sheri Badger, who coordinates the vulnerable populations program with Pierce County’s emergency management division, will be discussing high-risk populations like Puyallup and how residents can best plan for various disaster scenarios.
The fair will also feature a meteorologist from the region’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who will speak about this year’s winter weather outlook. The Port of Tacoma’s security director and another representative of the county’s emergency management team will talk about public efforts to band together in the event of a regional crisis.
Several other groups will be in attendance, including Puget Sound Energy, which will use mini grids to show the distribution of power in the region. The Puyallup School District will be using “shake tables,” which show “what could happen in any particular scenario of an earthquake,” Owens explained.
Central Pierce Fire and Rescue will be conducting free blood pressure checks while fire officials from DuPont will be teaching children lessons on recognizing fire danger within their homes.
Perhaps one of the most pertinent exhibits for area residents is the flood control tubes display. Owens said the city utilized a commercial-sized tube in last January’s flood event and kept Puyallup’s water treatment plant from sustaining any damage. The tubes can replace 500 sandbags. Residents can buy smaller tubes at the fair for $300 to $500, Owens said.
The emergency preparedness fair has drawn enough interest that the city plans to hold the 2010 event at the fairgrounds, Owens added.
“It seems to be growing and we’re getting positive feedback from the community,” she said. “We had to find another venue to house this event.”