City Of Portland Participates In Earthquake Preparedness Exercise -06/26/23

Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) will lead nearly all City bureaus and Council offices on Tuesday, June 27, in an exercise called Cascadia Rising 2023, which tests communications pathways to better serve the public. This will help the City effectively coordinate a response to a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake when phones and Internet fail.

For the first time, the Portland-metro area will be exercising a communications model designed to ensure that if one communications pathway fails, the City can switch to another method to seamlessly serve the public. We will be using cell phones and Internet, the City’s trunked 800mhz radio system, Satellite phones, and HAM radio tools. The exercise will be supported with volunteers from Multnomah County Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the City of Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) Amateur Radio Operator at the City’s Emergency Coordination Center (ECC). 

MEDIA AVAILABILITY

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 27 at the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC), 9911 S.E. Bush St. Portland, OR 97266. Please RSVP to jaymee.cuti@portlandoregon.gov. You can expect to see radio operators in the ECC Radio Room and PBEM operations staff simulating a communications unit responding to a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. 

This Citywide exercise involves all the public safety, infrastructure, and support bureaus, including Portland Parks & Recreation, Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications (PBEM), Portland Water Bureau, Portland Bureau of Transportation, Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, Bureau of Technology, Fleet, multiple Council offices and more.

This exercise is designed to improve how the City functions following a major earthquake by practicing coordinated communications resilience across the City’s bureaus by practicing a simulated scenario. 

“This is ongoing work to improve resilience as a city and a region so when the Big One hits, we have the best possible response,” said Tigger Subotnick, Training and Exercise Manager and Operations Coordinator for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. “Our work will never be done improving the processes and resilience tools to support the community we serve.”

Cascadia Rising began in 2016 as an exercise including all levels of government to prepare for a major quake, including emergency management agencies from the federal, regional and state governments.