OVERVIEW OF THE OREGON RESILIENCE PLAN FOR NEXT CASCADIA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

Following the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Oregon legislature directed Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (OSSPAC) to develop a comprehensive resilience plan to prepare the state to withstand and recover from a Cascadia Subduction zone earthquake and tsunami. OSSPAC recruited eight task groups comprising nearly 170 volunteers from earthquake professional organizations, universities, government agencies, and private sectors to describe the scenario earthquake, examine potential impacts to the state’s critical buildings, transportation system, and utilities, explore the special challenges facing coastal communities, and anticipate the disruption of business continuity that could jeopardize disaster recovery. The report titled “the Oregon Resilience Plan: Reducing Risk and Improving Recovery for the Next Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami” was delivered by OSSPAC to the 77th Legislative Assembly on February 28th, 2013.

The plan reveals significant resilience gaps between expected performance of infrastructure sectors based on their current conditions and the desirable performance levels based on the community needs and economic recovery. All five critical infrastructure sectors, including critical buildings, energy, transportation, water and waste water, and communications, are very vulnerable, and the lengthy projected times to return basic infrastructure services to communities greatly exceed the amount of time most small businesses can remain financially viable without infrastructure services.

Based on the findings in the Oregon Resilience Plan, OSSPAC recommends that Oregon start now on a sustained program to reduce vulnerability of Oregon’s infrastructure and shorten the recovery time to achieve resilience before the next Cascadia earthquake inevitably strikes the state. The plan outlines steps that can be taken over the next 50 years to bring the state closer to resilient performance through a systematic program of vulnerability assessments, capital investments in public infrastructure, new incentives to engage the private sector, and policy changes that reflect current understanding of the Cascadia threat.