Contact: Julia Jarema
Date: June 22, 2009
Phone: (919) 715-3747

Local and State Emergency Management Staff Practice Responding to an Earthquake

Raleigh – Hurricanes, tornados, floods, winter storms, even drought are natural disasters with which North Carolinians are all too familiar. But earthquakes?

Few may consider North Carolina to be an earthquake-vulnerable place to live, but the state lies nestled between four seismic zones: one in eastern Tennessee, one in the southern Appalachian Mountains, one in Giles County Virginia, and one in Charleston, South Carolina. Earthquakes in any of those areas could cause significant damage in the Tar Heel state.

The North Carolina Division of Emergency Management will conduct a training exercise June 23-24 to test their capabilities to coordinate with other agencies to respond to a widespread disaster with no advanced notice, such as an earthquake. The training scenario involves a 5.8 magnitude earthquake west of Asheville that collapses buildings, damages roads, bridges and earthen dams; and sparks numerous fires. Planners anticipate nearly 200 emergency management staff will participate in North Carolina's first statewide earthquake exercise.

“Most disasters that have caused substantial damage in our state have provided us with some warning,” said Doug Hoell, director of DEM. “We are experienced preparing for and responding to hurricanes, floods and other disasters that we know may be coming. But we also need to be prepared to handle those events which could instantly paralyze a small or large region. Bringing dozens of local and state agencies together quickly and efficiently will be vital.”

The two-day exercise will be held in multiple locations around the state. Most of the State Emergency Response Team partners will be working in the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh. However, emergency management staff from 18 counties, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, three universities and two colleges in the western part of the state also will test their capabilities to respond to such a disaster.

The agency will test their plans for: establishing command and control at the disaster; providing emergency public information and warning; deploying equipment and personnel to aid victims; managing widespread casualties and injuries; and providing mass sheltering, feeding and other care-taking services. The groups also will test their procedures for: responding to fires; clearing and repairing roads and bridges quickly; attending to livestock; registering and coordinating volunteers to help with the response; establishing emergency communication among the responding agencies; and registering and reunifying victims following the earthquake.

The training exercise is being funded through federal money from the Department of Homeland Security.

Twenty-two earthquakes have caused damage in North Carolina in the past 274 years; seven of those had epicenters in the state. Four were powerful enough – at least 5.1 magnitude—to cause structural damage such as cracked chimneys. The last earthquake that impacted the state struck Henderson County in 1981.