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Blue Cascades III complete
 | 07.04.2006 | 06:31:26 | Views: 5671 | ID:

July 4 '06: A huge earthquake strikes the West Coast causing massive damage and the potential for a destructive tsunami while putting thousands of lives at risk. That is the scenario which involved more than 330 emergency management officials and first responders from more than 150 organizations simulated in California during the Blue Cascades III exercise, the program's press release read. The two-day event, sponsored by the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region hoped to "prepare and examine mitigation, response, restoration, and long-term recovery activities for potential large-scale natural or man-made disasters such as an earthquake, terrorist attack, or tsunami."

Helping to coordinate the exercise, Blue Cascades' technology was provided by ESRI, a GIS and global mapping company that provides global tracking and mapping services. During the event, large screens were set up to display the events unfolding while two additional screens "were used for GIS mapping and support. ESRI tools [also] were used for running earthquake damage models as well as a sea water surge model along the coast." Information from the federal, state and local governments helped to flesh-out ESRI's mapping and satellite imagery information database.

PNWER, a Public-Private partnership, which has members in the US and Canada, works to develop sustainable development and cooperation on multiple issues in its area. Areas of focus include infrastructure security, economic stability and development and community sustainability. Other goals for 2006 include border security, movement of goods across the US/Canadian border, and agricultural policies.

The Blue Cascades exercises, of which there have been three, were begun in 2002 and jointly were supported by PNWER and the US Department of the Navy's Critical Infrastructure Protection Office, the local Federal Emergency Management Office 10, and the Canadian federal government. Cascades I was completed in 2002 in Portland, Oregon. Cascades II was completed in 2004 in Seattle, Washington.

 

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