FEMA Holds Comprehensive Exercise on Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake and Tsunami Response Plan

Release Date Release Number
NR-R10-22-003
Release Date:
May 2, 2022

BOTHELL, Wash.  -  From May 3-5, FEMA Region 10 will host Cascadia Rising 2022: Rehearsal of Concept (ROC), a three-day discussion-based exercise at the Pierce County Readiness Center in Camp Murray, Washington, to evaluate FEMA’s coordinated response plan to a massive Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and resulting tsunami. Participants will include emergency management representatives from the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, tribal partners, FEMA, U.S. Department of Defense, American Red Cross, and Emergency Management British Columbia.

Over the three-day exercise, federal, state, and tribal partners will walk through the FEMA Region 10 CSZ Earthquake and Tsunami Response Plan using a large 35’x26’ map to display impacted areas and demonstrate resource allocation, staging, and movement in response to a CSZ event. These discussions will include questions around operational activities, logistics, resource management, and communications for response operations.

“We know it’s only a matter of time before the big one strikes. This exercise helps us coordinate directly with our local and regional partners to build a culture of preparedness across the region. The physical devastation will be significant, and the humanitarian impacts will be felt far beyond the earthquake zone,” stated FEMA Region 10 Administrator Willie G. Nunn. “Now is the time to come together, question, and challenge our plan so that when one of the biggest natural disasters to strike our nation takes place, we are ready to act.”

This exercise builds on the Cascadia Rising 2016 Exercise and forms part of FEMA’s National Level Exercise 2022 which examines the ability of all levels of government, private industry, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to and recover from a large rupture of the CSZ through a series of webinars, seminars, workshops, and exercises being held throughout the year.

Over 1,800 federal, tribal, state, local, private sector, NGOs, and scientific community partners were involved in the CSZ planning effort. The lessons learned from this ROC Exercise will be incorporated into both an updated CSZ Response Plan and into FEMA’s response operational procedures.

To learn more about the Cascadia Subduction Zone visit the USGS.

A portion of the map that will be used to show areas affected by a CSZ earthquake with markers indicating resource movement.

A portion of the map that will be used to show areas affected by a CSZ earthquake with markers indicating resource movement. 

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