BOTHELL, WA
FEMA Region 10 hosted the Cascadia Rising 2022: Rehearsal of Concept (ROC) from May 3-5 at the Pierce County Readiness Center in Camp Murray, Washington, to assess FEMA's coordinated response strategy to a major Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and tsunami.
Emergency management officials from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as tribal partners, FEMA, the US Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, and Emergency Management British Columbia, were among those who attended

Federal, state, and tribal partners used a massive 35'x26' map to illustrate impacted areas and demonstrate resource allocation, staging, and movement in response to a CSZ incident during the three-day exercise.
Questions on response operations' operational activities, logistics, resource management, and communications were discussed.

"We know it’s only a matter of time before the big one strikes." This exercise allows us to work directly with our local and regional partners to develop a preparedness culture throughout the region.
"The physical devastation will be severe, and the humanitarian consequences will be felt well beyond the earthquake zone," said Willie G. Nunn, FEMA Region 10 Administrator.
"Now is the time to come together, question, and debate our strategy so that when one of our country's worst natural disasters strikes, we are prepared to respond."

This exercise builds on Cascadia Rising 2016 and is 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 CSZ rupture through a series of webinars, seminars, workshops, and exercises held throughout the year.

The CSZ planning initiative included over 1,800 federal, tribal, state, local, private sector, NGOs, and scientific community participants. The ROC Exercise's lessons will be included into a revised CSZ Response Plan as well as FEMA's response operating processes.

Visit the USGS to learn more about the Cascadia Subduction Zone.