It’s unclear how many buildings her executive order would cover or how the additional mandate would be funded. The order also calls for all existing state buildings to be seismically upgraded by 2060.
The so-called “big one,” an expected 9.0 or larger magnitude earthquake, is expected to devastate parts of the Pacific Northwest and scientists expect it could come at any time in the next 50 years.
The idea of focusing on state buildings is to have an area that could serve as a shelter for people and have a space where state employees can turn into staging and emergency response areas.
Priscilla Fuentes, the chief executive officer of the Red Cross Cascade region, said even if the governor’s order doesn’t appear to have an immediate impact, it ensures people continue thinking about emergency response.
“It’s really hard when you don’t see or feel the impact of this kind of specific disaster regularly to think it might happen to you,” Fuentes told OPB.
It’s historically been difficult for government officials to prepare for future disasters, there are often tricky political dynamics and other emergencies, such as wildfires, that seem to be more pressing that often hamper progress.
Kotek noted in a press release that preparing for an earthquake is “a long game.”
For years now, scientists have warned that the state’s infrastructure — roads, hospitals and housing — would be crushed by a large earthquake.
There has also been increasing concerns about the large number of schools, many of them elementary schools, in the state that are expected to crumble when an earthquake hits. Portland Public Schools recently shared a report identifying vulnerable schools within their district and there are many, according to reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
State Rep. Dacia Grayber, who is a first responder and also a Democratic lawmaker representing parts of Southwest Portland who has done work to try and prepare the state for the “big one,” told OPB in a previous interview, that it’s a daunting task.
“One of the things that keeps me up at night is … we are the only post-industrial region pretty much in the world that hasn’t lived through our worst natural disaster,” she said.
And despite knowing it’s coming, it’s difficult to feel optimistic about how ready we are as a state.
“We have seen this train barreling down on us for some time,” Grayber said, and yet we only tend to react when emergencies start to “personally affect us.”
