The Stafford Act is a 1988 amended version of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974. It created the system in place today by which a presidential disaster declaration or an emergency declaration triggers financial and physical assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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Emergency planning and preparation involves local, state, tribal, and federal agencies and other entities equipped to provide assistance to those in need.  A Cascadia Subduction Zone event is the worse case scenario. Scientists anticipate a Cascadia event will likely result in an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale.  After the quake, there will be extremely damaging tsunamis.  The Olympic Peninsula depends on trucks to deliver goods to our area. The road could be so badly damaged that we could be stranded for months.  Supplies will have to be shipped or airlifted to us.  Seattle and all coastal areas will also be affected and Interstate 5 could be destroyed.
 

Clallam County recognizes this complex problem for our area.  Being dependent on bridges that cross many rivers and streams, a catastrophic earthquake would likely create isolated communities or “micro islands,” restricting access by land and preventing the flow of emergency aide for weeks, many even months.  Clallam County has developed a plan which divides the county into five Operational Areas.  The Sequim Operational Area roughly follows the Clallam County Fire District 3 (CCFD3) boundaries.

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When a disaster happens, the local government must exhaust its own resource before asking for assistance.  In Clallam County, an Operational Area will contact the County Emergency Operations Center in Port Angeles and ask for assistance.  When the County uses all of its resource, the County declares a disaster and contacts the State for help.  Washington State’s Emergency Management Division manages the State Emergency Operations Center (EOC)) located on Camp Murray, near Tacoma, and coordinates requests and response to those in need. The State EOC is designated as the central location for information gathering such as damage assessments, disaster analysis, and response coordination. This information is used by executives to make decisions concerning emergency actions and to identify and prioritize the use of state resources needed to respond to the emergency. When the state is out of resources, the Governor issues a Disaster Proclamation and asks for help from the federal government.

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FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards. FEMA has ten regions across the county.  FEMA’s Region X supports the citizens and first responders of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. From its offices in Bothell, Washington, and Anchorage, Alaska, FEMA Region X works with the emergency management agencies of the Pacific Northwest, including Washington’s Emergency Management Division. The FEMA Region takes request for assistance to Washington D.C.  The President can grant disaster relief  through the process. 

One of the major components of the paperwork is providing information on damage.  CERT teams are trained to do damage assess and report information back through the system with a "picture" of what is happening in our area.  They used the National Grid Map System process to best describe where the heaviest impact has occured.

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