What Seattle's power outage tells us about handling a bigger emergency

SEATTLE — Wednesday's power outage in downtown Seattle lasted about an hour, but the major earthquake expected in the Puget Sound area will likely create a power outage that may last a whole week.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning a regional exercise in two weeks, called Cascadia Rising. FEMA Region 10, along with local, state and tribal agencies, will simulate how to respond to a 9.0 earthquake.

Part of that exercise simulates a lack of power.

"Today's event really lasted about 90 minutes total. In actuality in a major earthquake, we're talking 9 to 10 days," said Sharon Loper, the deputy regional administrator for FEMA Region 10.

Loper said they watch minor events like Seattle’s outage to see where messaging during emergencies can be improved. She said getting messages to the public is particularly challenging, especially in reaching people who do not speak English.

In looking at the outage on Wednesday, Loper said, “We did see them respond quite quickly in restoring the important infrastructure there. We also saw that individuals were confused, as they always are, when power goes out.”

She said every person should keep comfortable shoes at the office, because in cases like Wednesday, people walked down many flights of stairs, and in some cases walked long distances to get home without public transit.

Loper also suggests people keep three things handy for emergencies:

1. Cash (credit card or phone payment systems will be down)
2. Water
3. Communication device (like a radio or cellphone)

Each municipality has building codes that determine what backup generators may be required.

Seattle City Hall, Seattle Municipal Tower and the Seattle Justice Center have generator-operated emergency power systems. This provides power to the basic life safety systems, such as emergency exit lighting, fire alarm and suppression system, limited elevator options and some communication systems.

The King County administration building, courthouse, Chinook building and jail also have backup generators. There are battery-powered lights that automatically come on when the power goes out.

Steve O’Donnell, the CEO of American Preparedness, was watching the Seattle outage response from a distance. American Preparedness creates emergency kits for people to be able to survive for three days.

“It just brings to the fore the question that maybe we’re not as organized and not as prepared as we think we are,” he said.

He said he was surprised that there wasn’t a backup power system that would have turned traffic lights back on faster. He also saw civiians downtown, caught unprepared in this situation.

He recommends everyone contact the local government to sign up to be trained with CERT: Community Emergency Response Teams.

“If we get as many people trained up and ready as we can, then we’ll reduce chaos,” O’Donnell said.

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