Camano Group Wants Residents to Prepare for Emergencies:

eHam.net News — Sue Ryan is director of Camano Preparedness Group, and also the group’s expert on earthquakes and volcanoes. She knows, for example, the Cascadia Fault last broke nearly 317 years ago. She knows this because when the fault broke it caused a tsunami in Japan, to which a memorial was erected. The Cascadia fault runs from Mendocino, Calif., to northern Vancouver Island, B.C., where the Pacific Plate pushes the Juan de Fuca Plate (the world’s smallest tectonic plate) against the North American Plate, like squeezing a rock in a vise. When the fault breaks, it releases an astounding amount of energy. “If the full (700-mile) fault breaks, we’re looking at a 9.0 earthquake,” Ryan said in an interview last week. Part of the group’s outreach includes training Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in basic medical and triage skills — how to stop bleeding, how to splint broken bones, how to use mechanical advantage to move rubble. The group holds CERT trainings twice a year. And, where are the amateur (ham) radio operators? “There are over 100 ham radio operators on the island,” Swander said. “That two-way communication is important for people’s morale and psyche.”

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