PORT ANGELES – Thursday marks another of the “Great Washington Shake Out” earthquake drills in the state.
And this year, there’s an extra emphasis on tsunami preparedness.
At 10:20 Thursday morning, emergency alerts and tsunami warning sirens will go off. Residents and businesses are encouraged to use the drill to practice drop, cover and hold in the case of an earthquake, and then make sure they know what to do to evacuate if there’s a tsunami.
Justine Chorley with Clallam County Emergency Management, says this year they’ll have tsunami route walkers as part of the drill.
“We’re going to have people in bright vests, you know, reflective vests walking around downtown Port Angeles, Sekiu, and Three Crabs Area. The goal of the walk is to walk their tsunami route and look for any issues along the route. And also look for signage to make sure that the signage is clear. It is going to be in real time. In fact, they’re going to wait for the tsunami sirens to go off and then they’re going to begin their walk and time it from the time that the siren goes off,” said Chorley.
Chorley is encouraging people to sign up to participate in the shake out and for alerts at shakeout.org