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Clallam PUD Prepared for Local Disaster with Emergency Response Plan

With the outages we experienced in December, and ongoing statewide education about the potential for a major Cascadia earthquake event, you might be wondering what the PUD has done to plan for such an event. 

The PUD rolled out its Emergency Response and Restoration Plan (ERRP) in a presentation to all employees at the end of August, in conjunction with a presentation by Jim Buck on the Cascadia Subduction Zone and preparing for a major earthquake event. 

The ERRP is the result of intensive staff effort that started in early 2016 to assess the logistics of responding throughout the PUD’s service area, physical assets necessary to be able to manage different types of disasters, and collating or creating the supporting documents that comprise the ERRP. Tabletop exercises were conducted as the plan was reaching its final draft form to identify any remaining concerns.

In the event of a significant disaster, such as a 9.0 earthquake event, it is understood that electronic access and communications will likely be severely compromised so each employee was issued a copy to keep at home, with master binders located in primary PUD facilities. “While we hope to never have to implement the full scale ERRP, we are reassured to have brought this Plan to fruition,” said General Manager Doug Nass. At the presentation to employees, Jim Buck commented that it was one of the most comprehensive plans he has seen and commended the PUD for their effort. You can view the ERRP as well as other emergency planning resources here.