Emergency planners and responders agree that seismic strengthening is vital, especially for first responders, but as the past week has shown, flooding has a far greater disaster potential for people in the Mid-Valley.

"We don't see as many natural disasters in this region as other parts of the country, but that doesn't mean we won't," Kresner said.

He and other emergency planners stress that in the first few hours and days of a disaster people should expect to be completely on their own. It's important to have a three day supply of food and water and have some way to stay warm and dry. First aid kits are a must as is a transportable kit should a person have to flee quickly.

Most disasters, such as flooding and windstorms, that Valley residents will face are not of the catastrophic variety.

However, Salem sits near a fault line and seismologists have been warning for years that a catastrophic earthquake could happen here.
Dr. Chris Goldfinger, who is Director of the Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Laboratory College at Oregon State University, said earthquakes occur for three reasons: "subduction" or withdrawing of an oceanic plate off the coast, general plate movement and shifting or crustal shallow faults rupturing.

"Salem is located in a large regional geologic setting known as the Cascadia subduction zone. The subduction zone involves subducting the Juan de Fuca oceanic plate beneath North America. This can result in earthquakes up to about 9.2 in magnitude, similar to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake," Goldfinger said. "Salem lies inland from the earthquake location, but will still be significantly impacted because these types of earthquakes last many minutes, and the duration often results in damage."

The subduction earthquake would do the most damage, but crustal fault quakes are more common in the Salem area. They can and have ruptured, though these are not frequent.

"The 1993 Scotts Mills earthquake was one of these, and earthquakes of this type can be both closer to Salem and larger, though we don't know how common they are," Goldfinger said. "Western Oregon may have many significant faults that are as yet poorly known. Some of these include the Mt. Angel Fault (from the 1993 earthquake) and the Corvallis Fault, which appears to bound the eastern Salem hills. Beyond that, there is much that isn't known about the faults and associated earthquake hazards from them." Kresner doesn't doubt that a subduction zone quake is the worst case scenario for Salem, but he reminds people that while a big quake may seem unlikely, other, less dramatic disasters can be just a as deadly for people who are unprepared.

With global warming the Willamette Valley's climate may change and Oregonians could face a lifting of their natural disaster reprieve. Drier summers could lead to California-style wildfires and warmer winters could lead to more hurricane-force winds off the Oregon coast.
Kresner and other first responders are constantly reaffirming the need for a disaster plan.
"We have classes all the time, there are general classes about disaster and there are very specific classes about what we do in the case of a disaster. People can always go on our Web site for lists of things to include in their disaster kits and tips on how to plan," Kresner said.
For more information: redcross-salem.org