Cascadia Rising 2016 was the first in the series simulating a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. States and provinces with the potential to be directly impacted are Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Other states in immediate proximity that will likely play a direct role in orchestrating disaster assistance include Idaho and Utah, up north it will be the province of Alberta.
This is a long lead time up to the exercise. That allows for planners at all levels of government and the private sector to "spiff up their plans" and do training, drills, workshops and tabletop exercises leading up to the big exercise.
One thing is for sure, state and local emergency managers are interested in having more input to the scenario than they were allowed for Cascadia Rising 2016. The challenge for these big exercises — and this could be designated a National Level Exercise — is that they get driven by headquarters staff and national needs with state and local emergency managers treated like pawns that are moved around the exercise chessboard.
To make it something better than Cascadia Rising 2016, and to treat state and local emergency managers as true partners, will require a revolution in thinking and habit by national-level organizations.
