Local hospital prepares for major earthquake, Washingtonians get ready for ‘ShakeOut’ event

This week Valley Medical Center in Renton is preparing for a mass casualty incident that could result from a future earthquake.

On Tuesday, the hospital conducted a drill where they simulated receiving 25 patients after an earthquake in Maple Valley. Four of the patients required surgery. Another drill will take place on Thursday.

Cassidy Modlin is the Senior Emergency Preparedness Specialist at Valley Medical Center.

She explained that the drill is testing the hospital’s ability to receive a large number of patients as well as communications between their emergency room and operating room staff.

“We are testing how we register those patients. How we receive them into the (Emergency Department) all the way through to get the care that they need, possibly the surgery that they need,” Modlin said.

In Washington State, we have over 1,000 earthquakes a year. Thankfully, most of them are so minor we never feel them.

But every so often we get a reminder like we had on October 8 when a 4.3 magnitude earthquake hit near Port Townsend. While there was no damage, the earthquake was felt by over 10,000 people from Olympia all the way to Vancouver Canada.

The 2001 Nisqually earthquake injured hundreds of people and caused billions in damages.

This Thursday over 1.3 million Washingtonians will be participating in the 2023 Great Washington ShakeOut earthquake preparedness event. Click here to register for the event and learn more.

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