Few depot-area residents aware of safety zones

This story was published Sat, Jul 17, 1999

By Terry Hudson
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - A recent survey of 400 people living near the Umatilla Chemical Depot shows only 17 percent of them know what safety zone they live in.

That's a vital piece of information that will dictate what actions they need to take in case of an emergency at the depot, where nerve gas weapons are stored.

Residents living inside the immediate response zone, which stretches about 10 miles in all directions from the depot, took part in the survey. There are about 30,000 people in that zone, mostly in Umatilla and Morrow counties, with about 1,000 in Benton County.

The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, along with Oregon Emergency Management, has divided parts of Umatilla, Morrow and Benton counties into different safety zones. If there ever was an emergency at the depot, residents would be instructed either to shelter in place or evacuate, depending on their safety zone. Tone alert radios, which soon will be distributed to all residents in the immediate response zone, will have the safety zones printed on them.

While the survey showed the public is more informed than ever on some issues, the low number of residents who know what safety zone they live in was a big concern to Tom Worden, public information coordinator for the eastern region of Oregon Emergency Management.

"The zone you are in dictates what type of instructions you will receive," Worden said. "First notice in Oregon would probably be to shelter in place, but people need to know what zone they're in, whether they're at home or at work. Right now, there's a real knowledge gap about that."

Better news from the survey shows 91 percent of the parents with children in overpressurized schools are aware they will not be able to remove their children from school in the event of a chemical accident.

Just 4 percent of the parents were unsure whether their children's school is overpressurized.

"I was very gratified to see the overpressurization numbers," Worden said.

"The vast majority of parents know they will not be permitted to go pick their kids up from school, and that's very significant. We could have lots of issues with security if they were to come to the school and try to take their kids out."

Worden said emergency management has provided FEMA with a pilot strategy that aims to increase publicity about CSEPP.

"Our charge is that we want to reach 100 percent of the public in a very short time," Worden said.

"We'll use everything we can to do that - signs, reader boards, sirens, tone alert radios - everything we can. We won't be satisfied until everyone knows what to do. That's the bottom line.

"That's why this media campaign is really important. We need to get the kinds of dollars we can use to buy time in the media and space in the newspapers that will act as a campaign like any kind of commercial product."

Awareness of CSEPP is nearly universal, and a majority of residents can accurately describe the role of the program.

Eighty-four percent of residents have heard of CSEPP, 56 percent describe the program as an organization with the primary purpose of protecting the public from chemical accidents. Eighty-eight percent are aware sirens would alert the general public.

"There have been thousands of informational calendars, brochures and all sorts of thingsÊdistributed, but basically, they've been pretty passive," Worden said.

"There's no way to know how many people read them or keep them. We know that since 1994, knowledge in what CSEPP does has gone up about 20 points."

Results of the survey, conducted July 10-11, were made public Friday. It was conducted by Moore Information and has a potential sampling error of 5 percent.

Worden said another survey would be taken in six months, and another in a year to see how the numbers change.

"I'm real positive about all of the information we get from surveys," Worden said. "Whether it's good news or bad news, it's all very valuable."

 

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