A disaster can occur at any time, many times without notice.

"For some hazards, such as severe winter storms and floods, it is known several days in advance that they are coming," said the Washington Military Department's Communication Team Lead, Mark Stewart.  "For other hazards, such as this Cascadia Rising event, it is impossible to know the date and time that the (9.0) earthquake will occur and when the tsunami will follow."

Last week's Cascadia Rising Exercise, involved three states - Idaho, Oregon and Washington - and the Canadian province of British Columbia, with more than 20,000 participants involved.

Cascadia Rising was jointly developed by FEMA and the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho to specifically test their catastrophic disaster plans and the FEMA Region 10 Cascadia disaster plan.

"Washington state leaders wanted to build on the two-day Evergreen Quake exercise in 2012 and test newly developed plans for a Cascade Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami," Stewart said. "This disaster is likely to be the worst to ever strike our state."

When the worst disaster to ever hit the state strikes, will the correct emergency and communications plans be available?

"The bottom line for every emergency response exercise is to test the effectiveness of emergency plans and emergency communication systems," Stewart said.  "(It's) providing a training experience so that emergency response staff can build both their experience and expertise for when the real disaster occurs."

National focus was given to the exercise, with FEMA participating from Washington D.C., U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Transportation Command staff assisting, and various military units across the country participating.

"Cascadia Rising was the first test of the state's catastrophic disaster plan, so we used the exercise to see where it needs additional work and development," Stewart said.  "A ‘playbook' identified key early actions that state government would need to take in the event of a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami disaster, and it, too, received a bit of a test."

To assist with the exercise, the State Emergency Operations Center, housed under the Washington Military Department on Camp Murray, shut down key communication systems early in the exercise to see how the region could communicate using alternative means without landline phones, email and the internet.

"We establish a search and rescue coordination center to coordinate use of those types of resources," said Stewart.  "And, as soon as we can, we provide people with a safe place to get food, water, and shelter, and maybe meet other immediate needs they may have."

Once the disaster occurs or starts unfolding, local and state emergency managers try to communicate with the impacted public as quickly and as often as possible, providing instructions to keep people safe.  

"We may ask people to stay home or take shelter elsewhere, or we may ask them to evacuate the area, as well as provide other information to keep them as safe as possible," Stewart said.   "Inevitably, some people get caught by the disaster's effects, so they need rescuing."

External Affairs remains a major priority in any given disaster by not only identifying inquiries for help and assistance, but also by relaying pertinent messages to be sent out.

"We can develop life-safety messages providing instructions to help keep people safe," Stewart said.

Life Safety, as most might imagine, is priority number one with a disaster of this nature, or even a smaller one.

"Our first priority is life safety - keeping people potentially in harm's way safe from the impacts of a disaster and providing help in a variety of ways if they get caught by the wrath of the disaster," he said.

Cascadia Rising was designed around six overarching objectives that were agreed upon by participating organizations during planning two years ago, according to the Emergency Management Division:  

Operational Communications

Public Health and Medical Services

Mass Care Services

Situational Assessment

Critical Transportation

Operational Communications

The Washington National Guard used the exercise to test its own Cascade response plan and operate under a dual-status commander for the first time.

A dual-status commander manages the resources of the Washington National Guard and the responding military components as a unified resource.

"The Washington National Guard has been, and will continue to be, one of the governor's best resources during times of disaster," Stewart said. "The Guard has many capabilities that civilian state agencies do not, such as augmenting communications, providing air-to-ground delivery of supplies and equipment, transportation of people, equipment and supplies, and manpower for things like traffic control and welfare checks."

Some of the major successes already identified from the exercise, according to Stewart, were building working relationships of state and federal teams between staffs who had not worked together before and demonstration of the professionalism and seriousness of exercise players, who worked through all the proverbial bumps in the road to ensure successful outcomes for the disaster survivor.

A significant after-action process is planned for the summer and will be open to all participating agencies to provide a full scope of the successes and opportunities of the exercise.

For more information about how to be prepared for disasters, The Washington Military Department's website has a big library of preparedness tips and plans for individuals, families, schools and the workplace located at http://mil.wa.gov/preparedness.