Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

an emergency. The city has always given priority to clearing the transportation corridors into keymedical facilities.Discussion of Special TopicsHAZARDOUS MATERIALSFor those whose business may involve hazardous materials (e.g., Intel, OSU), how do your plansaddress safety issues?An earthquake is less of a concern in this case than is fire, explosion, or accidental release. Inany case, hazardous materials are highly regulated by the state, and the state does regular audits.Intel has its own fire department and its own hazmat teams—we are very prepared. Since 1995,Intel has also been constructing its critical facilities to a higher building standard than the coderequires.SECURITYPortland does not have enough police to cover everything in the event of an earthquake or otherdisaster. One possibility is that marshal law will be declared. For example, the business districtof Christchurch was completely shut down following the big earthquake there.Intel has its own security force and has done physical security reviews. We have three campusesin Israel, and have used a lot of their expertise to review our security here.OSU has a contract with the police to make troopers available if needed on campus. OSU is inthe process of building relationships with the city and county. While the university’s firstconcern is how to get people home, OSU Emergency Management is trying to further define theuniversity’s approach to recovery. [Some of the other participants suggested looking at the postdisasterrecovery experiences of universities impacted by Hurricane Katrina (e.g., Tulane) or bythe Northridge earthquake.]STRANDED EMPLOYEES, CASUALTIES, AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENTAs noted earlier, one of the difficult problems arising from a large earthquake will be the numberof people who may be stranded at their places of work if the earthquake occurs during thebusiness day. Some businesses will be more affected by this than others. Due to its location inHillsboro, Intel’s employees will probably have little trouble commuting home. Manytransportation corridors into and out of Portland, however, will probably be shut down due todamage.The Red Cross has prepositioned supplies and shelter agreements; however, after an earthquake,the Red Cross will need to get its personnel into the disaster area to inspect and approve facilitiesbefore they are opened up to people. The Red Cross has no tents (though it does have agreements16 | CREW Business Roundtables