Press Releases

Beaverton-based Partners for Loss Prevention (PLP) has made Oregon the first state in the nation to equip its preschools and early childcare centers with an age-appropriate curriculum on how to prepare for earthquakes.

PLP, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing needless injury and economic loss resulting from the impact of natural disasters on people and property, developed the Preschool Safety Education Program and distributed it to 1,265 state-licensed childcare facilities with the capacity to serve 56,352 young children in all 36 Oregon counties.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency ranks Oregon third in the nation for future earthquake damage estimates resulting from expected earthquakes. Washington is ranked second. The threat to the Pacific Northwest and northern California lies offshore along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 750-mile long active fault that runs parallel to the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, California. The region is in a geologic “window of vulnerability” as the last giant earthquake and tsunami triggered by an estimated magnitude 9 Cascadia earthquake occurred 307 years ago. Oregon’s conservative statewide loss estimates exceed $12 billion, with over 30,000 destroyed or damaged buildings and 8,000 lives lost in a single 8.5 Cascadia earthquake. Locally generated earthquakes are expected to cause even greater cumulative losses. The Pacific Northwest also faces the threat from local onshore earthquakes and deadly “distant tsunamis” generated by earthquakes occurring in other regions, e.g. Alaska.

“It is vital that young children (1) know how to protect themselves during a disaster; and (2) child care providers have the needed information to apply easy and affordable safety techniques to the contents of the building that will prevent falling objects and flying shards of broken glass from causing unnecessary injury,” said Angie Karel, PLP executive director and co-founder.

The safety program teaches young children in a fun and non-alarming way about earthquakes with an emphasis on the life-saving “drop, cover and hold” technique. It also gives parents information on how to make their homes safer during an earthquake, and provides handouts on food, water, first-aid and other supplies they need to stock in case of disaster.

Oregon law requires state-licensed childcare facilities to conduct monthly fire drills. In addition, they must practice a drill for some other emergency every other month. The PLP curriculum gives the providers the tools to conduct emergency drills for earthquakes. For those on the coast, it is especially important to know how to respond to tsunamis. This program is intended to meet state certification standards and early childhood education guidelines. Training, using this curriculum, is accepted by the State of Oregon, Department of Employment’s Child Care Division as health and safety oriented training.

This year, PLP aims to distribute the curriculum to every certified childcare center in western Washington. It also has developed lessons on how to prepare for tsunamis, which will be added to the Preschool Safety Program curriculum and distributed to childcare centers and preschools this year.

Partners for Loss Prevention developed the earthquake safety program with guidance from a steering committee composed of early childhood educators, providers and regulators, emergency managers, the American Red Cross, geologic consultants, and State Farm Insurance. Funding for the development of the earthquake and tsunami safety programs was provided by State Farm Insurance.

Other sponsors that enabled PLP to distribute complimentary copies of the Preschool Safety Education Program to all state-licensed Oregon childcare providers include: The Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children and the Benton County Foundation; Clackamas County Emergency Management; Spirit Mountain Community Fund; Trust Management Services, LLC; SAFECO Corporate Giving Program; Hoover Family Foundation; Charis Fund; and the Institute for Business & Home Safety.

Partners for Loss Prevention also works with teams of community volunteers to conduct safety projects at childcare centers throughout western Oregon and western Washington. The Preschool Safety Program and the Nonstructural Childcare Safety Projects won 2003 Awards in Excellence presented by the Western States Seismic Policy Council. Karel was awarded the 2005 Non-profit Leader in Natural Hazard Risk Reduction by the Partners for Disaster Resistance & Resilience: Oregon Showcase State Initiative. To learn more about PLP on the web see: www.quakesafenw.org