Regional emergency responders from all across King County will be conducting large-scale drills this June in anticipation of the predicted magnitude-nine Cascadia earthquake.

Known as Cascadia Rising, the exercises will run from from June 7 through the 11 and involve the cities of Shoreline, Bothell, Kirkland and the newly formed Northshore Emergency Managment Coalition serving Lake Forest Park and Kenmore as well as Renton, Bellevue, Issaquah and the state National Guard and the Northshore Utility District.

Exercises will include table-top simulations, community response search and rescue training and medical drills.

For Dr. Pattijean Hooper, Kirkland’s Emergency Manager, preparing before a disaster is critical.

“In emergency management, we always say the time to be handing out our business cards is not the day of the incident,” she said.

While each agency will be running independent exercises, they will also be coordinating with each other on joint responses.

Kirkland’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be running a simulated disaster, with ‘real time’ information coming in on projected landslides, soil liquification and large waves on Lake Washington.

“In layman’s terms, we all pretend that there is a disaster and we play act through the disaster in the most realistic terms possible,” Hooper said.

Citizen responders will also be participating on June 11 as they practice first aid, light search and rescue exercises and HAM radio drills.

Hooper said that the city of Kirkland, with around 85,000 residents and only 200 emergency responders, will be relying on hundreds more community volunteers in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake.

Northshore Emergency will be setting up a water purification center on June 7 where resident volunteers will learn how to staff it.

According to the Cascadia Rising Exercise Scenario Document, which was produced jointly by Washington and Oregon, some 9,400 deaths are anticipated along with 12,000 injuries from both the earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Washington state alone.

While only 400 of the deaths are projected to stem from the earthquake itself, the majority of injuries will come from buildings collapsing, roads buckling and landslides due to the shaking.

Landslides and soil liquefaction, where soft soil loses its consistency, are expected on the Eastside of Lake Washington said Carl Lanuk, Emergency Coordinator for Northshore Emergency.

Particularly, areas around the Sammamish River and Swamp Creek are venerable.

“There’s some pretty questionable soils along there,” he said.

Other areas which could be hit hard are more unpredictable said Jennifer Warmke, Emergency Prepardness Coordinator for the city of Bothell.

The extent and location of the most severe damage will depend on how deep the earthquake occurs, and where it hits.

“Until we know kind of where it’s located and the extent of the earthquake, it would be a shot int he dark,” she said.

According to the Cascadia Rising documents, up to a quarter of roadway in the state could be damaged, making it difficult for emergency responders to reach victims.

More than half of the hospitals along the Interstate 5 corridor would sustain moderate to heavy damage, and 86 percent of potable water facilities are projected to be damaged for a week or more along the same corridor.

By coordinating between agencies, Hooper said they hope to minimize disruption of essential services to residents.

“What we’re doing is we throw things in and say as a city how do you continue essential services for the city during a large scale incident like a nine-point rip of the Cascadian subduction zone where the shaking lasts for four minutes,” she said.

While organized groups of residents will be participating in the exercise, Hooper said it is important for everyone to prepare by doing research, stocking up on food and water and medical supplies.

“Know the risk here and then prepare for it because you need to be really realistic that you might be on your own for a while,” she said.