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 Sammamish, 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.

In Sammamish, the Sammamish Citizen Corps Council (SCCC) will set up temporary “info hubs,” equipped with ham radios and message boards that allow residents to report problems to the Sammamish Emergency Operations Center. The hubs will also provide the city and other agencies with an emergency link to the community.

On June 7, as part of Cascadia Rising, SCCC volunteers and and personnel from the city, Eastside Fire and Rescue and Sammamish Plateau Water will test their readiness at the info hubs.

“The info hubs will serve as two-way communication channels when everybody’s phones, computers and television sets stop working,” Sammamish City Manager Lyman Howard said. “We’re looking forward to activating the city’s Emergency Operations Center and seeing how well we link up with the info hub volunteers.”

The hubs will be set at three locations, including next to Trader Joe’s in the Sammamish Highlands shopping center, next to the QFC in the Pine Lake shopping center and next to the QFC in the Klahanie shopping center.

Volunteers at those sites will help residents identify the hubs closest to their homes, share information about the exercise and provide pamphlets on emergency preparedness. One of the pamphlets will feature “Map Your Neighborhood,” a community program that empowers residents to handle emergencies, and identify neighbors with special skills and equipment. It also identifies residents who may have special needs and vulnerabilities.

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 in the 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 portable 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.

Volunteers are needed for the June 7 event. If you’d like to help out, go to sammamishcitizencorps.com or contact infohub@sammamishcitizencorps.com.