FEMA Awards Gresham $2.2M Grant To Protect Water Source

GRESHAM, OR — The city of Gresham reportedly beat out 254 other project proposals nationwide to earn a $2.2 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Gresham will use the grant to cover 75 percent of the cost to seismically retrofit the Grant Butte reservoir — in preparation of "The Big One."

The highly likely potential for a catastrophic Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake has been a motivator for myriad retrofit projects across the greater Portland metro region for the past several years. With Gresham's acceptance of FEMA's generous grant, the city will work to ensure its water supply, as well as the water supply for Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center, remains protected should the prophesied Cascadia earthquake strike the Pacific Northwest.

According to The New Yorker's 2015 article "The Really Big One," a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake could register at a magnitude anywhere between 8.7 and 9.2. For perspective, the 2011 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan — which set off a tsunami, killed more than 18,000 people, and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant — was a 9.0.

FEMA projections put casualties from a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake around 13,000 people, with another 27,000 people expected to be injured; additionally, FEMA — according to the article — anticipates it will need to assist 1 million people displaced from their homes and another 2.5 million Pacific Northwesterners without access to food and water.

Gresham officials reportedly hope to lighten the burden at least a little by protecting a water source that could serve about 66 percent of the city's residents.

The grant will allow the city to make a plethora of adjustments to the reservoir, which will reportedly include adding seismic cables to strengthen the reservoir's connection to its foundation and creating flexible pipeline connections.

“From selling emergency water bottles to residents to securing our water supplies, the city is doing what we can to prepare for the unexpected," Gresham Public Works Director Steve Fancher said in a statement. "This grant from FEMA is a huge step forward to secure one of our most important sources of water during an emergency."

The retrofit work will reportedly occur in 2019 and 2020.

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