Practice disaster helps people prepare for big earthquake

(MAY 2, 2025) In Northeast Portland, police built a fake city inside a big warehouse. It has houses, shops, apartments, streets, and cars. It is called Scenario Village.

Last week, the fake city looked like a real disaster. There were broken power lines and a broken gas pipe. There were actors with fake injuries. Some actors had fake broken bones and deep cuts.  Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NET) trained here. They are volunteers. Their job was to go house to house and find injured people.

During a disaster, sometimes people are confused or stressed. So actors made the practice a challenge for the volunteers. For example, one man kept talking about his TV. He did not care about his injured partner. He shouted, “Get out of my face! Are you from Comcast?” The volunteer answered, “No, we are from the Neighborhood Emergency Team. We are checking on people after the earthquake.” After a long talk, volunteers found the injured partner in a back room. She needed help right away. The volunteers gave basic CPR (help to keep the lungs and heart working). They waited for professional help.

Other parts of the fake city were busy, too. One woman asked volunteers to find “Freda.” After a few minutes, they learned Freda was a cat. Children cried inside a dark house. Someone climbed a building to rescue a dog.

Volunteers had to check people and give them colors:

• Green for people who were OK

• Yellow for people who could walk but were hurt

• Red for people who needed help right away

After one hour of practice, the lights came back on. Then John Light, a volunteer actor, came out from a back room. He had fake blood on his leg. He said, “I have a broken tibia and I can’t move.” No one found him during the exercise. He plans to teach volunteers how to search better.

Hundreds of people are waiting to join NET. The average volunteer age is 45. There are no physical requirements to join. Jeremy Van Keuren leads the NET program. He said NET volunteers help during other disasters, too. Last year, they helped after ice storms. They reported trees on houses. They helped firefighters during windstorms. They helped at the Rose Festival, too.

Experts say Oregon has a 40% chance of a big earthquake in the next 50 years. After a real earthquake, emergency workers will be very busy, and roads may be blocked. So neighbors will need to help each other. 

Over the last 30 years, about 4,000 people trained with NET. Some learned medical skills. Some learned emergency radio skills. Everyone hopes they will never need to face a real earthquake.