Is Your Congressman Preventing Pompeii?

Orting is a small town that undeniably lives up to its glowing reputation. It’s the kind of tightknit community we all dream of raising a family in with an even more spectacular addition: a one-in-a-million view of Mt. Rainier.

Although, what makes Orting so exceptionally beautiful—the town’s picturesque horizon—also brings a number of serious hazards and concerns. It’s an unnerving word too many residents are familiar with: lahar. As many citizens in the Puyallup Valley know, if Mt. Rainier were to erupt in the near future, the entire city of Orting would be in the direct path of these destructive mudflows. With this everyday danger looming on the horizon, action through pragmatic legislation must be taken to remedy this issue.

The immense beauty of this quiet Washington community has caused Orting to triple in the last two decades alone! Over the last half century, Orting’s local leaders have recognized this ever-growing danger and made the best with what they’ve been given to mitigate the risks of living in a treacherous lahar zone.

Since the early 1990s, Orting’s leaders and residents have attempted to perfect all potential evacuation plans, while also calling for federal and state funding to pursue more effective solutions. A number of our federal and state lawmakers are slow to recognize this imminent danger. There are practical solutions like those proposed by the “Bridge for Kids” project, which would help students and staff from Orting Primary School escape the mudflow danger. These are the kinds of mitigation projects and infrastructural improvements that we need to be supporting to tackle the dangers communities like Orting face every day in the Puyallup Valley.

The truth we need to recognize is that people will continue to move into lahar pathways all over the Puyallup Valley. That is not something we can change. What we can do is improve disaster preparedness in communities like Orting. I’ve personally had enough of waiting around for something to go wrong before acting. All around the world, there are salient and tragic examples of what happens when communities in lahar zones “skimp” on providing the very best mitigation procedures available.

It’s time we had a commonsense leader in Congress that recognizes the important things worth fighting for. I’m not talking about more partisan rhetoric or squabbling. I think I speak for all Washingtonians when I say we’ve had enough of gridlock and inaction. Communities like Orting desperately need help creating viable evacuation routes. It’s time we had a representative that understood this. Let’s not wait until it’s too late to save a beautiful town like Orting.