How the Pacific Northwest Is Preparing for a Catastrophic Tsunami
It’s when, not if, the Pacific Northwest is due for a major seismic disaster; scientists say there’s a 37 percent chance one could strike in the next 50 years. FEMA estimates such an earthquake and resulting tsunami could kill thousands and leave a million more homeless. But some concerned coastal communities are working to make sure they’re ready when it hits.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I’m standing on the coast of Washington. This is the very edge of the continental United States. And just a few miles out in the Pacific Ocean is considered one of the most dangerous seismic faults in all of North America.
Scientists believe if that fault were to rupture, it could devastate much of the Pacific Northwest. The fault is known as the Cascadia subduction zone, where two tectonic plates meet underneath the Pacific Ocean. This fault line stretches 700 miles along the coast.
KEN MURPHY: Earthquakes have no season. It’s earthquake season every day.
BRANGHAM: Ken Murphy is FEMA’s regional administrator. He oversees emergency operations for the Northwest region. He says if this whole fault were to rupture, not only would there be a catastrophic earthquake, but that quake would then trigger an enormous tsunami, which would crash into the Pacific Northwest minutes later.
MURPHY: You roughly have about 140,000 square miles of communities and land and people up and down Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
BRANGHAM: Major cities like Seattle, Vancouver and Portland could be seriously damaged. FEMA estimates that in an 8- or 9-magnitude quake, nearly 13,000 people could be killed, with another 20,000 injured. A million people would be made homeless.
And to some, these are conservative estimates.
MURPHY: It’s not just FEMA, but how we as a nation are going to respond to this, because it’s really going to take everybody’s efforts.
