As military helicopters ferry search and rescue teams over the Pacific Northwest, below them are scenes of devastation from a giant earthquake that could strike the region at any time.
Tsunami waters surge through coastal communities. Buildings, bridges and roads lie in ruins. Fires burn out of control. Survivors are stranded on rooftops, cling to floating debris or are trapped inside wrecked buildings.
Seismologists say a full rupture of a 650-mile-long offshore fault running from Northern California to British Columbia and an ensuing tsunami could come in our lifetime, and emergency management officials are busy preparing for the worst.
Federal, state and military officials have been working together to draft plans to be followed when the “Big One” happens.
These contingency plans reflect deep anxiety about the potential gravity of the looming disaster: upward of 14,000 people dead in the worst-case scenarios, 30,000 injured, thousands left homeless and the region’s economy setback for years, if not decades.
As a response, what planners envision is a deployment of civilian and military personnel and equipment that would eclipse the response to any natural disaster that has occurred thus far in the U.S.
There would be waves of cargo planes, helicopters and ships, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers, emergency officials, mortuary teams, police officers, firefighters, engineers, medical personnel and other specialists.
“The response will be orders of magnitude larger than Hurricane Katrina or Super Storm Sandy,” said Lt. Col. Clayton Braun of the Washington State Army National Guard, referring to two of the best-known natural disasters in recent U.S. history.
Since 2013, Braun has led a team at work on putting together a military response plan for Washington state, to be used in conjunction with efforts by state and federal civilian agencies.
Oregon’s response plan is called the Cascadia Playbook, named after the threatening offshore fault — the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The plan, unveiled last year, has been handed out to key officials so the state can respond quickly when disaster strikes.
“That playbook is never more than 100 feet from where I am,” said Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. When Phelps goes out to dinner, he keeps the playbook in his car for quick access.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan in 2011 gave greater clarity to what the Pacific Northwest needs to do to improve its readiness for a similar catastrophe.
“The Japanese quake and tsunami allowed light bulbs to go off for policymakers,” Phelps said.
Federal and state emergency planners, as well as military officials, have been holding meetings to identify what can be done to lessen loss of life and to put the region in a better position to recover.
Much still needs to be done, and it is impossible to fully prepare for a catastrophe of this magnitude, but those responsible for drafting the evolving contingency plans believe they are making headway.
The plans call for using a tiered system for delivering personnel, gear and supplies into the devastated region.
Large cargo planes, like the military’s C-5 Galaxy, would land at airports or air bases capable of handling them, and then progressively smaller aircraft would be used to get personnel and supplies to smaller airfields close to devastated areas.
Helicopters will play a crucial role, especially in coastal communities, which would likely be unreachable by road because of destroyed bridges and roads. Ships will likely be needed to assist with the delivery of emergency supplies and to assist with the evacuation of displaced and injured people.
Emergency medical facilities to treat the injured will be set up because hospitals on the coast will probably be too damaged to use. Collection points for bodies will be created. Hotels, motels, college dorms, sports arenas and government facilities would be used as temporary shelters for evacuees.
Military and civilian engineers will be sent in to begin repairing an infrastructure that could be shattered in the western — and most populated — third of the Pacific Northwest.
Worst-case scenarios show that more than 1,000 bridges in Oregon and Washington state could either collapse or be so damaged that they are unusable.
The main coastal highway, U.S. Route 101, will suffer heavy damage from the shaking and from the tsunami. Traffic on Interstate 5 — one of the most important thoroughfares in the nation — will likely have to be rerouted because of large cracks in the pavement.
Base camps will be set up for emergency responders coming in from across the country, planners say, as will areas for the distribution of critical supplies such as water, food, tents, blankets and medical supplies.
Transportable water purification systems and emergency communications units will be deployed.
Seattle, Portland and other urban areas could suffer considerable damage, such as the collapse of structures built before codes were updated to take into account a mega-quake. Specially trained urban search and rescue teams would be sent to look for survivors in the ruins of destroyed buildings.
Phelps said he has learned to live with the threat from the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Still, “it’s a little unsettling to know that in five minutes I might have to grab that playbook and call the governor,” among others.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Hopefully we will have Sea Bed detectors in place to alert of an impending disturbance with as much warning as possible.
Duane C. Balch
D.C. Balch Company
Use Portland OR as base hub for that area & add more side streets from 101 Hwy to inland from sea.
Post radar sensors on mtn tops & on bouys at sea for waves.
Post signage on 101 from No CA to BC alone.
Plant Temp shelters on 101 Hwy inland from offramps for publlic
More can be done with awareness sessions for residents.
It’s good to see plans are being made to deal with this potential disaster. That sort of pre-planning needs to occur on the federal level for all sorts of possible natural disasters.
Maybe it’s the effects of Nibiru passing close to Earth. But, maybe everybody will be dead on the Pacific coast from Fukushima radiation first before any earthquakes or tidal waves hit.
This world is already gone! Kids being shot! Undrinkable water supplies, drugs, crime and now this! What is to become of our children and babies! Not to mention Global Warning that no one wants to get serious about in a hurry! Weather channel said yesterday we are gonna have extreme heat this year! AND ALL THESE STUPID POLITICIANS CAN DO IS CALL EACH OTHER NAMES! WHAT ABOUT ACTUAL ACTIONS-PAST & FUTURE TO HELP MAKE A BETTER WORLD! HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU SAY YOU HAVE DONALD?? IF THERES GONNA EVEN BE ONE(A WORLD)????? I’M SO SICK OF LIARS & BITCHING! SHUT UP AND TAKE ACTION NOT MOUTH OFF AND IGNORE ALL OUR PROBLEMS! SINCE I’M A SENIOR WHO GETS NO HELP-I’M USED TO BEING ASIDE FOR IMMIGRANTS WHO GET MY FOOD
Goodness gracious me – Exactly what rock have you been hiding under, Ann? If that which you’ve written is that which you truly believe, you are sorely under some gigantic delusion. For starters, Al Gore, with the publishing of his book “The Inconvenient Truth” made millions – so many others got onto this ‘gravy train’…But there are two sides to every argument, and there are climatologists and scientists who have disproved the theory – only supported by those who believe in computer modeling, proven at best to be unreliable. EXTREME HEAT THIS YEAR? Utter crap. The earth is actually cooling – it’s a cyclic thing. Start getting educated! Don’t believe all the scare-monmgering on TV. KIds being shot? Well, maybe by the ISIS scum – Undrinkable water? Get yourself a water purifier! Drugs? Well, those who indulge suffer in the long run. Crime? It’s been around a long time, and let’s face it, the crime-battling authorities in MOST cases have ity beat!
The only thing you said correctly in your post, Ann, was the fact that the politicians call each other names…But remember the old adage, about “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?
Military response, huh?! I would be very suspicious of that. It sounds like just what Bathhouse Barry needs to declare martial law and refuse to leave office. And just what to you think the government is going to do about climate change, Ann? The climate has been changing since the earth was created. And it has been proved that NOAA has been cooking the temperature numbers to shore up Barry’s delusion of climate change. Get real!
Don’t worry guys, Der Fuehrer Clintons (it doesn’t matter which one you mention) will SOLVE EVERYTHING!!! Uh, huh!!! and John Wayne had deep-seated fetish to cut across a Broadway Stage in hot pink tutu!!! It is a prudent thing for all of our levels of leadership to prepare in advance for potentially horrific tragedies (like 9/11/2001 was), but how many of these same people who SHOULD be trying to genuinely assist our fellow citizens are really only looking for even bigger, more efficient ways to enslave them. God have mercy upon us all.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
I wonder if the Roman empire had folks that warned of the eruption of Vesuvius before it happened? The only thing missing here is an appeal for more government control and higher taxes to implement it.
The first specific warning about this event was published by Billy Meier (Swiss Man’s Prediction of 9.0 NW Earthquake Now Echoed by U.S. Scientists), who also first wanted of unnatural manmade climate change, global warming, worldwide terrorism and dozens of other specific things, beginning in 1951.
Unfortunately, we now have independent corroboration for over…200 of his warnings. Perhaps a little objective research would serve people who are willing to get past their cynicism, glibness, etc., none of which has ever prevented tragic events.
Interestingly enough, there will be another eruption of Vesuvius, which will take out much of Rome and the Vatican.
We blogged about the details in an article titled:
“Experts” May Be “Puzzled”…But We’re Not
In the first place a Japanese style tsunami is unlikely The plate tectonics that produce Quakes in the Pacific rim are different in japan than in the coastal Us because Japan while riding a plate that is overridden, a subductive ocean due to the ever increasing Atlantic and sub ducting pacific is on the western edge where the subduction is most severe. The prime motion of the San Andreas and Cascadi faults is lateral Thus relatively little subduction and attendant vertical motion, The big San Francisco quake in 1906 produced a lateral 22 ft shear which is still evident today on the turnoff from Highway 1 to Bolinas. It is the vertical motion of the sea bed that gives rise to tsunamis. Also the entire coast from Pt Reyes clear to Oregon there is only one significantly sized community at sea level Eureka Aracta that would be significantly effected. Nothing like the heavily poulate North East Jaapanese coast with its many cities and low lying areas. Even forty ft tidal waves have little effect on a thousand ft high coastal mountain wall as for San Francisco while a forty foot mountain of water would sweep the sunset and the area around Golden Gate park the brief duration would leave it unable to fill the vast are of the SF and San Pablo bays even rushing in through the mile wide golden gate,. Of course the tiny coastal towns on small inlets would be wiped out and Stinson Beach, Invernesss, Bodega bay, Half Moon Bay Santa Cruz and Monterrey would suffer major damage But the next major coast al settlement San Luis Obismo and Pismo is too far away from the fault to see the really big waves as is LA.
As for bridge destruction no all the freeway bridges in the entire state have been brought up to standards that will survive a magnitude 9.5 earthquake. So go peddle your panic elsewhere.