Have your heard or read about the big earthquake in Anchorage last week? Like Anchorage, our region is parked on the edge of the “Ring of Fire,” seismic zones that circle the Pacific Ocean. Our fault line, a major one, is called the Cascadia, the only significant fault line on the Ring of Fire without a major quake in the last 50 years. Actually, the last big one was 318 years ago. Core samples showing 10,000 years of the Cascadia’s history record major quakes 41 times in the 8 and 9 point seismic range (Anchorage was 7.2). Our community is attempting to prepare for a potential 9.2-9.3 quake, 100 times the size of the recent one in Anchorage. We had a community meeting in our neighborhood yesterday to learn and strategize. The Cascadia is overdue for a quake and emergency service agencies have been studying and planning in attempt to increase survivability. It’s not hyperbole.
We are remote and the region is connected by over 100 bridges and culvert bridges, none of which are expected to survive a quake of the magnitude expected. Our roads will also be largely impassible, creating islands of communities between our rivers and culverts. Our electrical grid may be down up to a year.
Our meeting focused on necessary survival strategies and reality checks, planning, and community organizing. It was a sobering meeting about a reality many of us would prefer to never face.
