From Bob Foster: More on Earthquakes

Howdy All,
Yep, here I go again, I’m ringin’ that bell!
(Almost) None of us have escaped hearing about the recent seismic events on the South American Continent, Chile and the surrounding areas.

Please read the following short article and please understand that this is not about fear, it is about readiness (preparedness) and that alone can take some time.
Please, take the time to have the conversation with others about being prepared and help others get ready if you can.  This is not to say that we will have the ‘big one’ today, but we are against the clock.
Bob Foster-Index Washington
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February 28, 2010, 6:29 pm
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
I’m dealing with a disaster of microscopic dimensions, being among the 200,000 households in the Northeast still lacking electricity, heat and flushing toilets three days after an astonishing  dump of snow (with several more days to go, supposedly).  But I’m able to get online long enough to reflect on the message sent to the Pacific Northwest from the great earthquake in the southern hemisphere.
…………………That message is a clear “get ready.”

The Pacific “ring of fire” doesn’t stop at the equator.  While my print story and post on quake threats last week focused on the seismic peril facing millions of poor people living in fast-growing cities in quake zones, there are plenty of prosperous places that have not adequately responded to their exposure to enormous, and inevitable, earthquake risk. A prime case in point is Oregon.

After the destruction of  hundreds of poorly built schools in China’s Sichuan province, I wrote repeatedly here and in print about similar vulnerability identified by engineers  and seismologists in that state, despite the clear record of devastating quakes and tsunamis generated by the Cascadia fault beneath the sea bed off the Northwest coast.  Read this recent warning from Patrick Corcoran, a hazards outreach specialist  with the Oregon Sea Grant program at Oregon State University:

…“The release of pressure between two overlapping tectonic plates along the subduction zone regularly generates massive 9.0 magnitude earthquakes –- including five over the last 1,400 years. The last ‘Big One’ was 309 years ago.  We are in a geologic time when we can expect another ‘Big One,’ either in  our lives or those of our children. Prudence dictates that we overcome our  human tendencies to ignore this inevitability.”…

The good news is that the state has recognized the problem and has found some  money to move forward with a plan to retrofit public schools and other important
public buildings (thanks to Yumei Wang from the state’s geohazards group for the alert on this). The bad news, of course, is that the seismic clock is ticking.
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Earthquake Preparedness

It was suggested by one of our readers, that in light of the earthquakes of late, and we know a big one will hit in Wa. State sooner or later, that we post some information on EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS.

Thanks to Bob Foster for the suggestion.

Following are some links that should suffice for homeowners and pretty much anybody else wondering how to prepare for an earthquake.

The first item at hand, was posted on our blog back in December 2009. The Emergency Supplies Checklist may be downloaded (in PDF Format) here: http://indexwa.org/blog/files/ekit.pdf.

The rest of the links are government links and are worth a read, even if you think you are prepared.

http://www.emd.wa.gov/hazards/haz_earthquakes.shtml

http://www.emd.wa.gov/

http://www.doh.wa.gov/phepr/handbook/earthquake.htm

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/assemble_disaster_supplies_kit.shtm

User Submitted Link: Recent Quakes in the Pac. N.W.

http://www.pnsn.org/recenteqs/