Fears over ‘Big One’ hitting US west coast
Print Edition
Seismologists say a full rupture of an offshore fault running from northern California to the Canadian province of British Columbia and an ensuing tsunami could come in our lifetimes, and emergency management officials are busy preparing for the worst.
Federal, state and military officials have been drafting response plans for the “Big One” along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
The plans reflect deep anxiety about the potential gravity of the disaster: more than 14,000 people dead in the worst-case scenarios, 30,000 injured, thousands left homeless and the region’s economy set back for years, if not decades.
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.
Planners envision 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 US.
That includes 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 Liutenant Colonel Clayton Braun of the Washington State Army National Guard, referring to two of the best-known natural disasters in recent US history. Braun leads a team in charge of putting together a military response plan for Washington state.
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