The Shoalwater Bay Tribe is building an evacuation tower to provide tsunami safety for the community

Amanda Seok, FEMA District 10 Seismology Program Manager, shares how Shoalwater Bay Tribe residents are taking proactive steps to protect their community from earthquake and tsunami.

The coasts of Washington and Oregon lie on the edge of two tectonic plates. The intersection of these plates is called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the oceanic plate is pushed under the continental plate. This action, known as compression, occurs at the same rate as your nails grow. This process fuels 13 active volcanoes in the Cascade Range, including Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. Approximately every 300-500 years the fault slides, resulting in a massive earthquake and tsunami. The last Cascadia earthquake occurred 321 years ago, in the year 1700, affecting tribes along the Pacific coast including the Showalter Bay.

The tribe tells stories from the 1700’s Cascadia earthquake and tsunami in their Risk Mitigation Plan. The stories of this huge event have been passed down through the generations explaining that the earthquake and tsunami caused landslides that also destroyed some villages. Many of the original village sites were abandoned or moved after this event. It also describes Aboriginal people finding trash among the treetops and canoes of the forest.

It wasn’t until 1995 when scientists really began to understand the tectonics of the Cascadia subduction zone, realizing that a 1700 cyclic event was and would happen again.

In 2004, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed about 220,000 people and increased the importance of understanding tsunami vulnerability in coastal cities. FEMA and NOAA have studied how to build structures that can withstand earthquake and tsunami forces and have published the guidelines in P-646. Subsequently, the Washington Department of Emergency Management established the Safe Haven Project to guide earthquake and tsunami vulnerability assessments, evacuation planning, and vertical evacuation needs assessments.

The Shoalwater Bay Tribe used Operation Safe Haven and determined that in the Cascadia event, time did not allow for a safe evacuation to reach higher ground before the tsunami made landfall. The tribe decided that it needed a vertical evacuation structure to provide safety for its people and immediately identified potential sites and designs.

The tribe allocated the budget to design and build a tower that would be built to withstand both earthquake and tsunami vibrations. They applied for a FEMA Disaster Mitigation Grant and received $2.8 million, using tribal match money, to build the first federally funded vertical evacuation structure. The tower is intended to provide a temporary refuge above the tsunami waves for members of the tribes, as well as for the residents of the neighboring town.

Engineering drawings of a FEMA-funded tsunami vertical evacuation tower for the Shoalwater Bay and Tokeland tribe. Image copyright owner: Degenkolb Engineers.

On May 17, 2021 the tribe celebrated the financing and commencement of construction of this project with a groundbreaking ceremony. The construction of the tower will be completed in the winter of 2021-2022. This is the first tsunami evacuation tower like this in the country and a major step toward mitigating the risks for this coastal tribe and community.

Laying the groundbreaking with Washington Division of Emergency Management Director Robert Ezell, Showwater Bay’s Senior Emergency Director Lee Shipman, Tribal Council President Charlene Nelson, and Acting District 10 Federal Emergency Management Director Vince Maikovich.

Tsunami sirens at the future location of the tsunami tower.

Learn more about the Shoalwater Bay Tribe’s risk mitigation plan, their traditional stories, and why the mitigation plan saved Jurassic Park in an upcoming FEMA podcast.

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